ERP consulting for manufacturing SMBs
Cyberlobe is a vendor-neutral ERP consultancy for manufacturing SMBs. We help 10-75 person manufacturers pick, implement, or recover an ERP without a reseller quota driving the recommendation.
Process-first ERP advisory for growing manufacturers. We don’t sell software. We map your shop floor workflows, find where they break down, and guide you to the system that actually fits — independent of any vendor.
If your ERP decision feels like a gamble, this page walks through how a vendor-neutral selection process works for manufacturers specifically — what to watch for, what usually breaks, and how Cyberlobe’s process-first approach fits before any software gets chosen.
Why Manufacturing ERP Projects Stall
Most ERP pitches sound the same. A platform promises to fix your inventory lag, your costing gaps, your disconnected shop floor. But software only automates what’s already there.
If your bill of materials is wrong, or your floor routing doesn’t match how work actually happens, new software just breaks those problems faster and with better reporting.
The pitch: “This platform will automatically fix your raw material tracking lag.”
The reality: Software automates existing processes. It doesn’t fix broken ones.
The Cyberlobe approach: We work through structural process gaps first, before a vendor or a line of configuration gets chosen. That’s the process-first principle in practice.
Signs Your Processes Need a Look Before Your Software Does
| Signal you're seeing | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| BOMs tracked in spreadsheets | No single source of truth for costing or production |
| Work orders on paper or email | No real-time visibility into shop floor status |
| Inventory counts don't match the floor | Manual reconciliation is masking a systems gap |
| Multiple systems for quoting, inventory, and accounting | Data re-entry, delays, and reconciliation errors |
| Growth is outpacing your current system | Sage 50 or QuickBooks hitting its ceiling |
If two or three of these sound familiar, an ERP selection process usually starts by fixing the process, not shopping for software.
Built for Your Production Environment
Make-to-Order and Engineer-to-Order
Job costing that shifts with every order, and shop floor routing that deviates from the plan more often than not. We help you find a system built to capture that variability, not fight it.
Discrete Manufacturing
Sub-assembly tracking, physical inventory counts, capacity planning, and machine bottlenecks. We start with the gap most systems miss: visibility between the shop floor and the office.
Process and Batch Manufacturing
Recipe management, lot and expiry tracking, and regulatory quality control that has to hold up under audit. We treat traceability as the requirement everything else gets built around, not an add-on.
Our Process-First Framework
Diagnostics and Mapping
We map your shop floor workflows and find where data silos are hiding, using Lean and DMAIC principles. This happens before any vendor conversation.
Unbiased System Selection
We build a requirements-based shortlist and score vendors against your actual routing and production needs — not a partnership tier. We evaluate options including Odoo, NetSuite, SAP Business One, Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Infor, Epicor, and IFS, depending on what fits.
Implementation Governance
We step in as your Fractional CIO or project lead to hold implementation partners accountable to scope, budget, and timeline. If ERP is one of several technology decisions on your plate, this often extends into a standalone Fractional CIO engagement.
ERP Recovery
If an implementation has stalled, gone over budget, or lost the original partner, we step in to stabilize data and get production tracking working again.
Customer success stories
A BC food importer story
An ERP audit and implementation that brought inventory and production data into one system after years of disconnected spreadsheets. View the full case study.
An electrical contractor story
An ERP audit and implementation that replaced years of legacy paper based business. View the full case study.
What our clients say
FAQ
Have questions on CRM
or ERP consulting?
There’s no single best ERP — the right fit depends on your production type, company size, and existing systems. A selection process scores options like Odoo, NetSuite, or Acumatica against your specific requirements rather than a generic ranking.
Costs vary by scope, but manufacturers typically see a mix of software licensing, implementation partner fees, and internal time. A selection process gives you a realistic budget range before you commit to anything.
Most manufacturing selection processes run 6-10 weeks, covering a readiness assessment, requirements workshops, a scored shortlist, and reference calls.
Manufacturing ERP has to handle bills of materials, work orders, and inventory in a way most generic business systems don’t. The right fit depends heavily on your production type — make-to-order, discrete, or process manufacturing all need different things.
Yes. Most of our manufacturing clients don’t have dedicated IT staff, which is often exactly why an independent selection process matters — there’s no internal team to catch a bad vendor fit before it’s signed.