Inventory software for manufacturers: built for what you buy

Why manufacturing inventory is a different problem

A wholesaler buys what sells. A manufacturer buys what it needs to make what sells, on a schedule it does not fully control. That changes every calculation:

• Long lead times. Six, twelve or twenty weeks is normal for components and imported raw material. The further ahead you commit, the more the forecast matters.
• Batch sizes and minimums. You cannot buy 137 metres of fabric or 137 mouldings. You buy the minimum, or the batch, and carry the difference.
• Multi-level items. Raw material, components, work in progress and finished goods all behave differently and cannot share one stocking rule.
• Lumpy demand. A few large customers make finished-goods demand spikier than a smooth curve, and textbook safety stock quietly under-protects exactly those lines.
• Seasonality upstream. You commit on raw material months before the finished-goods peak, so the buying decision is made with the least information.

What Optimal Chain does for a manufacturer

• Forecasts every item you buy, not only what you sell. 18 forecasting methods compete per product and are blind-tested against that item's own history, so seasonal and lumpy lines get a method that actually fits.
• Sizes buffer stock from real accuracy. Rather than a days-of-cover setting or a textbook curve, each line's buffer comes from how wrong its own forecasts have been: enough to cover the misses at your chosen service level, and no more.
• Measures supplier reality. Real lead times against promised ones, and the annual cost of every minimum order quantity, read from your own goods receipts.
• Plans purchasing inside a budget. Type the money available this quarter and it allocates across every item and supplier to the penny, every minimum respected, the most urgent revenue funded first.
• Stress-tests the plan. Add ten days to a supplier or region, add a surcharge, stack both, and see the pounds at risk plus the adjusted orders.

Where it does not replace your MRP

If your problem is scheduling work centres, tracking routings, or exploding a bill of materials into shop-floor instructions, you need MRP and we are not it. Optimal Chain decides what to buy and how much, from your demand history and your suppliers, and exports approved purchase orders as a spreadsheet your ERP can take. Most manufacturers run both: the ERP runs the factory, the forecasting layer decides the purchasing.

How it compares, honestly

Frequently asked questions

Does this replace my MRP or ERP?

No. Your MRP schedules production and explodes the bill of materials. Optimal Chain forecasts demand for the items you buy, sizes buffer stock from real forecast accuracy, and plans the purchasing inside your budget. Approved orders export as a CSV your ERP can import, so the two run alongside each other.

Can it handle raw materials and components, not just finished goods?

Yes, and that is the point. Every item you hold gets its own forecast, its own buffer and its own reorder logic, whether it is raw material, a bought-in component, work in progress or a finished good. A component with a twenty week lead time needs different treatment to a finished item you ship weekly, and it gets it.

How does it deal with minimum order quantities and batch sizes?

Every recommended quantity is either zero or a valid multiple of the supplier minimum. The budget planner respects minimums while it allocates, and the MOQ Intelligence view prices what each supplier's minimums cost you per year, so you can see which ones are worth renegotiating.

What data do I need to send?

A sales export and a purchase history from whatever system you run, Excel included. More sales history gives better forecasts: two or more years is ideal, one year still works. We build the export with you the first time, and no integration project is needed.

How much does it cost?

Published in full from £199/month for catalogues up to 500 items, up to £2,499/month at 50,000. Every capability is on every plan, setup is included, and there are no per-seat fees. Annual billing saves about 15%.