Manufacturing is where NetSuite implementations most often come apart. Assemblies, item setup, costing and the systems you have to talk to are all specific to how you build things, and a configuration that ignores that produces numbers nobody trusts.
We’ve spent years on the parts of NetSuite manufacturers actually live in. Here’s some of that work.
Assemblies built on the fly for an LED manufacturer
Matrix items multiply fast. A fixture with a handful of options across housing, color temperature, lens, driver and mounting doesn’t have a few dozen variants, it has thousands. Creating an assembly record for every possible combination in advance isn’t practical, and most of them will never be ordered.
We implemented and optimized NetSuite for an LED manufacturer with exactly that problem, and built assembly creation that happens on the fly. When an order calls for a combination that doesn’t exist yet, the assembly and its bill of materials get created at that moment instead of sitting in the item master waiting for demand that may never come.
Item setup and profitability reporting for a Seattle glassblower
A local Seattle glassblowing company came to us with item setup that didn’t reflect how they actually produce. Once item configuration is wrong, everything downstream inherits it. Costs land in the wrong places, margins look plausible but aren’t, and no report built on top can be trusted.
We corrected the item setup first, then built profitability reporting on top of it. That order matters. Reporting on a broken foundation just gives you faster access to wrong numbers.
A custom integration for an aerospace manufacturer
Aerospace runs on traceability and on systems that won’t be replaced. We optimized NetSuite for an aerospace manufacturer and built a custom integration into a third-party system they depend on, so the two stay in step without anyone rekeying data between them.
Every integration you build is manual data entry you remove, and manual data entry is where errors start.
EDI connections to your trading partners
If you sell to large customers, they’ll tell you how they want to transact, and usually that means EDI. We connect manufacturers to EDI systems so purchase orders, advance ship notices and invoices move between you and your trading partners without a person in the middle copying documents from one screen to another.
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A longer example
Our work with a wholesale chemical distributor covers the same ground in more detail: resolving inventory discrepancies on a live instance, building custom financial and operational reporting, supporting subsidiary and accounting configuration, and delivering integrations that removed manual data entry.
What we work on most
Assemblies and bills of material
Multi-level BOMs, revisions, matrix items and work order automation, set up so building a product doesn’t require someone to assemble the paperwork for it.
Costing that settles
Standard costing, rollups, variance accounts mapped properly. If your month-end includes a recurring inventory adjustment nobody can explain, this is usually why.
Lot traceability
Tracing lots forward and backward across your supply chain, configured from the start. Retrofitting traceability onto existing transaction history is one of the more painful projects in this industry.
Inventory aging
Reporting that shows how old your inventory is and what it’s worth, so slow-moving stock is visible before it becomes a write-off.
Reporting and dashboards
Custom reports and dashboards built for how your business runs. Reporting is where people form their opinion of whether an ERP is any good, and it’s consistently underinvested in after go-live.
Integrations
EDI, third-party systems, shop-floor tooling and whatever else you run. We build these through Celigo, Boomi and SuiteScript depending on what the job needs.
Where to start
If you’re already on NetSuite and it isn’t doing what you were promised, the NetSuite Implementation Audit establishes what’s actually wrong before anyone commits to fixing it. Two weeks, a fixed $9,500, and a written report signed by a CPA.
If you’re implementing for the first time, the Manufacturing Starter Kit covers assemblies, work orders and supply and demand planning on a fixed 90-day scope.
Not sure which applies? Tell us what’s going on and we’ll say plainly which one fits.