What an ERP for a small manufacturing unit actually needs
Most ERP marketing is written for large assembly plants. A 40-person casting or machining unit in Metoda GIDC has different problems: yield that varies by heat, job work sent to three vendors, drawings that change mid-order, and an owner who runs the plant from the floor, not from a desk. The system has to be fast to update on a tablet at the machine, tolerant of the way work actually flows, and strict only where it matters: material issue, job-work returns, quality holds and GST documents.
The payoff is not a prettier report. It is knowing the real cost of each part, catching a late order a week early instead of the day after, and stopping the material and job-work leakage that quietly eats margin.
