P/N
Minimum
Location
Order
Supplier
For custom vehicle and boat builders
A missing connector can hold up a build you've spent weeks getting right. Put Arda cards with the resin, hardware and wiring supplies your crew reaches for every day. Scan when stock runs low to start the reorder and keep the next build moving.
P/N
5×
production
80%
less inventory held
Cards went on 100% of supplies inside a year. 95% of stockouts eliminated, and half the time spent ordering came back.
Rossmonster · custom overland vehicle builder
The reorder stops depending on whoever opened the last box
A rig sits at 97 percent because somebody took the last bag of rivnuts, and the layup bay ran a drum of resin down to nothing on the same afternoon. Every stockout starts there. Arda puts the reorder on the bin and on the drum rack instead: the card carries the quantity and your supplier's lead time, so the refill is already moving before bay two gets robbed to finish bay one. Nobody has to forecast a boat that has never been built. Same card on core stock, Deutsch connectors, fairing compound and booth supplies.
"When we started with Arda, we were almost a year behind on fulfilling orders." — Adam Ward, Inventory Manager, Fat Fender Garage
Every build is a prototype, so nothing you own can forecast it
Custom vehicle and boat shops run high variety at low volume, so the item that stops a build is different on every build. A $60 box of longboard paper and a $200 gallon of high-build primer do not cost $260 when they run out on a Thursday. They cost Monday's booth slot, and the next one is a week out.
No two builds burn the same list
MRP forecasts forward from what you consumed last quarter. Last quarter was a different boat with a different lamination schedule and a different harness, so there is nothing to extrapolate from and the forecast is wrong before the first layer goes down.
A nearly finished build still occupies the bay
A rig sits at 97 percent waiting on a bag of rivnuts and one Deutsch connector. Nobody takes delivery at 97 percent, so the lift stays occupied and the crew opens a second build they cannot finish either. The shop is now running two half-builds instead of making one handover.
Finishing one build starves the next
Bay two gives up its rivnuts and its last gallon of resin so the hull in bay one can leave on Friday. The shortage does not disappear, it moves. The boat in bay two now misses its own launch date, and two builds are late instead of one.
How does inventory replenishment work in a custom vehicle or boat shop using Arda?
You cannot forecast a build that has never been built. You can replenish it. Arda's inventory replenishment software for custom vehicle and boat builders puts a scannable card on every item you stock, sized to your real burn rate and your supplier's lead time, so a scan fires the reorder on its own. Nothing has to be predicted, reported or typed. Scan a card, the material shows up.
Built for everything a build consumes, on-BOM and off
The off-BOM half hurts most, because catalyst, bag consumables, fairing compound and activator never appear on a lamination schedule or a build sheet, so nothing is watching them. The same card works on the on-BOM half too, from resin and cloth to core stock, vinyl and tank hardware. Card it, and it stops being the thing that holds a delivery.
- Laminating resin & gelcoat
- Catalyst & wet-layup consumables
- Reinforcement fabric
- Core stock & marine plywood
- Infusion & vacuum-bag kit
- Structural adhesives & sealants
- Fairing compound & abrasives
- Paint, primer & booth supplies
- Marine & body fasteners
- 12V wiring & connectors
- Upholstery, canvas & soft goods
- Plumbing, propane & tank hardware
Scan the card when a bin runs low
Every stocked item gets a durable card with a QR code, from a drum of laminating resin to a bin of rivnuts to a rack of core stock. A laminator or fabricator scans it with any phone, no extra hardware, no login friction.
The order fires automatically
The reorder goes out at the card's quantity to the supplier already on the card: four drums of laminating resin, or one bag of rivnuts. Nobody types a purchase order between builds.
See every card, pulled to restocked
Pulled, on order, restocked, per bay. The office can see what bay two is waiting on before anyone goes looking for bay one's resin.
Each card encodes a proven loop sized to your real consumption: reorder point, the two-bin system, min/max levels, and safety stock. The math lives on the card, not in someone's head. The same loop runs in every trade Arda serves, and the parent page on inventory replenishment software covers how it applies across manufacturing.
Laminating resin, 5 gal
Reorder qty
4 drums
Lead time
6 days
Supplier
Composite Supply Co.
Safety stock
2 drums
Scanned 10:32
PO sent 10:32
Restocked
Start with the one material that stalled your last delivery
Card it today, scan it tomorrow, and see the reorder fire on its own. Expand across the bays when it has proven itself.
Make Free Kanban CardsFree plan, no credit card
Custom vehicle and boat builders running on Arda
One-off builders who put a card on what they stock, from resin and fairing compound to wire, vinyl and hardware, and got their delivery dates back.
0
stockouts
95%
backlog reduction
Fat Fender
Builds and supplies high-performance custom parts and full restorations for classic Ford and Chevy trucks, after two failed ERP implementations. The oldest open order went from 365+ days to 20, and kit throughput went from one a week to five at roughly $8k each.
Read the Fat Fender case study →2x
throughput
10 min
a day ordering, from 2–3 hours a week
Assembly Industrial
Designs and builds rugged custom trucks and metalwork for industrial applications. Capacity went from four trucks at a time to eight, and ordering went from two or three hours a week down to ten minutes a day.
Read the Assembly Industrial case study →80%
less inventory held
100%
of supplies carded
Rossmonster
Colorado builder of premium van conversions and the Baja truck-camper line, every unit configured to the customer. Owner Luke Farny: "Before Arda, we held inventory levels at 25+ for most of our critical components. Now, we hold inventory levels at 5 and make 5x as many vehicles."
Read the Rossmonster case study →Arda vs ERP vs spreadsheets for custom builders
For the items that actually stop a build, here is how the three common approaches stack up on the floor.
ArdaERP / MRPSpreadsheet / memory
Signal to reorderScan a card, order fires automaticallyManual entry, then a planning runSomeone remembers to look
Covers every stocked itemYes, on-BOM and off, same cardOn-BOM only, misses the restOnly if updated by hand
Handles a build mix that changes every jobYes, the card reacts to consumptionNo, the forecast assumes repetitionNo, it assumes someone remembers
Shop-floor complianceHigh, scanning is the easy pathLow, floor skips data entryLow, depends on one person
Setup timeStart with one part in a dayMonths of implementationFast, but breaks as it grows
Works with your existing ERPYes, splices in, no rip and replaceIt is the ERPDisconnected from it
Cost to get started$0 on the free planHigh license and rollout costFree, until a stockout costs a day
Frequently asked questions
How do you manage inventory when every build is different?
You stop trying to predict it. Forecasting tools extrapolate from past consumption, which does not work when the next build is a different boat with a different lamination schedule. A pull system predicts nothing: each stocked item carries a card sized to your supplier's lead time and your real burn rate, and the reorder fires when a bin runs low. The build mix can change completely and the loop still holds, because it reacts to actual consumption rather than a forecast of it.
Can kanban work for one-off or custom production?
Yes, and one-off production is where it works best. Kanban is often assumed to need repetitive volume, but what it actually needs is repeated consumption of the same materials, which custom builders have in abundance. Every hull is different, and every hull still burns resin, mat, fairing compound, abrasives, primer, fasteners, wire and sealant. Card the materials rather than the finished units and the variety at the top of the build stops mattering.
Why do ERP implementations fail in custom build shops?
Because an ERP needs someone on the floor to report what got used, and on a custom build the floor is fabricating, not keying in issues. Multi-level BOMs also assume a repeatable product, which a one-off build is not, so the BOM is out of date the moment the customer changes a spec. Fat Fender Garage went through two failed ERP implementations before Arda. Arda takes a different route: the physical card at the point of use is the reorder signal, so nothing has to be reported for replenishment to fire, and your ERP keeps doing jobs, costing and accounting.
How do you handle materials with a shelf life, like resin and adhesives?
Card quantities are sized to real burn rate and supplier lead time, not to a bulk-buy discount, which is what keeps resin, catalyst, gelcoat and adhesive cartridges moving before they go off. Because each card's consumption is captured on scan, you can see how fast a material actually turns over and resize the card once instead of guessing at a min/max again. Slower items get smaller cards, faster items get larger ones, and the safe move of ordering double stops turning into gelled drums and hardened tubes.
How much does Arda cost, and is there a free trial?
Create unlimited items and cards on Free, without Order Queue access. Solo includes one user and up to 10 orders a month after its 7-day trial. Team and Pro are priced per Power User and include unlimited scanning for your team. Compare current plans and billing.
Ten cards, one bay, no more stalled builds
Assembly Industrial put cards on its floor and went from four trucks at a time to eight. In Anthony Olivas's words, "The stress in the shop is gone, and everything just flows." Start where it hurts most, on us, and let the shelf reorder itself.
Free plan, unlimited cards, no ERP rollout.