P/N
Minimum
Location
Order
Supplier
For machine shops
Keep the spindle turning. Put Arda cards with the inserts, coolant and bar stock your shop runs through every day. When stock runs low, scan the card to start the reorder before the next job needs it.
P/N
6 months
to pay off the rollout
Zero
new hires or new machines
Zero new hires, zero new machines. The one change was how material got reordered.
Austere MFG · precision machine shop
Arda on the floor
Keep the next cut moving.
The end mill in the drawer. The billet on the rack. Set the minimum and order quantity while the material is in front of you.
- 01
Find the exact size you run.
Search by size and specification. Import the matching item from any supplier.
01 / ¼-inch carbide end millView screen - 02
Keep the instructions with the stock.
Publish the card. Print it and set it in front of the minimum stock quantity.
02 / 6061 aluminum billetView screen
The reorder stops depending on somebody remembering
Somebody pulls the last box of inserts and forgets to tell anyone. Every stockout starts there. Arda puts the reorder on the bin instead: the card carries the quantity and your supplier's lead time. The scan that gets a machinist more inserts is the same motion that orders them. The second bin covers the wait while the first refills. Same card on bar stock, fasteners and purchased components.
A stockout is a signal that never fired.
Your tool crib runs dry mid-job, and no ERP saw it coming
Machine shops run high-mix, low-volume work, so the items that stop a job, whether that is a carbide insert or a length of bar stock, are exactly the ones no system is watching closely enough.
Your ERP asks the floor to count
MRP assumes someone keys in what got used. Between setups, nobody does, so the shortage only surfaces when a machinist reaches for an empty drawer.
Spreadsheets drift when someone borrows
An operator pulls inserts from a partial build to finish a hot order. The sheet never hears about it, and every borrowed part widens the gap.
Reorder-by-memory loses eventually
The owner reorders coolant and hardware from memory between quotes. It works until the one week it does not, and a $200 box idles a $200,000 machine.
How does inventory replenishment work in a machine shop using Arda?
Arda's inventory replenishment software for machine shops puts a scannable card on every item you stock, starting with the consumables your ERP never sees, so the scan fires the reorder on its own. No counting, no purchase order to type, no ERP rollout. Scan a card, the material shows up.
Built for everything a machine shop holds, not just what it burns through
Consumables are where the pain is loudest, because they never make it onto a BOM, so nothing is watching them. But the same card works on anything you stock, on-BOM or off. Put a card on it and the shortage disappears.
- Cutting tools
- Carbide inserts
- Coolant
- Abrasives
- Deburring media
- Taps & drills
- Bar stock & raw material
- Fasteners & hardware
- Fixturing & workholding
- Purchased components
- Machine spares & PPE
- Packaging & shipping
Scan the card when a bin runs low
Every stocked item gets a durable card with a QR code, from a drawer of inserts to a bin of fasteners to a rack of raw material. A machinist 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, whether that is fifty inserts or a length of bar stock. Nobody types a purchase order.
See every card, pulled to restocked
Pulled, on order, restocked. Every card sits in one view in the Order Queue, so nobody walks the crib to find out what is inbound.
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.
Carbide insert, CNMG 432
Reorder qty
50 units
Lead time
4 days
Supplier
Kennametal Direct
Safety stock
20 units
Scanned 10:02
PO sent 10:02
Restocked
Start with the one part that stalled your last job
Card it today, scan it tomorrow, and see the reorder fire without anyone counting. Expand across the crib when it has proven itself.
Make Free Kanban CardsFree plan, no credit card
Machine shops and manufacturers running on Arda
High-mix, low-volume shops that put a card on what they stock, from consumables to raw material to finished components, and got their throughput, and their time, back.
5×
production
80%
less inventory held
Rossmonster
Overland vehicle builder. Cards went on 100% of supplies inside a year. Critical components went from 25+ on the shelf down to 5, and production is five times what it was.
Read the Rossmonster case study →2x
throughput
10 min
a day ordering, from 2–3 hours a week
Assembly Industrial
Heavy-industry fabricator of custom trucks and metalwork. Weekly stockouts gone, and the floor went from four builds at a time to eight in six months, without a bigger shop or a bigger team.
Read the Assembly Industrial case study →0
stockouts
5x
high-value builds
Fat Fender
Custom vehicle shop, after two failed ERP implementations. Eliminated stockouts across the parts they stock and cut the order backlog from 365+ days to 20.
Read the Fat Fender case study →Arda vs ERP vs spreadsheets for machine shops
For the items that actually stop a job, 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
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 does a two-bin kanban system work in a machine shop?
Two bins of the same item sit at the point of use, each sized to cover the supplier's lead time plus a cushion. Machinists consume from the first bin until it is empty, then pull the second forward. With Arda, the card on the empty bin gets scanned, which fires the reorder automatically. By the time the second bin runs down, the first has been refilled. No one counts stock and no one reads a number off a screen. More on the two-bin system.
What is the reorder point formula?
Reorder point equals average daily consumption multiplied by supplier lead time in days, plus safety stock. A shop that burns 40 inserts a day with a 5-day lead time and 50 units of safety stock reorders at 250. Arda encodes that number in the card quantity, so the reorder point becomes physical and no one recalculates it by hand as demand shifts. See the reorder point formula.
What is the best software for inventory management in a machine shop?
The best fit for a machine shop is software that covers every item on the shelf, not just the ones the ERP already tracks. Arda's inventory replenishment software for machine shops uses a card-and-scan kanban model that replenishes anything you stock automatically. That starts with the variable-consumption consumables the ERP never sees, cutting tools, carbide inserts, coolant, abrasives, and deburring media, and it extends to the rest of the shop as well: bar stock and raw material, fasteners and hardware, fixturing, spare parts, and packaging. It holds compliance on the floor and slots in alongside an existing ERP rather than replacing it. See how Arda works.
Does Arda work alongside my ERP?
Yes. Arda runs the replenishment loop for everything you stock and slots in where ERP and MRP fall hardest, on the variable-consumption goods that never make it onto a BOM. Your ERP keeps doing jobs, routing, and costing. It integrates with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Odoo, Xero, Shopify, Stripe, Airtable, Make, and Zapier, plus a REST API, so there is no rip and replace.
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 afternoon, no more stockouts
Assembly Industrial rolled Arda out in days and doubled what its floor could build. Start where it hurts most, on us, and let the shelf reorder itself.
Free plan, unlimited cards, no ERP rollout.