Imagine this: a production line grinds to a halt. It’s not a machine failure or a power outage. It’s a stockout of a simple, $2 item like a specific adhesive or a custom fastener. This small oversight costs you thousands in lost productivity and delayed shipments. If this scenario feels familiar, you know that manual reordering is a constant source of inefficiency and risk.
For many manufacturers, the struggle to find the right solution is real. Traditional ERP and MRP systems are often too complex, expensive, and difficult to implement, leading to poor adoption on the shop floor-especially for managing non-BOM consumables. This is where a new breed of manufacturing inventory software for automated reordering is changing the game.
This guide focuses on tools designed specifically for lean, automated reordering. We'll evaluate the top options based on what truly matters for eliminating stockouts: shop-floor usability, speed of implementation, and powerful workflow automation. While we'll look at several strong contenders, our top pick uses a unique physical-digital approach that teams actually love to use, ensuring your reordering process finally works as it should.
Arda is a revolutionary inventory management platform that combines durable, physical QR-coded Kanban cards with simple digital automation to solve the most persistent problem in manufacturing: getting the reordering process right on the shop floor. With a perfect five-star rating in user reviews, Arda excels by making inventory management so simple that it actually gets done consistently. It’s built to eliminate stockouts of consumable goods-the very items that complex ERPs often miss.
Arda isn't just another software; it's a complete system that solves the single biggest failure point of inventory management: human adoption. By blending a tactile, visual card system with powerful backend automation, it empowers your shop-floor team to trigger replenishment with a single scan, requiring virtually no training. This focus on simplicity and workflow is why companies using Arda report reducing ordering time by up to 90% while all but eliminating stockouts.
Small to mid-sized manufacturers who are tired of stockouts of consumable items and need a simple, effective system that their shop-floor teams will actually use every single day.
Arda offers a straightforward, per-seat pricing model designed to scale with your business:
Katana is a powerful, cloud-based manufacturing ERP designed to give small and medium-sized businesses a single source of truth for their inventory, sales, and production processes. With a strong user satisfaction rating of 86/100 in its category, it's a popular choice for businesses looking to move beyond spreadsheets and consolidate their core operations. Katana excels at providing real-time visibility and control for companies that manage complex bills of materials.
Make-to-order and make-to-stock manufacturers who need to tightly integrate their BOM-based inventory with their overall production planning and sales channels in a single, unified platform.
Katana offers a mix of a free plan and paid tiers geared toward growing manufacturers:
MRPeasy is a cloud-based ERP/MRP software that has earned a strong reputation among small manufacturers for its user-friendly interface and powerful production planning tools. It’s designed to be an affordable and accessible solution for businesses looking to organize their production, inventory, and procurement processes. Its standout feature is its visual scheduling, making it a favorite for production managers who need a clear overview of their operations.
Small to medium-sized manufacturers who need strong, visual production scheduling and capacity planning tools (like Gantt charts) as the centerpiece of their inventory management strategy.
MRPeasy uses per-user pricing aimed at smaller manufacturing teams:
Fishbowl is a comprehensive inventory and manufacturing management software that is best known for its deep, seamless integration with QuickBooks and Xero. It's the top choice for businesses that prioritize flawless synchronization between their inventory operations and their accounting system. Fishbowl offers both on-premise and cloud-hosted solutions, providing flexibility for businesses with different IT requirements.
Businesses running on QuickBooks or Xero that need a robust, all-in-one inventory and manufacturing solution with a primary focus on perfect financial synchronization.
Fishbowl’s pricing is based on feature and scale, billed annually:
Unleashed is a powerful inventory and production platform designed for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors who also manage a significant e-commerce operation. It excels at synchronizing inventory across multiple sales channels like Shopify, Amazon, and B2B portals, ensuring that stock levels are always accurate. Its feature-rich environment is built to handle complexity, from advanced bills of materials to multi-location warehousing.
Manufacturers and distributors who manage complex production processes and sell across multiple e-commerce channels, and who need a single platform to unify their inventory, production, and sales data.
Unleashed has flat subscription tiers (not per user), scaling with capabilities:
Sortly is a simple, highly visual, and extremely user-friendly inventory and asset tracking app. It’s designed to answer two fundamental questions quickly: "What do I have?" and "Where is it?" While it's not a full-fledged reordering automation platform, its simplicity and excellent mobile app have made it a popular choice for businesses looking to get a basic handle on their stock and assets without the complexity of an ERP system.
Small businesses or teams that need a simple, visually-driven way to track assets and basic inventory levels, especially when frequent updates are needed via a mobile device.
Sortly offers plans from free to enterprise scaled by features and item limits:
With so many options, selecting the right tool can feel daunting. Focus on these key questions to find the perfect fit for your needs.
While powerful, feature-packed ERP systems have their place in modern manufacturing, they often fail to solve the simple, frustrating, and costly problem of consumable stockouts. Why? Because they are too complex for the people on the front lines who need to signal that a reorder is needed. True automation only works when the system is adopted and used consistently.
For manufacturers who want to empower their teams, eliminate ordering errors, and get a reliable system running immediately, Arda is the clear standout choice. Its unique physical-card system brilliantly bridges the gap between the physical shop floor and the digital office. It delivers on the promise of automation that actually works because it's built for the people who use it.
Stop wasting time on manual ordering and prevent your next stockout. Try Arda's free Kanban card generator or schedule a free 30-minute consultation to see how it works.
Q1: What is the difference between a Kanban system and an MRP?: An MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) system plans inventory based on a forecast of future demand, making it a "push" system. A Kanban system, like Arda, is a pull system that triggers replenishment based on actual consumption. This makes it leaner, more responsive, and ideal for managing variable-use consumables.
Q2: Do I need a full ERP to automate reordering?: No. For many manufacturers, especially for managing consumables, a dedicated automated replenishment tool like Arda is faster to implement, more affordable, and ultimately more effective. Its simplicity ensures the team will actually use it, which is the key to successful automation.
Q3: How difficult is it to set up an automated reordering system?: It varies dramatically. Traditional ERPs can take months of implementation. A focused system like Arda can be implemented for a specific pain point in a single afternoon. You simply identify an item you run out of, create a card, and attach it to the bin. The automation is instant from the very first scan.
Arda Cards
Imagine this: a production line grinds to a halt. It’s not a machine failure or a power outage. It’s a stockout of a simple, $2 item like a specific adhesive or a custom fastener. This small oversight costs you thousands in lost productivity and delayed shipments. If this scenario feels familiar, you know that manual reordering is a constant source of inefficiency and risk.
For many manufacturers, the struggle to find the right solution is real. Traditional ERP and MRP systems are often too complex, expensive, and difficult to implement, leading to poor adoption on the shop floor-especially for managing non-BOM consumables. This is where a new breed of manufacturing inventory software for automated reordering is changing the game.
This guide focuses on tools designed specifically for lean, automated reordering. We'll evaluate the top options based on what truly matters for eliminating stockouts: shop-floor usability, speed of implementation, and powerful workflow automation. While we'll look at several strong contenders, our top pick uses a unique physical-digital approach that teams actually love to use, ensuring your reordering process finally works as it should.
Arda is a revolutionary inventory management platform that combines durable, physical QR-coded Kanban cards with simple digital automation to solve the most persistent problem in manufacturing: getting the reordering process right on the shop floor. With a perfect five-star rating in user reviews, Arda excels by making inventory management so simple that it actually gets done consistently. It’s built to eliminate stockouts of consumable goods-the very items that complex ERPs often miss.
Arda isn't just another software; it's a complete system that solves the single biggest failure point of inventory management: human adoption. By blending a tactile, visual card system with powerful backend automation, it empowers your shop-floor team to trigger replenishment with a single scan, requiring virtually no training. This focus on simplicity and workflow is why companies using Arda report reducing ordering time by up to 90% while all but eliminating stockouts.
Small to mid-sized manufacturers who are tired of stockouts of consumable items and need a simple, effective system that their shop-floor teams will actually use every single day.
Arda offers a straightforward, per-seat pricing model designed to scale with your business:
Katana is a powerful, cloud-based manufacturing ERP designed to give small and medium-sized businesses a single source of truth for their inventory, sales, and production processes. With a strong user satisfaction rating of 86/100 in its category, it's a popular choice for businesses looking to move beyond spreadsheets and consolidate their core operations. Katana excels at providing real-time visibility and control for companies that manage complex bills of materials.
Make-to-order and make-to-stock manufacturers who need to tightly integrate their BOM-based inventory with their overall production planning and sales channels in a single, unified platform.
Katana offers a mix of a free plan and paid tiers geared toward growing manufacturers:
MRPeasy is a cloud-based ERP/MRP software that has earned a strong reputation among small manufacturers for its user-friendly interface and powerful production planning tools. It’s designed to be an affordable and accessible solution for businesses looking to organize their production, inventory, and procurement processes. Its standout feature is its visual scheduling, making it a favorite for production managers who need a clear overview of their operations.
Small to medium-sized manufacturers who need strong, visual production scheduling and capacity planning tools (like Gantt charts) as the centerpiece of their inventory management strategy.
MRPeasy uses per-user pricing aimed at smaller manufacturing teams:
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