Founded in 1982, this Kollam-based coir products manufacturer employs over 200 people and exports to 18 countries. Despite their operational maturity, their business systems were firmly stuck in the past: production schedules on whiteboards, inventory tracked in Excel, purchase orders handwritten and faxed, and financial reporting requiring 2 weeks of manual data consolidation at month-end. The company's Managing Director knew they needed to modernise — but feared disrupting an operation that, despite inefficiencies, reliably generated ₹25 crore annually.
The Pain Points
- No single view of current inventory across 3 warehouse locations
- Production planning done manually — reactive to stockouts rather than predictive
- Purchase department and accounts department using separate systems — reconciliation took 3 days monthly
- HR and payroll entirely paper-based for 200+ employees
- Export documentation generated manually for each shipment — 45-60 minutes per order
- No mobile access for management — key decisions delayed when MD was travelling
DBes Techno's ERP Approach
Rather than forcing the client into a generic ERP (which would have required significant process changes), DBes Techno took a custom ERP approach — building a system that mirrored and then improved the company's existing workflows, reducing the change management burden significantly.
The system was built module-by-module over 6 months:
- Month 1-2: Inventory & Warehouse Management (highest pain point)
- Month 2-3: Production Planning & Scheduling
- Month 3-4: Purchase Management & Accounts Payable
- Month 4-5: HR, Attendance & Payroll
- Month 5-6: Sales, Export Documentation, Management Dashboards
Technology Stack
- Backend: Laravel 11 + PostgreSQL
- Frontend: Vue.js 3 + Inertia.js
- Mobile: PWA for iOS/Android management access
- Hardware integration: Barcode scanner support for warehouse operations
- Hosting: AWS India region (Mumbai) with daily automated backups
Results After 6 Months of Operation
- Month-end financial close: from 14 days → 2 days
- Inventory accuracy: from ~75% to 99.2%
- Export documentation time: from 55 minutes → 8 minutes per shipment
- Management reporting: real-time dashboards (previously fortnightly manual reports)
- Production efficiency improved 18% through data-driven scheduling
- Estimated annual cost saving: ₹42 lakhs (reduced overtime, waste, and errors)
This project demonstrates that a well-scoped custom ERP — built to fit the business rather than forcing the business to fit the software — can deliver transformational results for traditional Indian manufacturers.
