Manufacturing · Electronics OEM
ERPNext implementation at 25% of the Oracle quote — tracking 1.6 million+ serial numbers
Brightgrid Technologies manufactures smart utility meters for India's grid rollout, delivering over 400,000 meters a month. We replaced three disconnected systems — Tally, a production SQL database, and Excel — with a single ERPNext traceability chain from component serial to dispatched meter.
At a glance
The engagement, in brief
The challenge
Where they started
Brightgrid ran on three disconnected systems — Tally for accounts, a custom SQL database on the production floor, and Excel to bridge them. Every meter is a regulated, serialized device that must trace back to its serialized components, at a volume most ERPs never see.
- Tally's periodic inventory made shrinkage invisible — losses from damage, theft, or error were silently absorbed into cost of goods sold with no way to investigate them
- Goods came into stores without mandatory purchase orders, so accounts had no live visibility into what stores had actually received
- No system could associate finished-goods serials to component serials at scale
- Goods receipts from EMS vendors arrived with 5,000 to 100,000 serial numbers per lot — far beyond manual handling
- No system gated stock movement on quality approval or planned production against 100,000-meter orders on monthly delivery schedules, even as daily output scaled from 2,000 toward 12,000 meters
What we built
How we solved it
Phased rollout
Implemented ERPNext in phases — accounts and stores first, then manufacturing and quality — customizing only where Brightgrid's serialization volume demanded it.
Serialized traceability at production scale
ERPNext now holds over 1.6 million serial numbers, with goods receipts of up to 100,000 serials in a single document. The production test database feeds serial data to ERPNext via API, replacing Excel dumps.
- Worked directly with the Frappe team on an upstream fix (frappe/erpnext#50436) that cut serial number generation from one database query per serial to just two queries per transaction
Order-to-production planning automated
- Large utility sales orders automatically split into monthly delivery schedules, driving automated work order creation
- A batch production workflow moves serialized components from Stores to WIP to Finished Goods, replacing meter-by-meter entries
Quality gates built into stock movement
Finished goods can't reach the FG warehouse until Quality completes the inspection checklist and attaches test reports, with a defined quarantine-and-replacement flow for rework.
Accounts connected to the floor
Perpetual inventory replaced Tally's period-end calculation, so the ledger updates with every stock movement and discrepancies surface immediately. Landed cost vouchers put customs duty and IGST into true product cost.
The results
What changed
- Implementation delivered at 25% of the Oracle quote, for the same scope
- Recurring cost held at ₹20,000/month — one dedicated Frappe Cloud server, 20 users, zero per-user license fees
- Three disconnected systems — Tally, the production SQL database, and Excel — replaced by one traceability chain
- Over 1.6 million serial numbers under management, with production scaling toward 12,000 meters a day
- Full shrinkage visibility — every stock movement posts to the ledger in real time
More work
Other engagements
Unified Shopify, Manhattan WMS, and ERPNext for scalable e-commerce fulfillment
Read case study PPManufacturing · ERP MigrationShoptech E2 to ERPNext migration with a custom estimation engine for plastic parts
Read case study VAManufacturing · Tally MigrationTally-to-ERPNext go-live with fixed asset import and opening balance reconciliation
Read case study bsManufacturing · Full ImplementationEnd-to-end ERPNext implementation for an Alaskan temperature sensor manufacturer
Read case study APTrading and Distribution · Stock AutomationHow Aljawad Premium automated stock replenishment across 14 branches with ERPNext
Read case study RRManufacturing · Marketplace AutomationAutomating marketplace accounting for a 3D printing business, eliminating an hour of manual bookkeeping a day
Read case study SKServices · Ongoing SupportCRM, projects, payroll, and accounts on one ERPNext system, backed by ongoing UnifyXperts support
Read case study GTLTrading and Distribution · Global OperationsStreamlining global trade operations across time zones with ERPNext
Read case studyWant this for your shop floor? Meet the ERPNext implementation partner for US manufacturers