Close the planning gap around your ERP

Many businesses have an ERP and still use spreadsheets for BOM handover, production planning, job readiness, purchasing decisions or operational visibility. The ERP manages finance and transactions well, and the teams plan around it.

Having an ERP and having planning under control aren't the same thing. When the operating system of the business lives outside the ERP, the signs are familiar:

• plans that look good on paper but aren't feasible
• manual checks before committing a date to a customer
• engineering changes that reach the floor late
• dashboards that report history rather than risk

The official system isn't always the trusted one. When people need an answer they can rely on, they often go to a planner's spreadsheet, a production manager's whiteboard or a buyer's private tracker. That's a strong sign of disconnected planning, whatever system sits underneath.

The gap usually sits between engineering and production. A BOM can be accurate from a design point of view and still incomplete for manufacturing. Non-modeled items get missed, revisions aren't communicated clearly, and purchasing works from outdated information. BOMs don't reach production intact covers this in detail.

MaXXflow isn't trying to replace your ERP. It focuses on the manufacturing planning layer, where teams need better visibility across BOMs, materials, purchasing, jobs and production.

For some businesses it may operate alongside existing systems, addressing a manufacturing-planning gap that's still managed through spreadsheets and workarounds. That's typically where an ERP handles finance or transactions well but doesn't solve the engineering-to-production planning gap.

Where BOMs start in CAD or PDM, MaXXlink can bring BOM information into MaXXflow through its connector, so the plan starts from structured engineering data. See MaXXflow with MaXXlink.

The aim is fewer disconnected systems deciding the truth, not one more. If MaXXflow wouldn't reduce the friction you're handling through spreadsheets, emails and manual checks, it wouldn't be the right fit.

MaXXflow can be scoped to operate alongside existing business systems. The approach depends on which system currently owns customer, product, inventory, purchasing, finance and production data. During discovery, Central Innovation works out:

• which information must be available in MaXXflow
• which system should remain the source of each type of data
• which integrations are essential for the first phase
• which data exchanges can come later
• where spreadsheets or manual handovers can be removed

On the finance side, MaXXflow can post invoice or bill details to a finance system through a scoped API integration, and the finance platform stays the system of record for invoicing. Compatibility, the data exchanged and any configuration or development work are confirmed in discovery.

You don't need every system connected before you see value. Integrations are assessed individually: the essential ones come first, and others follow once the process and data requirements are clearer. If you run several companies, confirm any consolidated multi-company reporting needs during scoping. The detail is on Integrations.

Some ERPs are genuinely mature and already manage BOMs, inventory, purchasing, production, work orders and reporting well. In that case MaXXflow may not add enough value, unless there's a specific gap. That's worth knowing before anyone spends time on a demonstration.

MaXXflow is strongest where there's a real planning visibility gap. Is MaXXflow right for you? sets out the signs either way.

1. Where do spreadsheets still sit around your ERP today?
2. Does the ERP give production and operations the planning visibility they need before issues occur?
3. Can purchasing and production see how an engineering change affects them before it reaches the floor?
4. Which integration would be essential for a first stage to work, and what information would need to move between the systems?