We evaluated the top furniture manufacturing software using our advanced review methodology. Here’s a rundown of the best products based on pricing, scalability, whether they can handle multi-level BOMs, and key features like supply chain management and production planning.
- MRPEasy: Best Overall
- SYSPRO: Best for Diverse Product Lines
- Katana MRP -Best for Production Planning
- Epicor Kinetic: Advanced Inventory Management
- Infor CloudSuite Industrial: Most Scalable Solution
- Deskera ERP: Strong Financial Management
1 MRPEasy - Best Overall
Why we chose it: MRPEasy is our top choice because it has a versatile and tailored approach to managing the bill of materials (BOM). MRPEasy offers the flexibility to handle both single-level and multi-level BOMs, making it adaptable for small to mid-sized furniture businesses. MRPEasy doesn’t treat BOMs in isolation but integrates them seamlessly with production planning, purchasing, and sales. This comprehensive approach makes MRPEasy a good choice as a complete MRP software solution for furniture manufacturers. The built-in version control system ensures easy and transparent BOM revisions, enhancing traceability in the production process.
2 SYSPRO - Best for Diverse Product Lines
Why we chose it: For furniture manufacturers dealing with diverse product lines, SYSPRO handles both simple and complex BOMs. It allows you to account for various design elements, material variations, and production processes seamlessly. Its version control system plays a crucial role in maintaining product consistency and quality. It allows for transparent BOM revisions, ensuring that any changes are well-documented and tracked. This level of traceability is essential in the furniture industry, where product variations and customization are common.
3 Katana MRP -Best for Production Planning
Why we chose it: We picked Katana MRP because it offers real-time insights into your furniture production process, design changes, and raw material consumption. For furniture manufacturers looking to move away from static spreadsheets, Katana offers a dynamic solution. Its BOM module automatically allocates available raw materials and products, ensuring efficient resource allocation and schedule prioritization. By tracking sales and production orders in real-time, you can easily adjust raw material and resource costs, simplifying pricing decisions. Multi-level BOMs with subassemblies further enhance cost analysis, providing a clear understanding of product margins and the cost of goods sold.
4 Epicor Kinetic - Advanced Inventory Management
Why we chose it: Epicor Kinetic offers real-time visibility into inventory levels, allowing furniture manufacturers to manage raw materials and finished goods. This feature allows furniture manufacturers to monitor stock levels accurately, reducing the risk of overstocking or running out of critical materials. The platform also allows for precise control over inventory costs. Furniture manufacturers can track the cost of materials, monitor cost fluctuations, and adjust pricing accordingly, optimizing profit margins. Epicor Kinetic’s inventory management tools also extend to resource allocation, ensuring that materials are allocated efficiently to production orders. This minimizes waste and maximizes the utilization of resources, such as machinery and labor.
5 Infor CloudSuite Industrial - Most Scalable Solution
Why We Chose It: We found that Infor CloudSuite Industrial is highly scalable because it is built on a modular architecture. This allows businesses to select and implement only the modules that suit their specific needs. This modular approach means that smaller businesses can start with essential functionalities and expand their software capabilities as they grow. For larger furniture manufacturers or businesses with multiple locations, Infor CloudSuite Industrial offers multi-site support. This feature ensures that the software can handle the complexities of a larger operation while maintaining centralized control and visibility.
6 Deskera ERP - Strong Financial Management
Why We Chose It: Deskera ERP integrates financial management with manufacturing operations. This integration allows furniture manufacturers to monitor costs, track expenses, and optimize resource allocation in real-time. Financial planning becomes a central component of maintaining both quality and profitability. Its advanced quality control features align with financial planning by reducing the cost of quality-related issues. By implementing rigorous quality control processes and standards, furniture manufacturers can prevent costly defects, rework, and customer dissatisfaction.
What is Furniture Manufacturing Software?
Furniture manufacturing software helps businesses optimize lead times, meet customer demand, and increase profitability through efficient inventory control, supply chain management, production planning, and quality control. This industry-specific type of manufacturing ERP platform addresses the unique offerings and production quirks of the furniture business.
End-product and made-to-order furniture manufacturers using software can automatically manage the entire manufacturing process, from obtaining raw materials to assembling the final product. And assembly-based furniture providers can use the same tools to ensure the correct parts kits, instructions, and sub-assemblies are in the same package. Software also tracks sales orders, plans production schedules, and creates accurate estimates for custom products.
Many solutions tailored to the furniture manufacturing industry are really full enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools. These solutions include modules for manufacturing processes as well as other business processes like human resources, payroll, and customer relationship management.
Choosing the Best Furniture Manufacturing Software
1 Assess Material Planning and Inventory Management Capabilities
- Material Optimization: Evaluate the software’s ability to optimize material usage, minimize waste, and accommodate different material types used in furniture production (e.g., wood, upholstery).
- Inventory Control: Assess the software’s features for maintaining optimal stock levels, preventing overstocking or stockouts, and managing inventory efficiently.
2 Examine Customization and BOM Management
- Customizable BOM: Ensure the software supports highly customizable Bill of Materials (BOM) management, enabling you to create and revise BOMs with precision to meet the unique requirements of various furniture product lines.
- Multi-Level BOMs: Confirm that the software can handle multi-level BOMs with ease, especially if your furniture manufacturing involves complex assemblies or subassemblies.
3 Evaluate Production Scheduling and Resource Allocation
- Production Scheduling: Examine the software’s production scheduling capabilities, focusing on its ability to create detailed schedules that consider different product lines, manufacturing processes, and lead times.
- Resource Optimization: Ensure the software allows for efficient resource allocation, such as machinery and labor, to maximize production efficiency and minimize costs.
4 Integrate Financial Management
- Financial Integration: Assess whether the software seamlessly integrates financial management with manufacturing operations. This includes tracking costs, monitoring profitability, and making informed financial decisions in real-time.
- Cost Control: Evaluate the software’s features for cost control and reduction without compromising product quality or consistency.
5 Emphasize Quality Control and Compliance
- Quality Assurance: Examine the software’s quality control features to maintain high product standards. Ensure it helps in preventing defects, rework, and customer dissatisfaction through rigorous quality processes.
- Compliance: Check if the software assists in complying with industry regulations and standards, ensuring that products meet safety and quality requirements.
6 Consider Scalability and Growth Support
Scalability: Assess whether the software is scalable to accommodate your business’s growth. It should adapt to the evolving needs of your furniture manufacturing operation, whether you’re a small workshop or a large-scale factory. Modular Architecture: Look for software with a modular architecture that allows you to select and implement only the modules you need, providing flexibility as your business expands.
What Are the Key Features of Furniture Manufacturing Software?
| Feature | Functionality |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing Inventory Management | Track quantities of raw materials, assembly parts, and finished products currently on hand. Automate purchase order processing when supplies run low. |
| Bill of Material (BOM) | Create instructions for furniture assembly and lists of materials, equipment, and hardware needed. |
| Quality Control | Lower production costs by using corrective actions to reduce defects in finished products and ensure furniture pieces meet your quality standards. |
| Supply Chain Management | Track the flow of goods from acquiring the raw materials to delivering the final product. |
| Sales Order Management | Convert sales orders to begin the order fulfillment process, then create corresponding invoices. |
| Production Planning | Determine and schedule the materials and labor needed for each manufacturing job to be finished on time. |
| Warehouse Management | Keep accurate, real-time records of stock levels in your warehouse storage to know which products are available at all times. |
What Are the Benefits of Furniture Manufacturing Software?
Furniture manufacturers have thousands of product variations to manage at any given time, from fully assembled pieces to individual spare parts. An automated system will track your finished inventory and raw materials like wood, metals, and fabrics. This allows you to see what you have available in addition to which product variations can be made with on-hand materials. Many furniture manufacturing systems also include a product configurator module to create a custom piece with a particular size, pattern, color, or material.
Prices of wood, metals, and other raw materials fluctuate frequently–furniture manufacturing software will track these costs in real-time, so you can adjust prices accordingly. And when supplies run low, software can automatically send purchase orders to prevent production from slowing down.
Furniture Manufacturing ERP Integration
Many furniture businesses rely on multiple software solutions to run. One common integration is ERP software, which balances manufacturing operations as well as day-to-day business processes. These solutions also typically include features like human resources, accounting, and CRM to help manage backend tasks. ERP systems with manufacturing modules offer material requirements planning, sales order management, quality management, and more.
| Feature | Functionality |
|---|---|
| Accounting | Track revenue from sales orders and open invoices, as well as business expenses and payments to vendors. |
| MRP | Streamline manufacturing with shop floor control, purchase planning, demand forecasting, and equipment maintenance scheduling. |
| Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | Store customer contact information and order histories. Automate order entry, shipping notifications, and order status updates, as well as marketing emails based on purchase history. |
| Human Resources | Manage the hiring and onboarding process, employee recruitment, track time and attendance, and benefits administration. |
| Budgeting and Forecasting | Create estimates of the business’s future revenue and expenses based on historical trends and future market condition predictions. |
Furniture manufacturers that offer direct-to-consumer sales can use ERP to streamline the sales process. Some software solutions offer e-commerce functionality that allows your business to sell to consumers online. The system makes it easy to update pricing, add product variants, upload product images, and automatically update inventory quantities.
Many ERP systems have the ability to integrate with other solutions to cater to your unique business needs. Advanced ERP software sometimes includes business intelligence (BI) tools so furniture manufacturers can make better business decisions based on both financial and non-financial data. This information can help you find where improvements can be made to increase customer satisfaction.
The dashboard in Deskera ERP provides information on income, expenses, top products, top sales reps, and more.
Other important software integrations for the furniture manufacturing industry include:
!## [[Inventory Management]] Real-time Inventory Management
Inventory management helps furniture manufacturing businesses track quantities and prices of raw materials, hardware, and finished products. Raw materials can include anything used to manufacture the furniture, such as screws, brackets, and nails. Purchase orders can be automatically sent to your vendors and distributors before the materials or hardware runs out to reduce downtime.
An inventory management system makes it possible to track finished furniture within your store or warehouse. The system includes descriptions of each product, material makeup, and available product variants. RFID and barcode labels can be placed on raw materials, hardware pieces, and assembled furniture to streamline physical real-time inventory counts.
Katana MRP tracks the inventory of products and materials in user-friendly spreadsheets. The product inventory provides the product name, SKU and variant code, category, supplier, value, on-hand quantities, and more.
!## [[Production Planning]] Production Planning for Manufacturing
Production planning helps furniture manufacturers determine the materials, equipment, and labor requirements for each job order. If materials are low or out of stock, the system will warn you in advance, so you can reorder as needed before beginning production.
The production schedule helps businesses track each piece of furniture throughout the manufacturing process. For example, you can see when the product is scheduled for the initial assembly and when the piece should move on to the painting or finishing stage. This allows you to ensure products are being finished on schedule. If any part of the process is falling behind, corrective action can be taken to prevent late delivery.
The production schedule in MRPEasy features an easy-to-read calendar with dates, times, and descriptions of products at specific points in the manufacturing process. A Gantt chart view is also available.
!## [[Product Configurator]] Product Configurator for Custom and Made-to-Order Furniture
Product configurators are commonly used for made-to-order and custom furniture sales. The configurator allows customers to see how a completely customized piece of furniture will look. Specific parameters can be set up, including patterns, material type, and dimension limits within the configurator to control what the customer can customize.
The product configurator will also provide real-time price quotes. When the customer is done selecting their desired customizations, the estimated cost will be calculated and presented automatically. The configurator will also show suggested add-ons and options to upsell products.
Finally, these products can be grouped together in the system to form furniture sets. For example, variations for a matching sofa, loveseat, and ottoman can have similar SKUs, so you can find related products quickly.
Product configuration in Infor SyteLine enables you to set dimensions, styles, material types, and more.
