stock control and bom software

[trevwhite]

Hi
Anyone using some good, clean software that manages stock levels of components,etc and BOM creation. I dont want to pay monthly for a cloud based system. I just want something that I can record all the stock I have and relate that stock to BOMs. This is also good to then use at the design stage when I need a part as I can find what I have on the system that might already be suitable and in stock for prototypes as well as production.

This kind of software, I am sure has been out for decades but all the current stuff I find is cloud based and monthly charges.

What are people using?

Trev

[SMTech]

One of the problems you'll find is that even the non-cloudy stuff doesn't want to sell you an outright licence for something they consider business critical. Even when they take an upfront fee they then want an annual maintenance contract and over the years have tightened up their rules so that is not an optional requirement. We run a fairly old copy of Encore from Anagram systems when the terms were slightly ambiguous, to upgrade it to the modern edition they want every upgrade/maintenance fee we haven't paid between then & now which is a quite a chunk of change*, for that reason when it becomes too unwieldy/we can't force it onto new PCs anymore we may well look elsewhere. In the UK there are several similar packages from the bigger IT support companies like this one https://www.ogl.co.uk/profitplus but they all have this issue and/or are shockingly expensive.

These packages are often called MES packages and are a mix of CRM & MRP & accounting this means that big open source CRM/MRP packages  often have addons that bring these features (e.g adempiere), some of these only add decent BOM management on a, expensive commerical basis tho and they can be very complex to setup.

QCadoo is an open soure MES that looks interesting and there are a few others, can be hard to keep up.

If you can get over your dislike of cloud (there's plenty to like from a business perspective about a low monthly ongoing fee) www.manuonline.com is cheaper than some  and plugs into xero/sage one.

I believe a fully Sage solution is £30k+

* we stopped paying it because of a consistent problem they just wanted to blame on the fact we weren't running a true windows server for the fileshare. I fixed it with a single command in w2k, and the problem isn't even there when using Samba.

[techman-001]

Hi
Anyone using some good, clean software that manages stock levels of components,etc and BOM creation. I dont want to pay monthly for a cloud based system. I just want something that I can record all the stock I have and relate that stock to BOMs. This is also good to then use at the design stage when I need a part as I can find what I have on the system that might already be suitable and in stock for prototypes as well as production.

This kind of software, I am sure has been out for decades but all the current stuff I find is cloud based and monthly charges.

What are people using?

Trev

I imagine they would use any accounting package with assembly capabilities.

On the Open Source side there are quite a few, personally I have used WebERP for the last five years and before that I used SQL-Ledger. Both use a HTTP front end which can be anywhere and accessed by multiple clients from a browser. They both use Apache, Sql-Ledger also uses Perl and Postgres  while Weberp uses PHP and MySql.

These are small to large enterprise packages with SQl-Ledger being the simplest and easiest to use.

A writer friend used Sql-Ledger to manage her large book collection complete with barcodes, prices, descriptions etc.

sql-ledger.org
www.weberp.org

[olkipukki]

Hi
Anyone using some good, clean software that manages stock levels of components,etc and BOM creation.

Yes, I am, took a lot a time, effort and handwork to have overall minimum basics, but still miles away what I want the software do.

I dont want to pay monthly for a cloud based system.

One way or another, you pay either monthly (or, in most cases, annually) or everything upfront with maintanence fees in range 15-35% on top each year. Alternatives, open-source ERP systems or own-made from a scratch.

I just want something that I can record all the stock I have and relate that stock to BOMs.

Really - stock & BOM only? Are you hobbyist or trade?
If first, Excel/Libra Calc should be enough, otherwise I cannot come up with scenario when you are after above only,
except you already have accounting, procurement etc. systems in place and don't want change these.

What are people using?

I'm using Odoo (ex OpenERP) community edition with custom-made and enhancement modules, and tried Tryton (OpenERP fork) in parallel.
Both implemented in Python and were able easy pick their up.
Odoo has a open-source and commercial web-based versions, Tryton - open-source and support a native client; both a wide community support.

You can try both systems online or install locally, not so complicated if you are familiar with PostgresSQL and Python installations.
Also, Odoo commercial version is available for free if you choose one module, for example, PLM that includes Manufacturing and Inventory.

[mrpackethead]

I wrote my own. A major pita.

[D3f1ant]

I wrote my own too, heaps of fun. I did it in Access because i needed it to work within Altium Designer and cross reference with my library database. It keeps getting better as I add features over the years.

[voltsandjolts]

I've used https://editor.datatables.net/ to make a stock & bom database, using these (percentage of total effort by language):

mysql 5%
php 15%
html 10%
javascript 70%

Since the server side requires msyql/php it runs on my synology NAS which is great for RAID, easy backup and small team sharing via the web interface (just a browser on the client side).
Every part number has a link to a NAS drive directory where the document (if any) related to that PN is stored (manufacturing dwg or datasheet etc).
BOMs are held in a mysql link table (i.e. one-to-many relationship).
It's fairly simple but thats a bonus - easy to mould into what you need, if you know a little javascript.
It requires JQuery Datatables Editor (about GBP100) but it saves so much effort, really easy tables backed by SQL DB.
PM me if its of any interest.

[Ribster]

I am currently am rolling my own also. It's just straight up MySQL and a Laravel front end.
It's a PHP framework. I've made a small simple interface in altium flask before for my altium database, but i want to do stock management.
All depends on what you want to do. But the combination of MySQL + Flask will get you a long way if you need something quick and dirty.

[mrpackethead]

I wrote my own too, heaps of fun. I did it in Access because i needed it to work within Altium Designer and cross reference with my library database. It keeps getting better as I add features over the years.

This is where mine started as well.  Now the database is mysql running in Amazon. The front end is all HTML,  it has been running using python flask for a Web interface but i'm looking at migrating to using AWS lambdas and Angular.js.

[Bassman59]

Hi
Anyone using some good, clean software that manages stock levels of components,etc and BOM creation. I dont want to pay monthly for a cloud based system. I just want something that I can record all the stock I have and relate that stock to BOMs. This is also good to then use at the design stage when I need a part as I can find what I have on the system that might already be suitable and in stock for prototypes as well as production.

This kind of software, I am sure has been out for decades but all the current stuff I find is cloud based and monthly charges.

What are people using?

Trev

I rolled my own. The "database" is a spreadsheet and it gets exported to CSV. A Python script takes a BOM exported from Kicad, matches it with the parts list CSV and outputs something I can use to place orders.

The database has a tally of parts on hand. My eventual goal is to have a kitting feature which "pulls" from "stock" the correct amount of parts for kitting to make sure the parts-on-hand count remains correct.

I liked the idea of partsbox.io but the one feature it doesn't have in its free version is house part numbers, and the monthly cost for the lowest tier is above what I want to pay.

[dcbrown73]

A buddy of mine uses one that is no longer supported and only runs on Windows XP.   He upgraded all of his PCs with the exception of that machine to Windows 10 and then network file-sharing security fun ensued.

We had a Windows hacking party just to get it functioning again!  The fix isn't something I would ever want to deal with because it's just going to come right back and at some point.  Virtualization is the only XP option he will have.

As for rolling my own.  I would go with a NoSQL db storing JSON (part ID as the key) and then use a templating engine for displaying / entry form.   You could easily add a tool for BOM ordering.

[Gribo]

I am in the process of building my own. I am using SQL Express, and C# for the front end.
Schematic libraries contain only symbols and the database takes care of linking symbol, footprint and the part number's parameters.
I have split the tables to various component types to allow easier parametric searches (resistors, diodes etc).
Stock is kept in a simple table which contains internal pn, mfg pn, supplier pn, price, amount on hand and lead time.

[mrpackethead]

wondering if you can connect a no-sql database to altium.

[Smokey]

wondering if you can connect a no-sql database to altium.

You can connect anything to anything with enough interface layer hacks :-)

[trevwhite]

It seems people have done a lot of work. Be nice to create an open source effort from all this. Maybe a core instruction and basic framework using a database.  It sounds like as long as the database structure was defined loads of modules in whatever language people prefer could be used and it would be so flexible.

Backups would be easy.

Is this of any interest?

Trev

[mrpackethead]

Woudl be really nice. but the real issue is that everyones setup and requirements are a littel bit differerent.

I'm thinking of a re-write of mine, using DynamoDB, AWS HTTP Gateway with Python Lambdas,  S3 serving static content using Angular.

AM yet to find a low cost ODBC interface to Dynamo though.

[IanS]

MiniMRP http://www.minimrp.com is not cloud based. Also not a monthly payment or any other regular payment. $190USD for the standard version - buy once use forever.

Uses it's own local built-in database but can be migrated up to MS SQL Server or even MySQL Server.

But if you really do want the data in the cloud you could use your own MySQL server on your own website or sign up with Microsoft Azure or AWS.

Also, that MySQL capability means you can also use the MySQL or MariaDB server that's built in to many NAS drives nowadays.

[IanS]

One of the problems you'll find is that even the non-cloudy stuff doesn't want to sell you an outright licence for something they consider business critical. Even when they take an upfront fee they then want an annual maintenance contract

We've been developing and selling MiniMRP for over 20 years. In that time we've NEVER need to bill anyone for monthly or annual maintenance. Our software really is a once only payment - buy once use forever. We have enough new users coming on board that we've never needed to 'screw' our existing user base for more money.

We still have users using their original version that they purchase 10 or more years ago and it still works fine in Windows 10.

Having said that we do, very rarely (maybe every 5 years or so) release a whole new version with more features and if somebody wanted to switch to that version they'd need to pay (usually around $50) but nobody is forced to upgrade and, as I said, older versions still work just fine with latest versions of Windows.

Oh! I'd also like to add that MiniMRP version 5 was recently updated to work with WINE under MacOSX and Linux. So, run the Windows version of MiniMRP in Linux without a VM. This WINE update is quite new so it would be great if any Mac or Linux users would test that and give us some feedback

http://www.minimrp.com

 

[olkipukki]

Woudl be really nice. but the real issue is that everyones setup and requirements are a littel bit differerent.
I'm thinking of a re-write of mine, using DynamoDB, AWS HTTP Gateway with Python Lambdas,  S3 serving static content using Angular.
AM yet to find a low cost ODBC interface to Dynamo though.

What for?

If just expose data to Altium, you can use DynamoDB Streams + Lambdas triggers and sync changes to "classic" DB on the side.

[mrpackethead]

If just expose data to Altium, you can use DynamoDB Streams + Lambdas triggers and sync changes to "classic" DB on the side.

Yes, its just to expose the data to altium, but not i'm not sure that i'm very keen on having a whole set of local databases that are somehow synced. Sounds like a disaster in the making.

[1276-2449-1-ND]

I also wrote my own after not being able to find anything suitable.

I used LibreOffice Base (using MySQL) and it took an afternoon plus a bit of tweaking every now and then.

[ar__systems]

Wow so many people work on the same it is crazy! Incidentally I have my own in the works too.

I always hated the process of created BOM, since inevitably things get changed and the board goes out of sync with the BOM. So mine reads native Eagle files, CSV file (for other peoples BOMs). The goal is at least for ordering to never create an actual BOM file. Clearly, when I have to do that when I transfer the data to customer, but until then all data remains in board file.

The second major goal of the app focus was preparation of the BOM quotes. I got to the stage of automatically pulling data from digikey.

And third axis was preparation of data for SMT machine. It assigns angles, heights, and nozzles. By reading BRD file I have access to component orientation in the library. I can fix offsets if the part is not centered in the library, and rotation angles are always correct.

[IanJ]

Ahhh, my pet hate of electronics design......the BOM!

I design test instruments and Pcb's to sell, I always end up using Excel mostly because I can:

- BOM the pcb, with costs arising from both purchasing as single items and multiples from suppliers.
- Cross reference against what parts I already have in stock.
- Use it to forecast profit per item if I sell at various marked up prices.

Also, because I have gone so far down this route I don't really use Circuitstudio's BOM......so it's usually way out of date in terms of part attributes and metadata.

I guess I am stuck with Excel but I'd love to entertain something new as it's hard to see how my business would scale up using this method!......looks like I need to read this thread through thoroughly.

Ian.

[mrpackethead]

Wow so many people work on the same it is crazy! Incidentally I have my own in the works too.

I always hated the process of created BOM, since inevitably things get changed and the board goes out of sync with the BOM. So mine reads native Eagle files, CSV file (for other peoples BOMs). The goal is at least for ordering to never create an actual BOM file. Clearly, when I have to do that when I transfer the data to customer, but until then all data remains in board file.

The second major goal of the app focus was preparation of the BOM quotes. I got to the stage of automatically pulling data from digikey.

And third axis was preparation of data for SMT machine. It assigns angles, heights, and nozzles. By reading BRD file I have access to component orientation in the library. I can fix offsets if the part is not centered in the library, and rotation angles are always correct.

One of the dramas is that everyone wants to do something just a little different!   I'd like to migrate my database from MySQL to dynamoDB ( no sql ) theres a lot of good reasons for doign that.

I dont' know how to connect that effectively with altium.  There was a suggestion above using streams,

you can use DynamoDB Streams + Lambdas triggers and sync changes to "classic" DB on the side.

[trevwhite]

Well my thought was that based on the wisdom of all that have already done this, a structure for a mysql database/schema could be created along with a script to create the database. Once that is in place things start to get pretty flexible with everyone able to work with languages of their choice and present data from apps, web, c# app, whatever they want.

All those apps could be available and with modern development it seems realistic to have a python app running on a PC interacting with a mysql server, whilst then having a web based, server side php system running as well doing a different job but with all the data in sync. I saw some php code using a bar code scanner for example. That could be used as a special dedicated app to load stock into the system. Print the barcode, stick it on the reel for example and then scan it into the system. Use the same system to log stock out. Scan barcode, enter stock used, etc....

It also gives a nice project for personal development of web applications. I have been wanting to get into nodejs for a while and web stuff. This would actually be a very useful project with a real world end use case. It can run on a rpi, cloud server, local computer or NAS on the network.

Just thoughts...