Inventory Management Built for Manufacturing Teams
Manufacturing inventory is not just "how much stock do I have?". It is which batches, at what cost, reserved for which work order, and why the unit cost changed since last month. Loribase was built to answer all of those questions.
For Manufacturing
The manufacturing inventory challenge
For a manufacturer, inventory is not a single number; it is a network of relationships. A finished product depends on multiple raw material batches. Each batch has its own price. The same raw material may have five lots in stock from five different purchases, each with a different expiry date and unit cost.
Standard inventory tools are not equipped for this complexity. A quantity field does not know which batch of cocoa butter you used in last Tuesday's production. A spreadsheet cannot automatically apply FIFO when you run the same recipe twice with the same ingredients at different prices.
Enterprise ERPs handle it, but at enterprise cost and enterprise complexity. Most manufacturers below 100 employees cannot justify the implementation timeline or the licensing fees. They improvise with spreadsheets, manual cost sheets, and partial systems that do not talk to each other.
Loribase was designed to fill exactly this gap: manufacturing-grade inventory management at a price and complexity level accessible to growing operations.
Features
What Loribase delivers for manufacturers
Raw material lot tracking
Every incoming shipment creates a distinct lot with its own identity: supplier, purchase date, unit cost, quantity, and expiry date (when applicable). Lots are tracked through every transformation, from raw material to semi-finished to finished good.
Real FIFO production costing
When a production run consumes raw materials, Loribase automatically applies FIFO, consuming the oldest available batches first. The cost is calculated from the actual batch prices, not a standard cost. No estimation, no approximation.
Reusable production blueprints
Define your formulas or bills of materials once. Use them for every production run. Scale by batch size. Update when the formula changes; previous runs keep their historical record, new runs use the updated specifications.
Automatic stock reservation
When a production order is confirmed, the required raw materials are immediately reserved. They cannot be double-allocated to another order. Available stock reflects exactly what can be scheduled for new production.
End-to-end lot traceability
Trace any lot forward (which production batches used it, which customers received it) or backward (from which supplier purchase it came, when it was received). Essential for expiry control, quality recalls, and regulatory audits.
Full cost breakdown per run
Every completed production generates a detailed cost statement: raw materials (FIFO), labor, energy, depreciation, total cost per unit, and suggested selling price at your target margin. Know the real economics of every batch.
How It Works
The manufacturing workflow in Loribase
Receive raw materials with lot tracking
Create a purchase order. When goods arrive, register the receipt. Each line creates a distinct inventory lot with the exact unit cost from the purchase order. The lot enters your warehouse with its full identity.
Create a production order from a blueprint
Select the product to produce, the quantity, and the date. Loribase loads the blueprint and calculates the required components. Review the availability: the system shows available stock, reserved stock, and incoming stock for each input.
Start production: components are reserved
Confirm the production order. All required input quantities are immediately reserved from the oldest available lots (FIFO). The production run now has a reserved allocation that no other order can use.
Complete production: costs are calculated
When the production run completes, confirm it. The system records the consumption events for each input lot, calculates the real FIFO cost, adds additional cost components (labor, energy, depreciation), and adds the finished goods as a new inventory lot with the calculated cost.
New lot available immediately
The finished goods lot is immediately available for sale, for transfer to another warehouse, or as raw material input for another production run. Its unit cost (calculated from the actual FIFO cost of this specific run) travels with it.
Comparison
Loribase vs. spreadsheet for manufacturing
Lot identification
FIFO cost calculation
Component reservation
Expiry management
Production cost audit
Quality recall
Industries
Manufacturing segments that use Loribase
Food and beverage producers
Lot traceability, expiry date management, regulatory compliance, and FIFO consumption of perishable ingredients. Loribase handles the audit trail requirements of the food industry without the complexity of enterprise food ERP systems.
Cosmetics and personal care
Batch-level traceability from raw material to finished product, compliance documentation, and cost tracking across complex formulas with dozens of ingredients at varying quantities and prices.
Industrial goods manufacturers
Multi-level bill of materials with semi-finished goods, multi-warehouse raw material management, and real cost tracking per production run, replacing the spreadsheet patchwork that most mid-size industrial manufacturers rely on.
Artisanal and specialty producers
Businesses that produce smaller batches with high-value ingredients. Real FIFO costing is critical when a single material price variation can shift the entire product margin.
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