How to Choose Foundry ERP Software: a 10-Point Checklist

A common pattern in foundries: the ERP runs purchasing, stock and accounts well, and the melt shop carries on in notebooks and spreadsheets beside it. The gap shows when a customer complaint takes days to trace, or nobody can say what a good kilogram of casting really cost.

This checklist is for the buying team that wants to get it right the first time. It works for any vendor, including us. Run each check in the demo with your own data, not the vendor’s.

The 10 checks

1. Does it record the heat, not just the manufacturing order?

A general ERP thinks in manufacturing orders. A foundry thinks in heats. Ask to see a heat record: the furnace, the grade, the shift, the charge weighed in, the corrections added and the tapped weight. Every other check on this list depends on this one.

Pass if: each casting lot points to the heat it was poured from.

2. Is chemistry checked against the grade before tapping?

The grade holds the chemistry window: carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur, phosphorus and so on. A spectrometer result should be checked against it automatically, and a failed sample should stop the heat until a metallurgist corrects it.

Pass if: a failed bath sample blocks tapping on screen, not after the castings are poured.

3. Can it trace a casting back to its heat, and forward to the customer?

Take one recent complaint. Ask the vendor to go from the invoice to the delivery, the casting lot, the heat, the charge and the moulding line. Then ask for the reverse: every customer who received castings from one heat.

Pass if: both directions take minutes, not a search through files.

4. Does cost per good kilogram come from each heat’s own data?

An average cost per kilogram hides where money leaks. The system should cost each heat from its own charge, power, returns and rejections, then divide by the good weight that left the fettling shop.

Pass if: two heats of the same grade can show different costs, and the system shows why.

5. Does it plan moulds and track pattern life?

Mould plans should come from open orders, the moulding line and its capacity. Patterns should be issued and returned, counted by moulds made, and blocked when they reach their life limit. Customer-owned patterns need their owner on the record.

Pass if: the planner can build tomorrow’s mould plan from open orders without a spreadsheet.

6. Are rejections recorded by defect, stage and heat?

Every rejected casting carries the full cost of its metal, moulding and fettling. Ask how a rejection is recorded at knockout, fettling and final inspection, with the defect type, quantity, heat and pattern. Then ask how a corrective action, such as an 8D report, is tied to it.

Pass if: you can see rejection by defect and by pattern for last month in one report.

7. Are test certificates built from the heat’s own results?

Many OEM customers ask for an EN 10204 3.1 certificate with each delivery. It should be generated from the chemistry and mechanical results already recorded against the heat, not typed again.

Pass if: the certificate for a delivery fills itself from the heat record.

8. Does it cover outside processing and the export reports your customers ask for?

Foundries send castings out for machining, heat treatment or coating, and the paperwork for that work has to match the stock. Exporters also face new customer questions, such as the embedded emissions EU importers now need under the EU’s carbon border rules. See our guide to CBAM for foundries and casting exporters for what they ask and why.

Pass if: goods sent out and received back reconcile with stock, and emissions per heat can be reported by customer and customs code.

9. Does it run on the same database as purchasing, stock, sales and accounting?

A separate foundry system that syncs with the ERP every night means two versions of stock and two versions of cost. A heat should consume real stock and create a real lot that sales and accounting see straight away.

Pass if: tapping a heat changes stock on hand in the same system, at the same moment.

10. Will you own it?

Ask four questions: who owns the data, what the software licences cost each year, whether you can change or extend the system without the original vendor, and who supports it when something stops on a night shift.

Pass if: the answers are in writing before you sign.

How to run the demo

Send the vendor three things a week before the demo: one real metal grade with its chemistry window, one casting with its pattern and routing, and one recent customer complaint with the heat number. Then score each check while you watch.

Check	Ask the vendor to show	Pass if
Heat record	A heat for your grade, from charge to tap	Each casting lot carries the heat number
Chemistry	A failed spectrometer sample	Tapping is blocked until it is corrected
Traceability	Your complaint, invoice to charge	Done on screen in minutes
Cost per kg	Two heats of the same grade	Costs differ, with the reason shown
Moulds and patterns	Tomorrow’s mould plan	Built from open orders; pattern life counted
Rejections	Last month by defect and pattern	One report, no spreadsheet
Certificates	A 3.1 certificate for one delivery	Filled from the heat’s results
Outside work and exports	Castings sent out and back; an emissions report	Stock reconciles; report by customs code
One database	Tap a heat, then open stock	Stock changes at once
Ownership	Licences, data, support in writing	Answers before signing

A system that passes eight or more checks without a spreadsheet is worth a second meeting. One that passes fewer is a general ERP with a foundry brochure.

What moves the price

Foundry ERP is rarely sold from a price list, so compare what drives the quote rather than the headline figure:

• the number of plants, furnaces and moulding lines
• optional modules, such as investment casting, steel or die casting
• integrations with spectrometers, energy meters or customer portals
• how many years of history move across from the old system
• the yearly software licences, which are separate from the project

Ask each vendor to price the same scope in writing. For the licence side on Odoo, see our Odoo pricing guide.

How TechUltra Foundry answers the checklist

We built TechUltra Foundry on Odoo 20 Enterprise to pass all ten checks on one database: heats with charge and chemistry checked against the grade, heat number traceability from invoice to charge, cost per good kilogram per heat, mould plans and pattern life, rejections with 8D, EN 10204 3.1 certificates, job work challans and CBAM reports by customs code. The foundry ERP software page shows every screen, and a 3-minute video walks a casting from enquiry to invoice.

If you are comparing systems, bring this checklist to our demo too. Book a foundry ERP demo and we will run it on your own grade and casting. For the wider picture of Odoo in a plant, see Odoo for manufacturing.