ERP Architecture: Lessons From Three Platforms
ERP is a model of work. If the model is the org chart, the software will fight the warehouse. Stock, lots, pallets and invoices have physical meaning. Inventing extra entities to match a slide deck is how you get ghost inventory.
Model the floor, not the slide
FRIGO SYS taught lots, pallets and cold-chain movement. AnyWare taught multi-vertical operations for SMEs. In both cases the dangerous request was “add a module like the catalogue”.
I start from what moves: goods, money, people. Then screens. A dashboard that cannot be traced to a movement is decoration.
Reporting is a query over truth
Do not build a second database of “management numbers”. If finance needs a number the warehouse cannot explain, the model is wrong — not the report.
Custom ERP from Tangier works when operators recognise the screen as their day, not as a consultant’s diagram.
Key takeaways
- Model physical movements before modules.
- Reports must trace to warehouse truth.
- Operators should recognise their day on screen.
FAQ
Why not buy a packaged ERP?
Buy one when the catalogue matches the floor. When lots, roles and invoices do not, a thin custom system is cheaper than forcing people into someone else’s warehouse.