Order Management Software: A Guide for Manufacturers

Aleksander Nowak · 2026-02-07 · Inventory Management

Learn how order management works for manufacturers. See why production businesses need different tools than e-commerce retailers.

Order Management Software: A Guide for Manufacturers

Search for "order management software" and you'll find dozens of tools designed for e-commerce retailers. They're built to pick, pack, and ship products that already exist in a warehouse. Great for online stores reselling goods.

But what if you make the products? What if an order means you need to produce something before you can ship it?

For manufacturers, order management is fundamentally different. It's not just about fulfillment speed and carrier integration. It's about connecting customer orders to production, checking material availability, scheduling manufacturing, and tracking products from raw materials to delivery.

This guide explains how order management works for manufacturers, what features actually matter, and how to choose software that fits production businesses rather than retail operations.

What Is Order Management Software (OMS)?

OMS tracks orders from receipt to delivery. Whether you call it an order management system software, order management platform, or simply order software, the core function is the same: answering what customers ordered, tracking status, and coordinating delivery.

For any business, the basic functions include:

Order entry and tracking. Whether orders come through a website, email, phone, or sales rep, they're recorded in one place with customer details, items, quantities, and prices. Good order tracking software shows the status of every order at a glance.

Status updates. Orders move through stages: received, processing, shipped, delivered. Good order management systems show where each order stands at any moment. Order processing software automates these transitions.

Fulfillment coordination. Connecting orders to inventory, picking, packing, and shipping. Integration with carriers for labels and tracking.

Customer communication. Notifications about order confirmation, shipping, and delivery.

This is where most OMS stops. It assumes products are sitting on shelves waiting to ship. For e-commerce retailers selling existing inventory, that's accurate.

For manufacturers, it's only half the story.

E-commerce Order Management vs Manufacturing Order Management

The gap between e-commerce and manufacturing order management isn't obvious until you try using retail-focused software for production. Then it becomes painfully clear.

How E-commerce Order Management Works

Customer places order online. System checks warehouse inventory. If in stock, the order goes to fulfillment: pick the items, pack them, print a shipping label, hand off to carrier. Done.

The entire process assumes products exist. Online order management systems optimize for speed, multichannel synchronization (Shopify, Amazon, eBay in one dashboard), and carrier rate shopping. Sales order management focuses on getting existing products to customers as fast as possible.

This works perfectly for retailers who buy finished goods from suppliers and resell them. Most popular OMS solutions are built for this workflow. E-commerce OMS is designed specifically for this pick-pack-ship model.

How Manufacturing Order Management Works

Customer places order. Before you can ship anything, you need to answer: Do we have this product in stock? If not, do we have the materials to make it? How long will production take?

For make-to-order manufacturers, the flow looks like this:

1. Order received
2. Check finished goods inventory (maybe you have it)
3. If not in stock, check raw material availability
4. Create production order
5. Manufacture the product (consuming materials)
6. Add finished goods to inventory
7. Allocate to customer order
8. Ship and notify customer

For make-to-stock manufacturers, production happens based on forecasts and reorder points, but customer orders still need to connect to available inventory and trigger replenishment.

Either way, there's a production step between "order received" and "ready to ship" that e-commerce software doesn't handle.

Why This Matters

Using e-commerce OMS for manufacturing creates constant friction:

You can't see if you have materials to fulfill an order before confirming it. You manually create production tasks outside the system. Inventory doesn't update automatically when production completes. There's no traceability from customer order to production batch to shipment.

Platforms like Shopify and Etsy are excellent for selling. They handle storefronts, payments, and customer experience beautifully. But they don't understand production. If you make products, you need a backend that handles manufacturing and ideally syncs with your sales channels.

Key Features for Manufacturing Order Management

What manufacturers actually need:

Order-to-Production Connection

When a customer order comes in, can you create a production order linked to it? This connection is essential for make-to-order businesses. Without it, you're managing orders in one system and production in another (or worse, in spreadsheets).

The link should work both ways: see which production batch fulfills which customer order, and see which customer orders a production run covers.

Material Availability Check

Before confirming an order or setting a delivery date, you need to know: do we have the materials to make this? Good manufacturing order software checks your raw material inventory against the recipe or bill of materials and flags shortages.

This prevents promising delivery dates you can't meet because a key ingredient is out of stock.

Order Status Through Production

E-commerce order status is simple: processing, shipped, delivered. Manufacturing needs more granularity: materials reserved, in production, ready to ship, shipped. Order status software for manufacturers must track these production-specific stages.

Customers asking "where's my order?" deserve better answers than "processing." If it's currently being manufactured, that's useful information.

Delivery Date Calculation

If production takes 3 days and shipping takes 2 days, the earliest delivery is 5 days out. If materials need to be ordered first, add that lead time. Manufacturing order software should help calculate realistic delivery dates based on production capacity and material availability.

Batch and Lot Traceability

Which production batch fulfilled which customer order? If a customer reports a quality issue, can you trace back to the specific production run and ingredient lots?

For food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, this traceability isn't optional. It's required for compliance and essential for quality control.

Integration with Sales Channels

Many manufacturers sell through Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, or wholesale channels. Orders from these platforms need to flow into your production system without manual re-entry.

This is where manufacturing software often falls short. It handles production well but doesn't connect to sales channels. Or e-commerce platforms handle sales well but don't understand production.

How Manufacturing Order Management Works in Practice

Here's the complete flow for a make-to-order manufacturer:

Step 1: Customer places order. Through your website, a marketplace like Etsy, email, or phone. The order includes products, quantities, and requested delivery date.

Step 2: System checks inventory. Do you have finished goods in stock? If yes, skip to step 6. If not, continue.

Step 3: Check material availability. Based on your recipes or BOMs, do you have raw materials to produce the order? If not, flag what's missing so you can order from suppliers or adjust the delivery date.

Step 4: Create production order. Linked to the customer order, specifying what to make and how much. Materials are reserved.

Step 5: Produce and complete. Manufacturing happens. When the production order is completed, raw materials are consumed (deducted from inventory) and finished goods are added.

Step 6: Allocate to customer order. Finished goods are assigned to the customer order, changing status to "ready to ship."

Step 7: Create shipment. Pack the order, generate shipping labels, update inventory, notify customer with order tracking information.

Krafte handles this entire workflow for batch manufacturers. Customer orders connect directly to production orders. When you complete production, materials are consumed automatically based on your recipes, and finished goods are added to inventory ready for shipment. The system tracks which production batches fulfill which customer orders, giving you complete traceability.

Krafte is also adding Shopify and Etsy integrations, so batch manufacturers can take orders through these channels while managing production, inventory, and fulfillment in one place. Sell where your customers are, produce with proper tracking, ship with confidence.

Types of Order Management Software

Different tools serve different business models:

E-commerce Platforms with Built-in OMS

Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and similar platforms include basic order management. Orders come in, you fulfill them, they ship. Works well for retailers with existing inventory. Retail OMS like this handles the full order and delivery management system for resellers.

Limitations for manufacturers: no production connection, no material tracking, no manufacturing workflows.

Standalone E-commerce OMS

Add multichannel sync, warehouse management, and advanced fulfillment features on top of e-commerce platforms.

Still focused on pick/pack/ship workflows. Better for retailers managing multiple sales channels and warehouses, not for manufacturers.

Enterprise ERP with Order Management

SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics include comprehensive order management as part of broader ERP. They can handle manufacturing workflows and order processing together. Most offer cloud based order management system options now.

The tradeoff: complexity and cost. Implementation runs $50,000-$500,000+ and takes months. For small-to-medium manufacturers, this is usually overkill.

Manufacturing Software with Order Management

Software designed for production that also handles customer orders and shipments. This category includes tools for discrete manufacturing (assembly) and batch/process manufacturing (mixing, formulating). Many offer automated order management system features that connect orders to production.

For batch manufacturers making food, cosmetics, paints, chemicals, or similar products, Krafte fits here. It combines recipes, raw material tracking, production orders, customer orders, and shipments in one system designed for how batch producers actually work.

Wholesale and Distribution OMS

Focused on B2B sales: customer tiers, volume pricing, credit management, bulk shipments. Less relevant for manufacturers unless you're also distributing third-party products.

Software Comparison

Best Order Management Approach for Manufacturers

Rather than listing products, here's how to think about the decision:

If You're a Small Batch Manufacturer (under 50 employees)

You probably don't need enterprise ERP. The implementation cost and complexity aren't justified. OMS for small business should be simple to set up and affordable to run.

What you need: software that handles recipes/BOMs, production orders, raw material inventory, customer orders, and shipments. Everything connected so orders flow to production automatically. Small business order management doesn't require enterprise features.

Krafte is built specifically for this. Recipes define your products with ingredients and quantities. Production orders consume materials and create finished goods. Customer orders track what's sold and what needs to ship. Shipments deduct inventory and can notify customers.

Pricing starts at €7/month for small operations, scaling to €47/month for larger teams. No implementation project, no consultants required. You can be running in days.

With upcoming Shopify and Etsy integrations, you'll be able to sync orders from these sales channels directly into your production workflow.

If You're a Larger or More Complex Operation

If you have 100+ employees, multiple facilities, complex financial requirements, or need advanced features like MRP calculations and capacity planning, enterprise ERP may be justified. SAP Business One, Oracle NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics are established options.

Expect significant investment in implementation and ongoing management. Make sure the ROI justifies the cost.

If You're Primarily Retail/E-commerce (Not Manufacturing)

If you buy finished products and resell them, standard e-commerce order management works fine. Shopify's built-in tools handle multichannel sync and fulfillment well.

You don't need manufacturing software if you're not manufacturing.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using e-commerce tools for manufacturing. Shopify is great for selling. It doesn't manage production. Trying to force manufacturing workflows into retail software creates manual workarounds and errors.

Choosing based on sales channel integrations alone. Yes, you need orders from Shopify or Etsy to reach your production system. But the production system itself matters more. Pick software that handles manufacturing well, then verify it integrates (or will integrate) with your sales channels.

Overbuying enterprise software. SAP is powerful. It's also expensive and complex. A 20-person cosmetics company doesn't need the same system as a multinational corporation. Match software to your actual scale.

Ignoring the order-to-production connection. If customer orders and production orders live in separate systems with no link, you lose traceability, create manual work, and introduce errors. This connection is the whole point for manufacturers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best order management software?

It depends on your business type. For e-commerce retailers, the best e-commerce OMS options focus on multichannel sync and fast fulfillment. For manufacturers, the best order management system connects orders to production. For small batch producers, Krafte offers simple OMS that handles the full make-to-order workflow.

What is order management software?

OMS tracks orders from receipt to delivery. It records what customers ordered, monitors fulfillment status, and coordinates shipping. For manufacturers, it should also connect orders to production so you can make products before shipping them.

What's the difference between OMS and inventory software?

Inventory software tracks what you have in stock. Order management tracks what customers want and coordinates getting it to them. Manufacturing software often combines both, adding production workflows that transform raw materials into finished goods that fulfill orders.

Do manufacturers need special order management software?

If you make products to order (or make to stock and replenish based on orders), yes. Standard e-commerce OMS assumes products exist and focuses on fulfillment. Manufacturing order management adds the production step: checking materials, creating production orders, tracking status through manufacturing.

How much does order management software cost?

Ranges widely. E-commerce platforms include basic OMS free or cheap. Standalone e-commerce OMS runs $100-500/month. Manufacturing software for small businesses like Krafte runs €7-47/month. Enterprise ERP costs $1,000-10,000+/month plus implementation fees.

Can I use Shopify for manufacturing orders?

Shopify handles sales beautifully but doesn't manage production. Manufacturers often pair Shopify with production software that handles the make-to-order workflow. Krafte is adding Shopify integration so you can sell through Shopify while managing production, materials, and fulfillment properly.

Tags: Inventory Management, Warehouse Management, Small Business