How a 15-Year Alberta Manufacturer Modernized Operations and Achieved 99% Delivery Rate
Pine Hill Manufacturing is a precision metal fabrication company based in the Red Deer area of Alberta, Canada. With over 15 years of industry expertise, Pine Hill specializes in high-precision laser cutting, press brake bending, tube laser cutting, and custom metal fabrication. The company serves clients across Alberta and has completed more than 1,000 projects.
Pine Hill works with a variety of raw materials, including steel, aluminum, HSS, and RD tubes, channels, angles, W-beams, and pipes. Their production relies on advanced Trumpf machinery, including the Trumpf Trulaser 3060, Trumpf Trubend 5320, and Trumpf Bend Cell 5000, to deliver precision components to a diverse industrial customer base.
The Challenge
As a job-shop manufacturer handling complex, multi-stage production workflows, Pine Hill faced a critical operational bottleneck. There was no reliable way to track the status of any given sales order at any point in the production process.
Before partnering with Master Software Solutions, Pine Hill’s operations were managed across a fragmented set of disconnected tools:
- Excel spreadsheets for general tracking and order management
- A paperless software system for quotations
- Trumpf nesting software for cutting optimization
- QuickBooks for accounting
This patchwork of tools created significant blind spots. With metal fabrication involving multiple production stages, such as quoting, nesting, cutting, bending, and delivery, the absence of an integrated system made it nearly impossible to answer basic but critical questions:
- Which stage is a sales order in?
- When will it be completed?
- Will delivery commitments be met?
The lack of real-time order visibility was not just an operational inconvenience; it was a risk to Pine Hill’s core promise of on-time delivery.
The Solution: Odoo ERP Implementation
Master Software Solutions implemented Odoo ERP as a unified platform to bring Pine Hill’s entire operation, from quotation to delivery, under a single, integrated system.
Intelligent Nesting & Batch Management
One of the most impactful changes was automating Pine Hill’s nesting process through Odoo.
Previously, nesting required manual coordination between the Trumpf software and order management. With Odoo, the system now automatically creates batches and sub-batches for cutting jobs, intelligently organized based on the following:
- Delivery dates: prioritizing orders due soonest
- Product type: grouping compatible parts together
- Material thickness: optimizing sheet usage
- Material type: separating steel, aluminum, and other metals
This automated batching not only maximizes material efficiency but also directly enables real-time sales order tracking. Each batch and sub-batch is tied back to specific sales orders, giving the team instant visibility into production progress.
End-to-End Sales Order Visibility
Odoo’s integrated manufacturing and inventory modules allow Pine Hill’s team to see exactly where each sales order stands across every production stage, from nesting and cutting through bending, finishing, and shipping. This replaced the guesswork previously caused by disconnected systems.
- Delivery dates: prioritizing orders due soonest
- Product type: grouping compatible parts together
- Material thickness: optimizing sheet usage
- Material type: separating steel, aluminum, and other metals
This automated batching not only maximizes material efficiency but also directly enables real-time sales order tracking; each batch and sub-batch is tied back to specific sales orders, giving the team instant visibility into production progress.
Unified Operations Platform
The implementation consolidated Pine Hill’s previously siloed tools into a single cohesive system, integrating quotation, production planning, manufacturing execution, and delivery tracking within Odoo.
Business Impact
The Odoo implementation by Master Software Solutions delivered measurable, meaningful improvements to Pine Hill’s day-to-day operations:
- Order Tracking: Real-time visibility into each sales order’s production stage eliminated guesswork and reduced internal status-check overhead.
- On-Time Delivery: Automated batch scheduling based on delivery dates ensures production is sequenced to meet customer commitments, reinforcing Pine Hill’s 99% on-time delivery standard.
- Nesting Efficiency: Intelligent auto-batching by material, thickness, and product type reduces material waste and manual planning effort in the cutting process.
- Operational Clarity: A single integrated platform replaced multiple disconnected tools, giving management a unified view of orders, production, and delivery in one place.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Improved
About Master Software Solutions
Master Software Solutions is a specialized Odoo implementation partner helping manufacturing, distribution, and service businesses streamline their operations through tailored ERP solutions. From initial process analysis through go-live and ongoing support, Master Software Solutions ensures businesses get maximum value from their Odoo investment.
If you are looking to implement Odoo ERP into your business, connect with our certified Odoo experts to discuss the implementation scope. Book a Consultation Now!
