Formulations, batches and paperwork that has legal force.
Early accessCubeERP for chemicals, coatings & formulated products
ERP for formulators and blenders - recipes, batch traceability, yields, hazardous stock and compliance documentation.
- Chemicals
- UK hosted, implemented on site
- 01234 672 617
Formulated products bring a particular set of problems: recipes that scale non-linearly, yields that vary by batch, raw materials with expiry and storage constraints, and documentation that is a legal requirement rather than a nicety.
CubeERP holds formulations with tolerances, captures actual quantities and yields per batch, enforces quarantine and release, and issues safety data sheets and certificates of analysis with the despatch rather than on request.
- Per batch
Actual yield against theoretical
- Enforced
Quarantine and positive release
- Automatic
SDS and CoA with every despatch
What goes wrong
The recurring problems in chemicals
Not every business has all five. Almost every business we speak to has three.
Formulations in a laboratory notebook
Recipes held outside the system mean production works from a copy. Reformulation and version control happen informally and inconsistently.
Yield variance absorbed into standard cost
Actual output differs from theory batch by batch. Without capture, the difference disappears into cost of sales and the cause is never found.
Raw materials with expiry and storage rules
Temperature, segregation and shelf-life constraints managed by knowledge rather than system. Material gets used out of sequence and occasionally out of date.
Safety documentation issued manually
Safety data sheets and certificates of analysis retrieved and emailed on request. It is slow, it is inconsistent, and it is a compliance exposure.
Hazardous transport as an afterthought
Dangerous goods classification, packing and documentation handled at despatch from memory rather than driven by the product record.
What we do about it
How CubeERP is set up for chemicals
Configuration, not a separate edition. Everything here is in the same product - it is switched on and shaped during implementation.
Formulations with tolerances
Recipes held with versions, effectivity and permitted tolerances, scaling to batch size with actual quantities captured at issue.
Yield and variance per batch
Theoretical versus actual yield recorded for every batch, with variance reported by product, vessel and shift rather than averaged away.
Quarantine and release
Goods-in inspection, quarantine locations, test results and authorised positive release, with quarantined material unavailable for picking.
Batch genealogy
Full traceability from raw material lot through intermediate to finished batch and out to the customer, in both directions.
SDS and CoA with despatch
Safety data sheets and certificates of analysis issued automatically with the delivery, in the correct version for that batch.
Hazardous handling
Dangerous goods classification, segregation rules and transport documentation driven from the product record rather than assembled at the loading bay.
In practice
Two situations from this sector
Anonymised, but not invented. These are the situations businesses describe before they change anything.
Yield loss found after a year
The situation
A blender applied a standard yield and absorbed the difference. A gradual decline over a year was only spotted when gross margin was analysed by product.
What changed
Yield is captured per batch with variance reported weekly. A supplier material change was identified as the cause within a fortnight of the trend appearing.
Certificates issued on request
The situation
Certificates of analysis were produced manually when customers asked. Some requests took days, and version control depended on the person answering.
What changed
Certificates are generated from the batch test results and issued with the despatch automatically. Requests largely stopped, because the document arrived with the goods.
How it happens
What implementation involves
The same five stages whatever you make. Discovery, training and go-live are done on your site, because most of what the system needs to know is learned in the building.
- 1
Discovery
A structured session mapping how you work now - the systems, the spreadsheets and the bits held together by one person’s memory. We come back with what the platform covers as standard, what needs configuration, and what needs building.
- 2
Configuration
Your sites, warehouses, price lists, approval limits, document templates, workflows and permissions set up to match the business - not a demo tenant with your logo dropped on it.
- 3
Data migration
Customers, suppliers, parts, bills of materials, price lists, open orders and stock balances brought across and reconciled. We migrate, you check the numbers against the old system, and only then do we cut over.
- 4
Training & rollout
Role-based training so the order desk learns the order desk and the warehouse learns the warehouse, with a pilot group first where it makes sense. Documentation and short screen recordings left behind for new starters.
- 5
Ongoing support
UK support from the people who built the platform, with a named contact, agreed response times, and a product roadmap you can influence.
Questions
What this sector asks first
Yes. Intermediates are stocked and traced in their own right, with genealogy carried through each stage into the finished batch.
Yes, with density conversions, so material bought by weight, stocked in tanks and sold by volume reconciles correctly throughout.
Expiry dates are held per lot, first-expired-first-out is enforced at issue, and expired material cannot be used without an authorised concession.
Documentation is held against the product and issued with despatch, and composition data can be reported. It supports your compliance process; it does not constitute compliance advice.
Yes. Customer-specific and private-label recipes are held with their own versions and specifications, linked to the customer account.
Where to start
The parts that usually matter most here
Barcode & Traceability Software
Batch and serial traceability from goods-in to despatch, with certificates attached and a recall answered in minutes.
Read moreManufacturing Software
Bills of materials, works orders, routings, shop-floor booking and real job costing - for businesses that make things to order.
Read moreStock Control Software
Multi-location stock with bin locations, barcode scanning, batch and serial traceability, and figures that are right first time.
Read morePurchase Order Software
Requisitions, approval limits, purchase orders raised from real demand, goods-in booking and three-way matching.
Read more
Related
Sectors with similar problems
- Food & Drink ManufacturingERP for food and drink manufacturers - batch traceability, shelf life, allergens, yields and recall readiness that survives an audit.
- Plastics & Rubber MouldingERP for moulders and extruders - tooling, cycle times, cavity counts, regrind and machine data from the shop floor.
- Print & PackagingERP for printers and packaging converters - estimating that reflects make-ready, substrate stock, artwork approval and waste that is measured.
If your process really is unusual
Some requirements are specific to one business rather than one sector. Those get built against the same documented API everybody else uses - not bolted on to the side of a database nobody is allowed to look at.
Chemicals
Show us a real job from your chemicals operation
Bring one order that went wrong and the paperwork that went with it. That tells us more about whether this fits than any list of features.