Inventree Appreciation Post
I have no incentive whatsoever to put this out there, just wanted to share in case others are unaware of this solution. I've been looking for something to handle part data, BOMs, inventory, etc. that didn't cost an arm and a leg and require hiring a team of consultants to set up and manage. I came across Inventree and I'm immediately wondering where this has been all my life. Maybe lots of folks here are familiar with it already but in case you're not, Inventree is a free open-source inventory management system. It feels like something between an ERP/MRP and a PLM system. It has some but not all of the features from either side of that coin. But for the low price of $0, it's impressively capable, even when compared against something like Agile PLM.
Super easy to set up:
I'm an embedded electronics guy and I suck at server/Linux admin type stuff. I was able to get the server up and running on a Raspberry Pi in an evening with the documentation provided. Another evening I was able to import all of my part, assembly, and supplier data.
Nice features:
- Pictures for each item. I honestly wish this existed in enterprise-class PLM systems, makes it so much easier for people to see what's going on with each part.
- Attachments: being able to attach source files (think STEP/drawing for mechanical parts, Gerbers for PCBs, etc.) is super nice. While this is common in PLM systems, I know this is not always the case for ERPs, so this is actually pretty helpful for purchasing. Also when you're a super small team, this gives you one place to put the released files for a design, rather than having them randomly littered across a Google Drive.
- Intuitive interface. I barely even read any of the docs about how to import data, set up categories, create build orders, etc. It just kind of makes sense.
There's a whole host of additional features I haven't explored yet, but given that we're basically a 2.5 person operation at this point, we've got everything we need for now. I worked for another startup a few years ago and I desperately wished we had used this instead of the Google Drive mess we worked with. Anyway, hope this is helpful to someone out there. I wished someone had told me about this long ago. I'm sure it has it's limitations, but I've found it to be way cleaner than spreadsheets and cloud folders.