Sails East Manufacturing

Company Profile

Sails East Manufacturing Company Limited is a heritage manufacturer based in Dongguan City, China, specializing in the production of sails for cruising, dinghy, windsurfing, and related marine applications. Since 1960, the company has been crafting Dacron cruising sails and expanding globally with a catalog that includes over 100 sail designs, Pentax cruising laminate options, and advanced windsurfing technologies.

• Industry: Marine equipment manufacturing
• Size: ~100–150 employees
• Annual Revenue: Not disclosed
• ERP Hosting: Odoo Community (self-hosted)
• Specialty: Sail performance engineering with custom designs and materials

Challenges Faced

Prior to the Odoo implementation, the entire operation was run on Excel spreadsheets and localized file storage, which created a fragmented and manual workflow:

• No central system to coordinate production, sales, or procurement.
• High risk of human error due to manual data entry and file versioning issues.
• Difficulty scaling operations and production planning due to lack of visibility across departments.
• Inability to simultaneously process multiple sales orders into a coherent production and procurement plan.

Odoo Implementation

To address these challenges, the team rolled out Odoo Community to centralize key business functions:

• Modules Implemented: Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Manufacturing, Accounting, and Shipping
• Custom Development:
  • A custom Planning Sheet module was developed to analyze multiple sales orders in bulk. This allows the planning team to easily:
    • Consolidate required raw materials,
    • Identify which components need to be purchased, manufactured, or subcontracted,
    • Create a material summary report with action triggers for each item.
• File Management Upgrade:
  • Nextcloud was deployed alongside Odoo to replace local storage, allowing team-wide synchronization and version control of design files and documentation.

Business Benefits

Operational Efficiency

• Centralized system eliminated Excel-based workflows and enabled real-time data sharing across departments.
• Sales orders and manufacturing planning are now tightly linked, reducing planning cycle time significantly.

Improved Planning Accuracy

• The Planning Sheet module provides actionable insights for procurement and production in a single view.
• Parallel processing of sales orders became seamless, enabling better resource utilization and smoother manufacturing scheduling.

Collaboration and Transparency

• With Nextcloud integrated, employees no longer waste time searching for the latest file versions.
• Increased traceability across orders, stock levels, and accounting led to better decision-making at all levels.