Six challenges that keep fabricators up at night
Most shops we talk to are not short on skill or orders. They are short on visibility. The work gets done, but the information behind it is scattered across spreadsheets, inboxes and people's heads.
- Quotes that take too long, with margins you can't trust. Material, labour and machine time are estimated by hand. Quotes go out late, and you only find out after delivery whether the job made money.
- A shop floor nobody sees in real time. Which job is on which machine, what is late, what is waiting for material: the answer depends on who you ask, and when.
- Material that disappears on paper. Sheet, bar and tube stock move fast. Inventory counts drift, scrap goes unrecorded, and purchasing reacts instead of planning.
- Traceability done by hand. Heat numbers, inspections and certificates are pulled together manually every time a customer or an auditor asks.
- Downtime that breaks the schedule. Maintenance lives on paper or in a separate tool, so one breakdown ripples through the whole week.
- Growth that outpaces your systems. More orders mean more admin, more re-entry and more errors, at a time when skilled people are already hard to find.
If a few of these sound familiar, you are in good company. They are exactly the topics we want to discuss in Las Vegas.
What these problems have in common
Look closely and the six challenges share one root cause: disconnected data.
Sales quotes in one tool. Production planned in a spreadsheet. Inventory in another file. Quality records in binders. Invoicing in accounting software. Every handover between those systems is a moment where information is re-typed, delayed or lost.
Adding another tool rarely helps. It just adds another island. What fabricators need is one system where a signed quote, a work order, a material lot, a quality check and an invoice are all part of the same story.
That is the job of an ERP for manufacturing. Making it work on a real shop floor is what we do.
What we will show at our booth
The Captivea USA team will walk you through how Odoo ERP connects every step of a fabrication business in one system, from the first quote to the final invoice.
- Quote to cash, without re-entry. Sales, purchasing, manufacturing, inventory and accounting share one database. A signed quote can create the manufacturing order, reserve material and prepare the invoice.
- Manufacturing and shop floor. Bills of materials, routings, work centres and work orders, with a shop floor view operators can use on a tablet.
- Inventory and material tracking. Lots and serial numbers, stock by location, replenishment rules for sheet, bar and tube stock.
- Quality and traceability. Quality checks at each step, alerts when something fails, and a full history you can pull up in seconds.
- Maintenance. Preventive maintenance schedules and breakdown requests linked to the equipment and to the production plan.
- AI and automation. Automation rules, approval workflows and AI features that remove the repetitive work from your team's day
No generic demo. Tell us how your shop runs today, and we will show you what it could look like in Odoo.
Who should stop by
- Owners and general managers of job shops and contract manufacturers who want one view of the business.
- Plant and operations managers looking for real-time visibility on production, capacity and delays.
- CFOs and controllers who need accurate job costing and a faster month-end close.
- IT and digital transformation leads who are planning to replace ageing or disconnected systems.
Whether you are evaluating your first ERP or replacing one that no longer fits, the discussion starts with your processes, not with the software.
Practical information
FABTECH is North America’s largest event for metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing, with more than 31,000 industry leaders expected in Las Vegas. This year also features a new Artificial Intelligence for Manufacturing (AIM) Pavilion, a clear sign that AI for manufacturing is moving from the boardroom to the shop floor.
- Dates: Wednesday, 21 October to Friday, 23 October 2026.
- Show hours: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Wednesday and Thursday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Friday.
- Venue: Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV 89109.
- Captivea booth: Booth #C7603.
- Link to Fabtech: fabtechexpo.com
Show days move quickly. The best way to make sure we have time for you is to book a slot before the event.
Reserve a 20-minute conversation with our Odoo experts during the show. Bring one process that slows your shop down.
We will tell you clearly how Odoo would handle it, and what it would take to get there. Captivea is an Odoo Gold Partner with more than 800+ Odoo projects delivered over 18+ years.