What ETO project management software is
Engineer-to-order (ETO) project management software treats each bespoke customer order as a project — not as a catalogue run. Because an engineered order is uniquely designed and built, it has no standard bill of materials to copy from, so it is authored as an order-based Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of tasks, scheduled on a Gantt with dependencies, resourced with a per-task Bill of Resources of material, labour and machine priced from a resource master, costed estimated-versus-actual against a budget, and billed by milestone or by resource. It sits alongside standard production so a mixed shop runs both catalogue work orders and one-off ETO projects on the same masters.
For the underlying lifecycle read the pillar guide, what is project management software. This page is the ETO-specific view, and it is the thinking behind the engineer-to-order & custom manufacturing software product.
Why a custom order has no BOM to fall back on
The whole difficulty of ETO is that nothing is standard, and that has three consequences a system has to answer.
1. The plan does not exist until you author it
Repetitive manufacturing leans on a master BOM and a fixed routing. An engineered order is bespoke by definition — its scope, its task list and its resource plan are unique. If the plan is not written down explicitly as a WBS and a costed Bill of Resources, it does not exist in any form the shop can schedule, cost or bill against.
2. The quoted budget is a promise you have to protect
An ETO order is won at a quoted price, but the cost is discovered while building it. Unless material issued and hours booked post against the same tasks the estimate was built on, the gap between quote and cost opens quietly and the margin is gone before dispatch.
3. Design change ripples through the whole order
Because the customer is buying something new, design changes mid-build. When the WBS, the Bill of Resources and the schedule are one linked structure, a change re-flows the dependent tasks and re-prices the affected resources instead of being patched across disconnected sheets.
The order-based Work Breakdown Structure
ETO is the natural home of the order-based WBS: a whole customer order treated as one project, broken into the tasks that fulfil it. A serious tool lets you author whichever breakdown fits the order.
By assembly
Decomposed by the physical assemblies and sub-assemblies being built, so each can be designed, scheduled, resourced and costed in its own right.
Deliverable-basedBy stage
Design, procurement, fabrication, assembly, testing and dispatch — the WBS mirrors the way an engineered build actually moves and bills.
Phase-basedBy order
The whole customer order as one project — the natural shape for a job that differs every time and must be costed and billed as a single deliverable.
Order-basedEach task carries an owner, an assigned user, priority, dates, a budget, a progress percentage and its predecessor dependencies — design before cutting, cutting before welding, assembly before testing. Those dependencies turn a task list into a schedule, so a slip in design re-flows the whole build. See the pillar's WBS versus a task list section and the WBS, tasks & dependencies feature.
Project costing: estimated versus actual
ETO costing is where the money is made or lost, and it hangs off the Bill of Resources. Each task carries a header for its quantity and unit, its processes, and the resource lines — every line a material, labour or machine item with a quantity and a rate drawn from the resource master.
| Aspect | Standard BOM product | Engineer-to-order |
|---|---|---|
| Cost known | In advance, from the BOM | Only once the BOR is authored |
| Structure | Fixed bill of materials + routing | Per-task Bill of Resources, built per order |
| Design | Frozen catalogue design | New each time; changes mid-build |
| Cost discipline | Variance to a standard | Estimated vs actual per order |
| Billing | On dispatch | By milestone, resource or whole project |
Cost estimation rolls each task's lines (quantity × rate) up to an estimated task cost, and up again to an estimated project cost, comparable against the quoted budget before the shop commits. As real material is issued from the store against a task and real machine and labour hours are booked, the same structure records the actual budget — so estimated-versus-actual is live per order and the next quote is informed by the last one. See the Bill of Resources & costing feature.
Quoting the next engineered order without knowing the last one's real cost?
We will show you a live ETO project — order WBS, per-task Bill of Resources and estimated-versus-actual costing — in 30 minutes, on your own order.
Running projects alongside standard production
Most engineered-order shops are not pure ETO — they run some repeating catalogue work too. Fast Project Management sits alongside Fast Production on the same platform and database, sharing one resource, item and party master. Repetitive manufacture runs as work orders against a bill of materials; one-off engineered orders run as projects with their own WBS and Bill of Resources. Because the task BOR mirrors the order/item BOR used by production, a mixed shop plans and costs both without re-keying, and a resource-wise Gantt shows how machines and crews are loaded across catalogue and project work together. See Fast Production for the standard-manufacturing side.
Milestone and resource billing
Because project bills are resource-itemised and keyed to tasks, an engineered order can be billed by milestone — design sign-off, fabrication complete, dispatch or commissioning — by resource consumed, or as the whole project. Each claim is built from the same tasks and resources the work was executed against, so it traces back to what was actually done. Where the order is a works contract, the GST treatment sits on the same bill and should be confirmed with your CA. See the pillar's milestone and progress billing section and the project & milestone billing feature.
One order, from quote to dispatch, fully costed
A custom manufacturer takes an order for a bespoke assembly to a customer's specification. It is opened as a project with the quoted budget and dates, then broken into an order-based WBS — design, material procurement, fabrication, assembly, testing, dispatch — with dependencies so fabrication waits on approved design. Each task carries a Bill of Resources: bought-out and raw material from the item master, machine and labour hours from the resource master, rolled up to an estimated cost checked against the quote. As material is issued and hours are booked against each task, the estimate becomes actual, and the order is billed by milestone — design sign-off, then dispatch. Because it all rides one engine, the shop closes the order knowing its true margin and quotes the next one better. This is the profile behind real deployments such as Micro India.
How Fast Project Management does it
Fast Project Management for engineer-to-order is a working implementation of everything above, built by Improsys in Pune on the shared Fast Suite platform and available cloud or on-premise.
Frequently asked questions
What is engineer-to-order (ETO) project management software?
Engineer-to-order project management software treats each bespoke customer order as a project rather than a catalogue run. Because an ETO order is uniquely designed and built, it has no standard bill of materials to fall back on, so it is authored as an order-based Work Breakdown Structure of tasks, scheduled on a Gantt with dependencies, resourced with a per-task Bill of Resources of material, labour and machine priced from a resource master, costed estimated-versus-actual against a budget, and billed by milestone or by resource. It sits alongside standard production so a mixed shop can run both catalogue work orders and one-off ETO projects on the same masters.
How is ETO project costing different from a standard BOM?
A standard product has a fixed bill of materials and a routing that rarely change, so its cost is largely known in advance. An ETO order is designed each time, so its cost has to be built from scratch as a Bill of Resources — the material, labour and machine each task will consume, priced from the resource master. That BOR rolls up to an estimated project cost compared against the quoted budget, and as real material is issued and real hours are booked, the same structure records the actual. ETO costing is therefore an ongoing estimated-versus-actual discipline, not a one-time BOM lookup.
Can an ETO shop run standard production and projects together?
Yes. Fast Project Management sits alongside Fast Production on the same platform and the same database, sharing one resource, item and party master. Repetitive catalogue manufacture runs as work orders against a bill of materials, while one-off engineered orders run as projects with their own WBS and Bill of Resources. Because both draw on the same masters, a mixed shop plans and costs both without re-keying, and a resource-wise Gantt shows how machines and crews are loaded across catalogue and project work together.
How does milestone billing work for an engineered order?
Because project bills are resource-itemised and keyed to tasks, an ETO order can be billed by milestone — for example design sign-off, fabrication complete and dispatch or commissioning — or by resource consumed, or as the whole project. Each claim is built from the same tasks and resources the work was planned and executed against, so it traces back to what was actually done. Where the order is a works contract, confirm the GST treatment with your CA.
Is it cloud or on-premise, and does it suit a small custom shop?
It is available both cloud and on-premise. It suits custom shops of most sizes because it scales from a single engineered order run as one project to a portfolio of concurrent orders on the Active, On-Hold and Completed tabs. Pricing is indicative in INR and should be confirmed for your user count and deployment.