Why Recipes Get Lost Between Lab and Bulk
Labs do excellent work developing new shades, but if recipes are not stored systematically the plant ends up running with approximations. Bolto ERP gives you a common platform where every approved recipe and shade is captured with full history. The disconnect between lab development and bulk production is one of the most common and costly problems in textile process houses. Lab technicians spend days or weeks developing the perfect shade, testing different chemical combinations, adjusting MLR ratios, and fine-tuning parameters until they achieve the exact color and quality the buyer wants. This recipe, once approved, becomes valuable intellectual property. However, if this recipe isn't properly documented and stored, it's essentially lost. When bulk production needs to run the same shade, operators often work from memory, approximations, or incomplete notes. The result is shade variations, reprocessing, and customer complaints. This is why proper process house automation requires systematic recipe management. Even when recipes are documented, they're often stored in Excel files, notebooks, or paper files that are difficult to search and prone to loss. There's no version control, so if a recipe is modified, the original is lost. There's no approval workflow, so it's unclear which version is the approved one. There's no link between lab recipes and bulk production, so operators have to manually re-enter data, introducing errors. The problem is compounded when recipes need to be adjusted for different batch sizes, different machines, or different fabric constructions. Without a systematic approach, each adjustment becomes a new recipe, and the relationship to the original is lost. Bolto ERP solves this by creating a centralized recipe repository where every recipe is stored with complete details, approval history, and links to production batches. This ensures that approved recipes are always available, properly versioned, and easily accessible when needed.
Structuring Your Recipe Masters in Bolto ERP
We recommend maintaining separate masters for lab recipes, bulk recipes and customer‑specific variants. Each record captures fibre, construction, MLR, chemicals and parameters. Effective recipe management requires a structured approach that reflects how recipes actually evolve and are used in a process house. Bolto ERP supports a hierarchical recipe structure that starts with lab recipes and progresses through bulk recipes to customer-specific variants. Lab recipes are the foundation – these are the initial formulations developed in the lab to achieve a target shade. They capture all the experimental details – which chemicals were tried, what concentrations were tested, what results were achieved. These recipes are stored with complete test data, including color measurements, fastness properties, and quality parameters. Once a lab recipe is approved by the buyer, it becomes a master recipe that can be used as a starting point for bulk production. Bulk recipes are derived from lab recipes but adjusted for production realities. They account for machine-specific requirements, batch size considerations, and production constraints. The system maintains the link between lab and bulk recipes, so you can always trace back to the original development work. Customer-specific variants are further refinements – the same base recipe might need adjustments for different customers who have slightly different quality standards or shade tolerances. The system tracks all these relationships, so you can see the complete evolution of a recipe from lab to production to customer-specific implementation. Each recipe record captures comprehensive details – fibre type, fabric construction, GSM, shade code, MLR ratio, chemical list with concentrations, process parameters like temperature and time, and quality specifications. This structured approach ensures that recipes are complete, searchable, and reusable, transforming recipe management from a burden into a competitive advantage.
From Lab to Production – Without Manual Re‑Entry
Once a shade is approved, the same recipe is promoted to the production module. Supervisors simply pick the recipe and batch size; the system calculates requirement automatically. The traditional workflow of manually transferring recipe data from lab to production is not just time-consuming – it's error-prone and creates opportunities for inconsistencies. When a lab recipe is approved, someone typically has to re-enter all the chemical details, concentrations, and parameters into the production system or onto production sheets. This manual re-entry introduces errors – decimal points might be misplaced, chemical names might be abbreviated differently, or entire ingredients might be missed. Even when done carefully, the process is slow and delays production start. Bolto ERP eliminates this problem through seamless integration between lab and production modules. When a lab recipe is approved, it can be promoted to production with a single click. All the recipe details – chemical list, concentrations, MLR ratio, process parameters – are automatically available in the production module. Supervisors don't need to re-enter anything – they simply select the approved recipe and specify the batch size. The system automatically calculates material requirements based on the recipe and batch size. It considers the MLR ratio, pick-up percentage, and any batch-specific adjustments to determine exactly how much of each chemical is needed. This calculation is accurate and consistent, eliminating guesswork and reducing waste. The system also generates material issue slips automatically, so the store can prepare materials in advance. During production, operators can access the recipe details on their devices, ensuring they follow the exact specifications. Any deviations or adjustments are recorded, creating a complete production history. This seamless flow from lab to production ensures consistency, reduces errors, speeds up production start, and maintains complete traceability of recipe usage.
