Savonneries Bruxelloises
A centralized manufacturing ERP empowering traditional soap production at industrial scale
Logistic & Warehouse Invoicing Production Sales Inventory Manufacturing Traceability
Founded in Brussels in 1926, Savonneries Bruxelloises is a historic soap factory specializing in artisanal soaps of high quality. Supplier to the Royal Court of Belgium, the company produces nearly 1 million soaps per year, exporting 70% of its production to 26 countries, and manufactures for major cosmetics brands. A catalogue of more than 10,000 references and a demanding artisanal production method make this company a true B2B player where precision and traceability are part of everyday operations.
Challenge
Transform artisanal expertise into the tools of an industrial organization.
4 Key objectives to reach
- Fine traceability for each product batch, required by premium clients, brands in private label, and export markets.
- A precise artisanal production to preserve, in a paper-based catalogue of 10,000 references classified by place and recipe.
- A fragmented flow between sales, CRM, and production processes, creating significant difficulties in forecasting and monitoring.
- A platform ready to support future growth stages: new markets, new clients, new production lines.
Solutions
Before configuring anything, the Eezee team spent time in the workshop, in the offices, with production managers. The goal: understand the business in detail before implementing Odoo: a structured deployment in two phases, first digitizing what brings the most value to daily operations.
1Production, inventory, quotations and sales unified in Odoo
Rather than tackling all areas at once, the project started with the processes most present in the daily work of the production manager: manufacturing, procurement, inventory management, invoicing, quotations. The Excel files that used to communicate with each other were replaced by a single platform, shared between the workshop, office staff, and sales teams.
2A native production sheet designed for operators
The production sheet at Savonneries Bruxelloises is not an administrative document: it is the tool operators use throughout the day. Reproducing the exact business logic in Odoo, with recipes, formulations, and workshop instructions, required targeted development. This was one of the rare cases where customization was necessary and exactly why it was done.
3Data governed before migration
Before the first import, a real clean-up of reference data was carried out: clarified raw material nomenclature, structured customer database, unified suppliers. The logic: data is not migrated just because it exists it is fixed first. As a result, Odoo starts from solid foundations, and every new entry fits into a coherent framework.
Result
Centralized operations
& increased
manufacturing productivity
Smoother production, stronger expertise
Preparing an order used to require multiple Excel files, paper documents, and a great deal of manual re-entry. It is now a continuous flow, in which the workshop, the office, and quality control all share the same information at the same moment. Teams have gained visibility, reliability, and time to focus on what truly matters: product quality.
Beyond day-to-day operations, Savonneries Bruxelloises now has a platform ready to support its growth. What goes through production today can double tomorrow, without starting from a blank page.
- Fewer manual steps, fewer errors in order preparation
- Immediate traceability on every batch, a commercial asset for export and private label
- Real-time visibility on stock, production, and customer commitments
- A scalable platform, built for what comes next
A production sheet connected to the entire chain
The Savonneries production document brings together recipe, batch, packaging, and workshop instructions. It is the tool operators have in hand throughout the day. In a workshop where operators are constantly working with their hands, entering data on a tablet or computer was not an option. The paper sheet therefore remains as output, automatically generated by Odoo, while everything around it goes digital.
- An enriched Odoo Bill of Materials (BoM) carries the formulation, mould type, packaging, and labels specific to each reference. The paper sheet handed to operators is generated from this data, with the layout they have known for years.
- The batch number is created upstream, at the time of the manufacturing order, to match the Savonneries process where the batch is communicated to the client before production.
- Production, raw material consumption, and the link to quality are updated automatically, with no re-entry needed on the production manager's side.
- The packaging sheet is generated in parallel, from the same data, and automatically pulls in the client, batch, colour, pallets, and packaging instructions.
A pricing calculation that reflects reality and protects the margin
Calculating the price of an artisanal soap requires crossing a significant number of parameters: raw material costs, machine throughput, number of colours, base type, packaging, client-specific margins. This logic lived in a manually maintained Excel file, where each manual adjustment exposed the company to pricing errors. It is now integrated into Odoo.
- The sales representative gets an accurate price in a few clicks, based on the reference, weight, number of colours, and quantity. No more dependency on an Excel file maintained by a single person.
- Raw material prices are pulled in real time from the Odoo inventory. When a fragrance or a base moves at the supplier's end, quotes follow automatically.
- Production parameters (throughput by base type, cleaning costs between colours, client-specific margins) automatically impact the unit price and profitability of each order.
- Quote, order, production, and invoice are linked in the same chain. The margin actually generated per order becomes visible in real time, not only at month-end closing.
Controlled data, stock managed in real time
Migrating an Excel file into an ERP without touching the content means reproducing its problems in a new tool. The project therefore began with work that is rarely visible but decisive: structuring reference data before migrating it, and equipping the workshop so that stock movements happen in real time, without manual entry.
- A clear naming convention for each raw material, each product, each client, replacing historical identifiers that had become unreadable. A solid foundation for future catalogue developments.
- Warehouse flows are managed from Odoo: receipts, internal movements, order preparation, shipments. Every step leaves a trace, without depending on an up-to-date Excel sheet.
- Barcode scanning in the workshop and at goods receipt speeds up operations and improves inventory accuracy. A raw material coming in, a product going out, an order leaving: every movement is tracked without re-entry.
- Quality checks on raw materials (pH, fragrance compliance) are integrated into Odoo receipts. No more verbal validation or loose sheets: traceability begins from the moment goods enter stock.
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