For many businesses in the United States, manufacturing a product in the country is simply too expensive. A lot of these companies instead decide to work with a contract manufacturing expert to help them produce their products in another country. While many businesses choose to “offshore” their manufacturing to an overseas location, another appealing option exists: “nearshoring.” Nearshoring means that the other country that the company is choosing to outsource its manufacturing to is near its home country– for example, an American company having its goods manufactured in Mexico. This is exactly the service that Coastline International provides.
Coastline International, founded in 1982, is a contract manufacturing company that helps U.S.-based businesses nearshore manufacture their products in Tijuana, Mexico. The company’s corporate headquarters is based in San Diego, and the manufacturing side of the business takes place in Tijuana with close to 250 employees at that location. Specializing primarily in the manufacturing of medical devices - with over 70% of its business being in this industry - Coastline International needed an ERP that could handle their workflows that spanned across country borders. Odoo, it turns out, was the best fit.
Stuck in the past: Coastline’s old-school system
Prior to using Odoo, from the founding of the company until around the year 2010, Coastline International utilized pen and paper, Excel, Quickbooks, and some custom code to manage its business. Bryan Blessing, VP of Operations at Coastline International, explains that the company was, from an IT standpoint, structurally based in the ‘90s. When Bryan joined the company in 2016, he recognized almost immediately that something had to change:
From Day 1 of my joining the company, I could tell right away we needed to modernize our system and become more efficient to improve profitability and maintain competitive pricing for our customers.
Bryan notes that the company had employees translating things from one system to the next, wasting valuable time and manpower simply to organize and track data. Coastline struggled with information not only not being readily available but also being inaccurate due to its old multi-platform system.
Bryan began researching alternative ERP solutions, looking at and receiving quotes for “countless” options. The company didn’t have the budget for more expensive options such as SAP but needed business software that could handle its complex business operations. Coastline International has two companies using two different currencies, with an enormous amount of inventory to manage. Bryan explains that since medical devices are the primary type of goods the business manufactures, it requires a higher level of documentation and complex workflows than the average company. This played a huge role in Bryan’s search for an ERP:
We needed a complex solution at an affordable price.
After extensive research and evaluating all of the options available, Bryan and his team decided that Odoo was the best solution to Coastline’s very specific needs.
Modern manufacturing: the Odoo upgrade
Coastline International went live with Odoo around the start of 2022. Bryan says that while software implementations always have their ups and downs, getting set up with Odoo went as planned. The company started off with a fairly basic database, which Bryan says was already a huge improvement from the previous system. As time has gone on, the company has continued to expand its use of Odoo and this year, is working on adding more Odoo modules to handle more complex workflows.
In a day-to-day sense, the “trifecta” of applications that have been most useful for Coastline as a manufacturing company have been Inventory, Purchase, and Accounting. Odoo’s database and integrated nature have been especially impactful in handling a multi-company, multi-currency business and related information. When asked to reflect on how Odoo has helped Coastline International’s business as a whole, Bryan says:
Accuracy, readiness, and availability of information. We’re tracking more information… the list would be long. Odoo is a professional ERP solution that completely meets the needs of our relatively complex organization. Odoo should be proud. It’s not easy to do.
As Coastline International continues to help American companies manufacture their products at an affordable price point with the utmost quality, Odoo works to serve Coastline in the exact same manner.
Location/Region: San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico
Industry: Contract Manufacturing
Apps implemented: CRM, Sales, Accounting, Project, Timesheets, Purchase, Inventory, Manufacturing, Quality, Sign, Maintenance, Employees, Consolidation, Studio
Software Replaced: Quickbooks, Excel, and manual
Number of users: 43
Company size: 250
Hosting type: Odoo.sh
For many businesses in the United States, manufacturing a product in the country is simply too expensive. A lot of these companies instead decide to work with a contract manufacturing expert to help them produce their products in another country. While many businesses choose to “offshore” their manufacturing to an overseas location, another appealing option exists: “nearshoring.” Nearshoring means that the other country that the company is choosing to outsource its manufacturing to is near its home country– for example, an American company having its goods manufactured in Mexico. This is exactly the service that Coastline International provides.
Coastline International, founded in 1982, is a contract manufacturing company that helps U.S.-based businesses nearshore manufacture their products in Tijuana, Mexico. The company’s corporate headquarters is based in San Diego, and the manufacturing side of the business takes place in Tijuana with close to 250 employees at that location. Specializing primarily in the manufacturing of medical devices - with over 70% of its business being in this industry - Coastline International needed an ERP that could handle their workflows that spanned across country borders. Odoo, it turns out, was the best fit.
Stuck in the past: Coastline’s old-school system
Prior to using Odoo, from the founding of the company until around the year 2010, Coastline International utilized pen and paper, Excel, Quickbooks, and some custom code to manage its business. Bryan Blessing, VP of Operations at Coastline International, explains that the company was, from an IT standpoint, structurally based in the ‘90s. When Bryan joined the company in 2016, he recognized almost immediately that something had to change:
Bryan notes that the company had employees translating things from one system to the next, wasting valuable time and manpower simply to organize and track data. Coastline struggled with information not only not being readily available but also being inaccurate due to its old multi-platform system.
Bryan began researching alternative ERP solutions, looking at and receiving quotes for “countless” options. The company didn’t have the budget for more expensive options such as SAP but needed business software that could handle its complex business operations. Coastline International has two companies using two different currencies, with an enormous amount of inventory to manage. Bryan explains that since medical devices are the primary type of goods the business manufactures, it requires a higher level of documentation and complex workflows than the average company. This played a huge role in Bryan’s search for an ERP:
After extensive research and evaluating all of the options available, Bryan and his team decided that Odoo was the best solution to Coastline’s very specific needs.
Modern manufacturing: the Odoo upgrade
Coastline International went live with Odoo around the start of 2022. Bryan says that while software implementations always have their ups and downs, getting set up with Odoo went as planned. The company started off with a fairly basic database, which Bryan says was already a huge improvement from the previous system. As time has gone on, the company has continued to expand its use of Odoo and this year, is working on adding more Odoo modules to handle more complex workflows.
In a day-to-day sense, the “trifecta” of applications that have been most useful for Coastline as a manufacturing company have been Inventory, Purchase, and Accounting. Odoo’s database and integrated nature have been especially impactful in handling a multi-company, multi-currency business and related information. When asked to reflect on how Odoo has helped Coastline International’s business as a whole, Bryan says:
As Coastline International continues to help American companies manufacture their products at an affordable price point with the utmost quality, Odoo works to serve Coastline in the exact same manner.
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