Raw materials forecasting and buying

> Cost: Paid. Prediko starts at $49/month (Shopify billing, 14-day trial).

Honest note: this is planning software that does the arithmetic from your recipes and forecast. It isn't a chatbot. Prediko's case study gives three different versions of the gain ("75% less time and effort", "3x faster" and a quote about cutting it "by a quarter"), so don't rely on any one of them. The more solid takeaway is that 170+ raw materials sit in one place and production capacity, not materials, turned out to be the brand's real limit. Fixed batch sizes and shared components are the tricky part: check those suggestions by hand at first.

Prerequisites

• A Shopify store with your finished products and inventory tracking on.
• A spreadsheet of raw materials: name, unit, current stock, supplier, lead time, minimum order.
• The recipe for each finished product (which raw materials, how much per unit) and your usual batch size.

Step-by-step setup

Step 1. Install Prediko. Install it from the Shopify App Store, create your account and set your Stock Cover.

Step 2. Add suppliers. Go to Settings → Suppliers → Add Supplier (or Settings → Import). Enter each Lead Time and Supplier Minimum Order.

Step 3. Import raw materials. Go to Settings → Raw Materials & BOMs. Click Add Raw Material for a few, or Import for the full list. Set Units in Stock, Supplier and Lead Time for each.

Step 4. Link recipes to products. Choose Bill of Material → Add Bills of Materials, select the finished product and its SKUs, add each raw material and the quantity per unit, and enter the production days. Shared components (a pump or bottle used in many products) only need to exist once.

Step 5. Check the forecast. Open the Plan and check your best-sellers. Prediko turns the finished-goods forecast into raw material needs.

Step 6. Record each batch. On the Buy page, select the products you're about to make and Prediko creates a Production Order. Completing it uses up the raw materials. Shop sales don't do that on their own.

Step 7. Replace Slack requests with POs. Your production lead opens the Buy table for raw materials, ticks what's due, clicks Create draft order, checks the quantities against your batch sizes and sends it. Use the Tags column (for example "Batch 42") to group orders.

Easier: let your AI do it

Prediko has an official MCP server, so an AI chat can read your raw materials and plan and, with your OK, draft purchase orders. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors → Browse connectors, search Prediko and click Connect (or Add custom connector with https://mcp.prediko.io/mcp). ChatGPT needs a paid plan with developer mode (Settings → Advanced settings), then Settings → Connectors → Create. Ask: "What raw materials do I need for next month's production plan, and which suppliers do I order from?"

What success looks like

Nobody asks "do we have enough shea butter?" on Slack any more. Raw material orders go out as POs on time, and you can see when production capacity, not stock, is holding you back.

Common issues & fixes

• Raw materials never go down: production orders aren't being created or completed.
• Order quantities don't fit your batch size: Prediko suggests units; round to your batch or the supplier's pack size before sending.
• A shared component runs out unexpectedly: check it's linked in every recipe that uses it.

Optional: Maintenance

• Update recipes whenever a formula changes.
• Check supplier lead times every quarter.

Copy-paste prompt

I make [PRODUCT TYPE] in-house in batches of [SIZE]. Here are my recipes (raw material and quantity per unit) and next month's production plan: [PASTE].
1. Total up the raw materials I need for the month.
2. Compare that with my stock: [PASTE STOCK] and list what to order, rounded up to these pack sizes: [PASTE].
3. Flag any material that appears in more than three products, so I watch it closely.
Use only my numbers.

Sources

• Case: Prediko case study (clean beauty brand). Credit: the brand's production manager (vendor-published).
• Prediko Help: Quick start guide: raw materials
• Prediko Help: Creating a raw materials catalogue
• Prediko Help: Creating a Bill of Materials
• Prediko Help: How to create a production order
• Prediko Help: Adding tags to PO
• Prediko Help: Connect Prediko to AI agents
• Prediko pricing