Software for Manufacturers in Pakistan

Lahore factories just got a new power bill to plan around

In the first week of November 2026, Pakistan's power regulator raised the special electricity rate for extra industrial consumption from Rs22.98 to Rs25.30 per unit. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority split 2–2 on the decision, and its chairman used his casting vote to approve it, as reported by UA.NEWS citing Dawn. The same report said distribution companies may add a further Rs2.37 per unit to November bills through the monthly fuel cost adjustment.

If you run a factory in Kot Lakhpat, Sundar Industrial Estate or along Ferozepur Road, you have probably already heard about this from your accountant or your WhatsApp groups. The headline sounds simple: power for growth just got more expensive. The real lesson is less obvious, and it is the reason I am writing this. Most Pakistani manufacturers cannot tell you how much electricity one unit of their product consumes, so they cannot tell whether any tariff package helps them or hurts them.

That is a software problem before it is an energy problem. Below I explain what changed, why it matters for manufacturers in Lahore and across Punjab, and what software for manufacturers in Pakistan should actually do for you this winter.

What happened, in plain terms

The rate that changed is not the normal industrial tariff. It belongs to the Incremental Consumption Package, an incentive NEPRA approved in December 2025 to encourage factories to produce more. Under that package, industrial and agricultural consumers pay a discounted rate only for electricity they use above a benchmark, and the benchmark is their consumption in the reference period from December 2023 to November 2024, according to Energy Update. The package runs for three years and counts both peak and off-peak use.

When it launched, the incremental rate was Rs22.98 per unit, against base industrial tariffs of about Rs34, per the same report. The new rate is Rs25.30.

The government's side of the story matters too. On 7 November, the Power Division said Rs25.30 is a revised marginal rate for the package only, and that the average industrial tariff has fallen by about Rs18.94 per unit, including taxes, since March 2024, as reported by TechJuice. It put the average industrial rate in October 2026 at Rs34.40 per kWh before taxes and blamed higher generation costs on the "prevailing war situation."

Two figures from that statement should make every factory owner stop and think:

The package covered 6,940 GWh of extra consumption between December 2025 and September 2026, which the government values at Rs43.5 billion of benefit to consumers (TechJuice).
Only 209,335 of 518,316 eligible consumers, about 40%, have benefited so far (TechJuice).

So roughly six in ten eligible consumers have not used a discount that, even after the increase, is still well below the average industrial rate. NEPRA's own dissenting members argued the true marginal cost is closer to Rs31.83 per unit and wanted the package suspended until reliable data arrives, per Dawn via UA.NEWS. The regulator also warned the scheme could be suspended or terminated if the system operators keep sending poor data. In other words, the rules may change again.

Why this hits manufacturers harder than it looks

Energy is not a side cost for Pakistani industry. Exporters have spent most of 2026 fighting tariffs and adjustments. In August, the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association rejected a proposed Rs2.52/kWh fuel charge adjustment for July and called for a ten-year industrial energy roadmap, according to TEXtalks. The same report noted that container freight to the US West Coast jumped from about $1,800 to $8,500 after a nine-day transport strike.

When costs move this often, the factories that survive are the ones that can answer three questions quickly:

What does one unit of each product cost us to make, including power, today?
Which orders are worth running on extra shifts, and which are not?
Where is the waste: rework, idle machines, overstock, slow dealers?

In my work with manufacturers and B2B suppliers in Lahore, I rarely find these answers in one place. Production is written in a register. Electricity bills sit with accounts. Dealer orders come in as WhatsApp photos and voice notes. Stock is counted by hand at month end. Each piece of information exists, but nobody can join them up fast enough to make a decision before the next bill arrives.

A tariff package that rewards extra production is only useful if you know, order by order, whether that extra production makes money. That is exactly what good manufacturing software is for.

What software for manufacturers in Pakistan should do this winter

I am not talking about a giant ERP that takes 18 months to install. For most small and mid-sized factories, the useful system is smaller and more focused. Here is a practical plan you can start this week.

Step 1: Put daily production into a system, not a register

Start with one screen: shift, line or machine, product, quantity produced, quantity rejected. Supervisors enter it on a phone or tablet at the end of each shift. This takes a few minutes and gives you the first number you have been missing: real output per day, per product.

Step 2: Record electricity against production

Take your meter readings (or your sub-meter readings, if you have them) at the same time each day and log them against the same shift. Now you can calculate units of electricity per unit of output. For a tile maker that might be kWh per square metre; for a garment unit, kWh per piece; for a food processor, kWh per kilogram.

This single ratio tells you which products are energy-heavy and whether running an extra shift on the incremental rate actually pays.

Step 3: Track your benchmark

The package compares your current monthly use with the same month in the December 2023 to November 2024 reference period (Energy Update). Enter those twelve reference figures from your old bills once. The system can then show, every day, how close you are to the benchmark for this month and how many units above it you are likely to reach.

Step 4: Bring dealer orders out of WhatsApp

You cannot plan extra production without knowing what dealers want. A simple dealer portal lets each dealer see their own prices, place orders and track delivery. Your team stops taking orders by phone, and you get a clean order book you can plan shifts against.

Step 5: Connect stock to orders

Multi-warehouse stock that updates when production is entered and when orders ship tells you what is actually available. It stops you from running energy-hungry batches of products that are already sitting in the godown.

Step 6: Review one report every week

Once the first five steps run, one weekly report does the thinking for you: output, rejects, kWh per unit, units above benchmark, open dealer orders and stock on hand. Bring it to your Monday meeting.

A quick checklist

Question	Where the answer lives today	Where it should live
How much did we produce yesterday?	Supervisor's register	Daily production screen
How much power did each product use?	Nowhere	Production + meter log
Are we above our package benchmark?	Accountant, at month end	Daily benchmark tracker
What do dealers need next week?	WhatsApp chats	Dealer portal order book
What is in stock right now?	Monthly hand count	Live multi-warehouse stock

A worked example (illustrative, not a client)

To make this concrete, here is an illustrative example of a mid-sized ceramic tile factory in Lahore. The numbers below are invented for the arithmetic and are not from any real business.

Say the factory used 180,000 units of electricity in November 2024, its benchmark month. This November it expects to use 200,000 units because of a large dealer order. That means 20,000 units qualify as incremental consumption.

At the old package rate of Rs22.98, those 20,000 units would cost Rs459,600 before taxes.
At the new rate of Rs25.30, they cost Rs506,000. That is Rs46,400 more for the month.
At the October average industrial rate of Rs34.40 that the Power Division quoted (TechJuice), the same units would have cost Rs688,000. So the package still saves about Rs182,000 on that extra production.
If the proposed Rs2.37 fuel adjustment is added to all 200,000 units, that is a further Rs474,000 on the November bill, which the package does nothing to offset.

Now the questions become sharp. Is the extra dealer order profitable after a Rs25.30 power cost per incremental unit? Which tile sizes use the most energy per square metre? Could some of the run be moved to a product with better margins? Without daily production and energy data, the owner is guessing. With it, the decision takes ten minutes.

The difference between a factory that benefits from a tariff package and one that does not is usually data, not luck.

Cost, timeline and how to choose

I will not quote a price here, because the cost of manufacturing software depends on how many products, lines, warehouses and dealers you have, and how ready your data is. A factory with 40 products and one warehouse needs far less than an exporter with 600 SKUs across three locations. The fair way to price it is after a short audit, which is why we start every manufacturing project with a free consultation.

On timeline, the honest answer is: launch in stages. Daily production entry can be running quickly. Energy logging and benchmark tracking come next. A dealer portal and stock follow once the product data is clean. This staged approach means you see value in the first weeks rather than waiting months for a "big bang" go-live.

When you compare options, ask every vendor these questions:

Can my supervisors use it on a phone, in Urdu or simple English? If the shop floor will not use it, nothing else matters.
Do I have to replace my accounting software? You should not. Good systems connect to what you already use, or start with production and stock only.
Who owns the data and the hosting account? It should be you.
Can my team update products and prices without calling the developer? There should be an admin panel.
Can it grow into a dealer portal and catalogue website later? Buying one system that expands is cheaper than three that do not talk to each other.
Will they start with an audit? Anyone who quotes a full system without seeing your process is guessing.

Off-the-shelf ERP suits some large companies. For many Lahore manufacturers, a focused custom system built around how the factory already works is easier to adopt and cheaper to run.

How SylJo Tech helps manufacturers

SylJo Tech was founded in Lahore in 2023, and I have been building in this field since 2020. Alongside running the agency, I am a PhD researcher in AI and Human-Computer Interaction at Superior University and lecture at Superior University and ITU Lahore. That HCI background matters on the factory floor: software only helps if a tired supervisor at 11pm can enter a shift in under two minutes. Our team of PhD researchers and developers has delivered 60+ projects, and SylJo Tech holds the PMINA Award for our travel platform E-Ladeen.

For manufacturers and B2B suppliers, we build:

Production and stock software with daily production entry, multi-warehouse stock, customer ledgers and invoices.
Dealer portals where each dealer sees their own prices and places and tracks orders.
Catalogue websites with every size, colour and finish filterable, plus sample requests.
AI sales assistants that answer product questions and pass hot leads to your sales team on WhatsApp.

You can see the full picture, including catalogue sites and business software we have built for Lahore manufacturers, on our manufacturing and B2B solutions page. If you want to understand the wider case for automating back-office work, read how AI automation helps businesses grow and our guide to choosing an AI automation agency in Lahore.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best software for manufacturers in Pakistan?

The best system is the one your shop floor will actually use. For most small and mid-sized factories, that means simple daily production entry, stock tracking and dealer orders first, connected to your existing accounting software, rather than a large ERP.

What changed in NEPRA's industrial package in November 2026?

NEPRA raised the rate for incremental industrial consumption from Rs22.98 to Rs25.30 per unit, approved by the chairman's casting vote. The Power Division says the regular average industrial tariff has fallen since March 2024 and that the change applies only to the package.

How much does manufacturing software cost in Pakistan, and how long does it take?

Cost depends on your number of products, lines, warehouses and dealers. SylJo Tech prices after a free audit and launches in stages, starting with daily production entry, so you see results in the first weeks.

Should I choose custom software or an off-the-shelf ERP?

Large companies with standard processes may suit an ERP. Many Lahore manufacturers do better with a focused custom system built around their real workflow, which staff adopt faster and which can grow into a dealer portal later.

How do I get started?

Collect your last 24 months of electricity bills and one week of production records, then book a free consultation. We will map your process and show you what to put online first.

The bottom line

Electricity rates in Pakistan will keep moving, and the incentive package itself may be revised again. You cannot control that. You can control whether you know your cost per unit, your benchmark and your order book every single day.

Running a factory in Lahore or anywhere in Punjab? SylJo Tech builds production, stock and dealer software that shows you, in numbers, which orders are worth running. Book a free consultation or take our free Digital Business Assessment.

Software for Manufacturers in Pakistan: Plan for the Rs25.30 Rate.