At one point, every manufacturer reaches a point where spreadsheets can no longer provide reliable control. The problem is not always mere inconvenience, but rather the growing risk of overlooked details, disconnected processes, outdated information, and decisions based on incomplete data.
“We needed a better way to handle it,” says Andy Nancollis, Co-founder and Chief Design Officer at Motion Impossible, a UK camera dolly systems manufacturer. “The complexity of our new product compared to the older models was overwhelming for a spreadsheet-based system.”
Complexity often starts with the product itself
As manufacturers develop new products and variants, they introduce more components, revisions, routings, and dependencies. Over time, it becomes harder to keep product structures accurate and ensure everyone is working from the right information.
Some products may contain thousands of parts. Small mistakes in part numbering, revision control, or multi-level bills of materials can create serious downstream problems.
“We’ve got over 6,000 part numbers in our system now. We wouldn’t be able to manage that without a system like this,” says Chris Wasylkiw, Production Engineer at Trig Point, an Australian automotive manufacturer.
Visibility becomes essential as operations expand
Growth makes inventory and production visibility more difficult. What was manageable in one warehouse or workshop can become confusing across multiple sites or production partners. Teams spend too much time finding stock, checking order progress, and identifying delays.
“The beautiful thing with MRPeasy is that I can see our eight locations and understand exactly where any piece of inventory is,” says Novia Kaup, Director of Operations at Hydrogen Sports, a ball machine manufacturer from California.
Visibility is important when subcontractors perform part of the production process. Materials must still be tracked, valued, and controlled even when outside the company’s facilities.
“With MRPeasy, we can issue things to another site but still see the value of stock and have it tracked and controlled,” says James Watt, Supply Chain Manager at Blighter Surveillance Systems.
Growth should not create the same increase in administration
More products, orders, and employees can lead to more paperwork, manual coordination, and data entry. However, growing manufacturers need workflows that scale without requiring a proportional increase in administrative staff.
“Since we started using MRPeasy, we have achieved over 100% growth in revenue, and we have almost tripled our employee count from 25 to 70 without adding the same proportion of administrative overhead,” says Chris Landen, Managing Director at Exacta Technologies Group, a computer manufacturer from the UK.
Connected costing and purchasing support better decisions
Complexity also makes it harder to understand costs. Material price changes, labor-intensive operations, waste, and inefficiencies can erode margins if manufacturers cannot see where money is being spent.
“Any time you can improve margins without raising prices by making production more efficient, that’s a major win. If you care about your bottom line, a tool like MRPeasy is critical,” says Rob Wynn, Director of Operations at Forge Fire & Co, a fire training equipment manufacturer from Ohio.
Purchasing becomes similarly difficult when open orders, supplier lead times, inventory levels, and multi-level BOM requirements must all be considered together.
“Using our previous system, it took me a day to understand what parts we needed to order and when. With MRPeasy, it takes less than an hour,” says Matt Zimmerman, Founder and CEO at FarSounder, a sonar systems manufacturer from Rhode Island.
Traceability and historical data become more valuable
As operations become more sophisticated, manufacturers need to trace materials, production activity, inspections, and quality records. Strong traceability supports quality control, customer and regulatory requirements.
“Everything we sell now matches up with specific ingredient lots, so we know what our products cost, where the inputs came from, and which customers purchased the products. We get complete visibility,” says Yoni Schwartz, President at Fresh Fizz Sodas from Long Island.
Historical information is equally useful. Teams can quickly review old purchase orders, part revisions, supplier prices, and production records instead of searching through folders and spreadsheets.
“I can click on a part and find a two-year-old purchase order related to it, see the different versions of the part, track its price changes, and so on. The information is very easily accessible,” says Lindsey Daniels, Project Manager at RetiVue, a medical device manufacturer from Virginia.
For more information, please visit www.MRPeasy.com.
