Metal Fabricator Implements MRP Software Before Even Renting a Warehouse

Supported by an MRP system from the ground up, Australian custom metal fabricator Aston Precision grew from a spare bedroom to an established industry player in just three years. “I got MRPeasy even before I got my first warehouse,” says CJ Prem, Founder and Director.

Becoming an established supplier in just 3 years

Aston Precision is a custom metal fabrication company from Melbourne, Australia. The business specializes in sheet metal and structural metal fabrication and offers a comprehensive range of services, from 3D CAD design and drafting to CNC laser cutting, brake press, welding including TIG and MIG, and metal coating services. Started in 2021, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the business is a testament to the entrepreneurial determination of the company’s Founder and Director, CJ Prem.

Prem reflects on his transition from an operations manager role to the uncertain job market during the pandemic. “As the world shifted, so did my perspective,” he says. “I began to nurture an idea, an entrepreneurial seed—that would eventually grow into something uniquely my own.”

Prem started working from home, building the business from his daughter’s vacant bedroom, and was lucky to get his initial orders from a college friend who owned a larger manufacturing company. He spent the first three months running between different contractors to fulfill orders while working on the company’s website and marketing to create an online presence. A few months later, this activity started paying dividends.

“To this day, Google Search brings in around 80% of my business,” Prem says. “I hardly go canvassing for work.”

In the fourth month of operation, Aston Precision was so busy that they had to settle down in a dedicated facility. Soon, Prem also secured a business loan with a major bank, a rarity in Australia considering how young the company was at that point, to buy a CNC brake press machine. Now, just three years later, Aston Precision is an established partner for the Australian construction and building industry, industrial machinery manufacturers, and architectural firms, and even signed a global procurement contract with retail giant Amazon to supply their fabricated metal products.   

A system was set up even before a warehouse

From the very beginning, Prem has had an ace up his sleeve – a functioning manufacturing management system.

“When I started the company, I was adamant that I wanted a system in place,” Prem says. “I’ve had many friends start a business saying that they’ll implement a system ‘tomorrow,’ but that ‘tomorrow’ never comes. I got MRPeasy even before I got my first warehouse.”

Thanks to extensive experience with manufacturing software at his previous jobs, Prem knew exactly what he wanted. Before landing on MRPeasy, he considered several other options, including the ones he had already worked with, but all missed the mark.

“All the solutions I looked at were good systems, but they were complex and expensive,” Prem remembers. “Most of them asked for an installation fee of up to A$16,000 even if I had implemented the software on my own.”

After settling on Xero as his accounting system, Prem took a look at the Xero integrations marketplace. Among the available solutions was MRPeasy, which Prem instantly clicked with. What made the biggest difference compared to similar packages available was that MRPeasy offered quote estimation – he could add all the parts, processing, and assembly going into the products, get an accurate price estimate for the order, and schedule production promptly.

“I couldn’t get those from any other system I tried,” Prem says.

In addition, MRPeasy offered strong inventory and Bill of Materials (BOM) management features as well as the traceability required by a growing number of Aston Precision’s clients. Moreover, Prem wanted the company to get ISO 9001 certified, which entails stringent traceability and document control measures.

“We have a client that manufactures food packaging machinery and they have very intricate requirements, including for documentation,” he says. “MRPeasy provides us with this traceability, quality management, and revision control they need.”

Setup took just a couple of days

According to Prem, MRPeasy also stood out from the rest by being “literally easy.” All of the software user manuals and demo videos are freely available on their website, enabling software seekers to get acquainted with the system without dealing with annoying sales pitches. They also provide potential customers with a free 30-day trial.

“The system is so simple,” Prem says. “I did the trial and was hooked.”

The initial setup of the new software took just a couple of days, owing to Prem’s previous experience with manufacturing ERP software and the user-friendliness of the system. As Prem has hired new staff, the employees have also taken to the software very well. Even Aston Precision’s 19-year-old System Administrator, who was fresh out of high school and had no experience with manufacturing, let alone with manufacturing software, took just a couple of months to learn MRPeasy to a level that she felt comfortable using it independently.

“MRPeasy is just perfect,” he says. “Now I can’t imagine how we could operate without it.”

Accurate cost estimation is the biggest benefit

Today, Aston Precision’s entire operation is managed in MRPeasy, from quoting to manufacturing to quality control to shipping. Everything is thereby documented within the system, enabling Prem to know exactly what is happening in the company and to generate reports about various business functions. 

“One of the best things about MRPeasy is how easy reporting is,” he says, “You can filter out anything you want in any module and get invaluable insights from the data.”

Although Prem cannot pinpoint his favorite MRPeasy feature as he “likes them all,” he knows which areas of the business have benefitted from the system the most. First and foremost is pricing: MRPeasy has taken the guesswork out of estimations and costing, even when dealing with highly intricate products.

“Being one of the best custom metal fabrication companies in Melbourne, we build very complicated assemblies with many subparts included in the bills of materials. “MRPeasy is the best to get accurate pricing for them,” he states. “It’s highly beneficial to us.”

Achieving inventory control and visibility into performance

The second most important benefit is the degree of control they now have over their inventory. Whenever Aston Precision receives a new customer order, in just a few clicks they can create a manufacturing order, book the required materials from stock, and generate purchase orders for out-of-stock materials.

“We don’t have to create purchase orders manually,” Prem details. “Whenever inventory levels drop below a certain point, we can generate a pre-filled PO ready to be sent out. That is amazing.”

Thirdly, the company takes full advantage of the dashboard functionality, which gives them an overview of the company’s vitals such as the cash flow, current sales, work-in-process, late orders, and many more. Each user can customize the dashboard according to which manufacturing KPIs are important to them.

“The dashboard gives us quick visibility into our performance without having to generate separate reports,” Prem says.

Better implement sooner than later

To other growing manufacturers that are thinking about implementing MRP software, Prem recommends taking the leap sooner rather than later. In his experience, hiring people into an already established system is much easier than having them adopt it later when they are already used to doing things in a certain way.

“Even though inevitable, change can mostly be challenging,” Prem says. “I was part of an ERP system implementation at one of my previous jobs. The company was nearly 50 years old when the decision was made to adopt a system and the amount of change management we had to do was horrific. Postponing the implementation just makes it harder.”

Prem concludes by saying, “With a reliable and affordable system in place, now we can focus on growth and innovation without the burden of remembering every detail as the system remembers and prompts every aspect of our operations. Thanks to MRPeasy! It’s every entrepreneur’s dream!”

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