Covenant Millwork is a custom woodworking company from Louisville, Georgia that manufactures hardwood flooring, construction components, cabinetry, and furniture. Founded in 2006, the company is selling their products all over the United States.
“We do custom work to meet quite unique requirements,” says one of the founders, Kent Holdeman, who runs the flooring and millwork division. “For example, right now, I’m making a front door to match a 200-year-old home.”
Using a one-person data management system
Until 2020, his side of the company had 3-4 employees, and Holdeman could keep track of everything himself.
“With three people, that was okay,” he says.
In 2020, however, the company added a new line of flooring which also meant hiring more people. In addition, COVID-19 lockdowns created a home renovations boom. Holdeman’s one-person business management system started to buckle under this new weight so he decided to implement a specialized software package.
“I needed software that would answer the questions from the shop floor workers without me having to work 80 hours per week trying to stay ahead of them,” Holdeman says.
According to Holdeman, he didn’t even know what MRP or ERP stood for. “But eventually I realized that was just what I needed,” he says.
Finding a software with endless possibilities
Holdeman trialed 5-6 different systems, but he quickly realized that most solutions were just glorified spreadsheets.
“When I finally found MRPeasy, I understood that the possibilities were endless with this software,” he notes. “It also struck me as very user-friendly.”
Holdeman also liked that there was plenty of documentation available, and the company offered a generous free trial period.
Holdeman particularly appreciated the production scheduling functionality that enabled him to move things around easily. If a job was delayed, he could just drag-and-drop it to the next day with the rest of the calendar updating automatically, including any downstream dependencies.
Reducing managerial workload and improving inventory accuracy
Although the implementation was daunting, he persevered and managed to set up the system all by himself.
“Within six months of implementing the program, I started getting some really good feedback from the employees,” he remarks. “They can now work much more independently than they used to, and they see the bigger picture better now.”
The new software has brought numerous benefits to Covenant Millwork. For example, the new system has introduced accurate material tracking. This helps the team avoid stockouts of critical materials and has significantly improved the company’s lead time estimation accuracy.
“When I put in a customer order,” Holdeman details, “I can confidently give the customer a date when the order will be ready while instantly knowing what materials I need to fulfill the order.”
Getting a complete overview of the operation
Holdeman now also has a convenient overview of all customer orders which can be instantly converted into manufacturing orders and scheduled automatically. Required materials can be booked with a few clicks and if any of the materials are out of stock, a purchase order is generated. In addition, the multi-site inventory management functionality is instrumental as they have two locations.
“Now I know exactly what is in the warehouse and what is in the factory,” Holdeman says.
The team also uses MRPeasy to manage quality inspections and is in the process of setting up the workstation maintenance scheduling. As an additional perk, the software allows them to track the coproducts created during production.
“For example, if we’re making a rustic floor and part of the raw material doesn’t match the look we’re going for, we can exclude that part within the system and send it back to stock,” Holdeman says.
Recommendation to other manufacturers
To other growing manufacturers that are looking to adopt manufacturing software, Holdeman recommends facing the implementation head-on.
“There were moments during the setup of the software when I had to step outside and take a walk to calm my nerves,” he recalls. “But now that the software does what we want it to do, it really pays off.”
As a final remark, Holdeman says: “And if you’re already comparing products, there’s nothing really that works like MRPeasy.”
Learn more about MRPeasy by visiting https://www.mrpeasy.com/.
