Wood Component Manufacturer Plans to Double in Size after ERP Implementation

Bradenham Preformed Wood Components realized that the inefficiency of administrative tasks was bogging them down and decided to implement a manufacturing ERP. “Even though it’s still relatively new, the benefits are already incredible,” says Tony Green, Founder.

A wood component company based in UK and Slovakia

Bradenham Preformed Wood Components is a wood component manufacturer based in the UK and Slovakia. The company was founded in 2020 by Tony Green and Robert Grajcar, two colleagues who decided to carve out a path of their own after working together for 30 years in the preformed wood industry.

The company manufactures a range of high-quality timber products and has recently introduced new products such as solid wood components, assembled frames, and preformed plywood components. Their manufacturing takes place in Slovakia, and their warehouse and sales department are based in the UK.

Administrative tasks used to ‘take forever’

When the company started, everything was managed on an array of spreadsheets and other digital documents. Tony’s wife used to do the delivery notes, invoices, order confirmations, and other administrative tasks. According to Tony, this method was very inefficient: “It took forever – you had to create a new document every time, populate it with data, and do this over and over again.”

Then, Tony’s son Oliver entered the business and said the systems needed an overhaul. While Tony had used a manufacturing ERP system in his previous company, it proved too large and complex for Bradenham’s needs. With a referral, they contacted Smart Manufacture, a manufacturing software consultancy based in the UK.

“Smart Manufacture said that MRPeasy could work for us,” Tony says. “So, we did the consultation, looked at the system, and concluded that this was the system for us.”

The implementation of the new system took four months, starting in September 2024 and going live in January 2025. According to Tony, it would have taken much less if not for them running other businesses at the same time.

“Luckily, David from Smart Manufacture kept the process going and pushed us to move forward,” he says.

Benefits of the new system are ‘incredible’

Almost a year after go-live, Tony only has praise for the new system and says it has already paid for itself. According to him, their administrative processes are now much more efficient.

“Even though it’s still relatively new, the benefits are already incredible,” he says. “Time savings are enormous; the system makes everything so quick. If we’d kept the old system, I don’t know how much time we would have lost scaling up.”

Although in the past few years, Bradenham PWC has already experienced steady growth, the team is looking to double in size in the next few. 

“We’re not a massive business, and I don’t want to be huge,” Tony maintains. “But doubling where we are in the next few years is achievable.” 

A proper system should be implemented as soon as possible

For other small manufacturers and distributors struggling with inefficiencies, Tony recommends adopting a system like MRPeasy sooner rather than later.

“We dragged it out longer than we should have, but once we implemented it, we saw the benefits immediately,” he says. “My advice is: the quicker you put a system in place, the quicker you’ll benefit.”

Having partnered with Smart Manufacture consultancy for their software implementation project, Tony also knows how important a good consultant is when the new system takes second priority behind critical business matters.

“We were fortunate to work with David,” he says. “He wasn’t pushy, but he pushed us to get things done. We had deadlines, and we had to do the work. Again, the sooner you implement, the sooner you’ll see the benefits.”

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