Precision Engineer Manages Business on His Phone After Software Adoption

Precision engineering company Intake Engineering introduced control and tracking into the operation, making every piece of vital information easily accessible. “Everything is just a click away and I can access it anywhere,” says Lee Brien, Director. “It’s a godsend.”

Precision engineers specializing in sliding head work

Intake Engineering is a precision engineering company from Whitstable, England, specializing in CNC turning and milling, with a special focus on sliding head work. While the business has been active for about four years, its predecessor, Woodfields, had been in business for approximately 50 years before the takeover.

With a team of 10 employees, the company serves customers mainly in the oil and gas, aircraft, and electrical sectors, with a large part of their revenue coming from repeat business from a few large clients.

MRPeasy was also used in a previous company

Before Director Lee Brien joined the company in October 2024, the business was run on multiple separate systems, mainly different spreadsheets. “They were putting in jobs on one system, making a stock list on another, and so forth,” he says.

The lack of integration and efficiency of the management system prompted the company to implement an MRP solution. The owner of Intake Engineering had frequently visited Lee’s previous employer, where Lee and his team used MRPeasy to run the operation. Impressed with the software’s usability, he decided to implement it in his business as well.

“The price of the system played a big role as well,” Lee maintains. “We haven’t found another package that does what MRPeasy does. This price range with such breadth of functionality, an open API, and a large variety of native integrations is practically unbeatable.”

When Lee was hired as the Director, however, he found that the software was not being used to its full potential, with many of the business’s functions still being performed within spreadsheets. His first order of business was to get MRPeasy properly implemented. He started by setting up the bills of materials, production routings, and inventory tracking, which he believes to be the basis for successful adoption.

“I personally think that with concentrated effort, you could sit down and implement MRPeasy within a weekend,” he suggests.

Everything can be managed using a smartphone

According to Lee, the re-implementation has introduced a large degree of discipline and control to the company. In a company that used to put purchase orders in verbally, every action is now logged, each item tracked.

“Now it’s all completely set up so I can manage the business even on my phone at home,” he says. “I can look at the jobs, see where the material is, see what’s coming in, see progress on the shop floor, and so forth. It’s fantastic!” 

For Lee, one of the most significant benefits of the system is the seamless communication it enables with his clients. Within just moments, he can find the customer order in question, see when production is due, send out an invoice, and ship out the order.

“Everything is just a click away and I can access it anywhere,” he says. “Invoicing is fantastic now. It doesn’t tie you up as much as before, and the shipment side of things is great. It’s a godsend really.”

As a final recommendation to other small manufacturers, Lee suggests that everyone try out a system like MRPeasy.

“Just try it, it’s so-so easy,” he says. “I’ve used other MRP systems, and nothing measures up to MRPeasy.”

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