Full ERP Replacement for Brewster & Holt Manufacturing

The Challenge

Brewster & Holt Manufacturing, an 85-person manufacturing company in Stoke-on-Trent, was running four separate software systems: one for accounting, one for inventory and stock control, one for production scheduling, and one for sales order management. None of them were integrated. Every order required data to be manually entered into multiple systems, creating delays, errors, and a persistent lack of visibility across the business.

Finance Director Catherine Ashby calculated that the combined cost of the four systems, plus the staff time spent on manual data entry and reconciliation, was over £120,000 per year. The errors caused by out-of-sync data led to delayed shipments, incorrect invoices, and frustrated customers. The company needed a single unified platform that could handle their entire workflow from order to delivery.

The Solution

We built a complete bespoke ERP replacement that unified all four systems into a single platform. The new system covered sales order management, production scheduling, inventory and stock control, and financial accounting, all sharing one central database.

The ERP was designed around Brewster & Holt's actual manufacturing workflow. Production schedules were linked to sales orders automatically. When an order was placed, the system checked inventory, scheduled production if stock was low, and generated purchase orders for raw materials when needed. Invoices were generated automatically when orders shipped, and financial reports were always up to date because every transaction flowed through the same system.

The project took 16 weeks. We migrated data from all four existing systems, ran the old and new systems in parallel for two weeks to validate accuracy, and trained the team in role-specific sessions. The full transition was completed with zero data loss and minimal disruption to daily operations.

The Results

Order processing time dropped by 50% because orders no longer had to be manually entered into multiple systems. The elimination of manual data entry also eliminated the errors that had been causing delayed shipments and incorrect invoices. Financial reporting became real-time, giving Catherine and her team instant visibility into the company's financial position.

The combined savings from eliminated subscription fees and reduced manual labour totalled over £120,000 per year. The build cost was recovered within the first 14 months, and after that, every pound saved went directly to profitability.

Why Bespoke Was the Right Choice

Brewster & Holt had evaluated several off-the-shelf ERP systems before approaching us. The problem was that every packaged ERP forced them to adapt their manufacturing workflow to fit the software's template. Their production process had specific stages and quality checkpoints that no generic ERP could accommodate without expensive customisation, which would have cost more than building from scratch.

A bespoke ERP solved this by being built around their exact workflow from the start. No workarounds, no compromises, no paying for features they would never use. The system did exactly what they needed and nothing they did not.

The total cost of ownership over five years, including build cost and maintenance, was less than two years of their previous subscription and labour costs. And because they own the source code, they can extend the system as their business grows without asking a vendor for permission or paying for a higher tier.