How an Automotive Accessories Manufacturer Manages 6,000+ Part Numbers Across Two Factories With Cloud ERP
The Challenge
Trig Point, an Australian manufacturer of chassis-mount canopies and trays for 4-wheel-drive vehicles, had reached the scaling limit of Xero and spreadsheets as its operations grew. The business manages a catalogue of 6,000+ part numbers across two factory locations, with significant product customisation — customers configure vehicles with options including different colours, fitments, and accessories. Xero provided no manufacturing-specific functionality: bills of materials, production scheduling, inventory at the component level, and variation tracking across a product matrix all had to be managed in spreadsheets. Quoting accuracy suffered because configuration options were not systematically tracked. As the part number count and customisation complexity grew, the gap between what the business required and what spreadsheets could provide widened into a production and inventory risk.
The Solution
MRPeasy replaced the Xero-and-spreadsheet stack with a cloud-based ERP system providing manufacturing-specific functionality: multi-level bills of materials with variation tracking, production scheduling, inventory management at the component level, and quoting tools with product configuration matrices. API integration enabled custom dashboards connecting MRPeasy data to external reporting. The self-implementation model allowed the team's Production Engineer to configure and deploy the system without external consultants. Colour and specification variations are now tracked through the BOM matrix, enabling accurate order generation from customer configurations.
The Outcome
Trig Point manages a 6,000+ SKU catalogue across two factory locations through the ERP system — a complexity level that the spreadsheet approach could not sustain. Implementation was completed in three months. Quoting accuracy improved through the product configuration matrix. Inventory visibility across components and sub-assemblies replaced the manual tracking that previously created stockout and delay risks. Production Engineer Chris Wasylkiw stated: "We wouldn't be able to manage that without a system like this." No quantified throughput or cost metric was published in the case study.
Strategic Takeaway
Trig Point's situation is a textbook small-manufacturer scaling problem: Xero handles accounting, spreadsheets handle everything else, and as product complexity grows, the "everything else" category becomes an operational liability. Managing 6,000 part numbers across two factories in spreadsheets is not inefficient — it is eventually impossible. The three-month self-implementation is strategically notable: ERP deployments in manufacturing typically involve external consultants, lengthy configuration periods, and significant disruption cost. A cloud-based system that a Production Engineer can implement independently reduces the barrier to entry for small manufacturers that cannot justify enterprise implementation costs. The absence of a quantified throughput metric limits the case study's score, but the operational context is highly replicable across custom-order manufacturers in any product category.
- Spreadsheet-managed manufacturing has a complexity ceiling. The ceiling is not reached at 10 SKUs or 100 — it is reached when customisation variations, multi-level BOMs, and multi-location inventory converge into a surface area that no spreadsheet can reliably track.
- Self-implementation capability in cloud ERP is a strategic differentiator for SMB manufacturers. The ability to configure and deploy without external consultants removes a cost barrier that has historically kept small manufacturers on spreadsheets longer than is operationally safe.
- Quoting accuracy is an upstream quality metric in custom manufacturing. An inaccurate quote creates a commitment that production cannot fulfil profitably — BOM-integrated quoting tools prevent margin erosion at the order-entry stage.
See how MRPeasy can help your business address similar challenges.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.