Founded in 2021 by seasoned firefighter Todd Shepherd and his wife Carie, Forge Fire & Co. is a fire training equipment manufacturer from Ohio. The company specializes in building modular structures that provide firefighters with realistic environments for live fire training.
In late 2024, the company expanded and moved into its first dedicated production facility, bringing all of its manufacturing in-house. To help manage increasing volumes, Todd and Carie brought in Director of Operations Rob Wynn.
“At that point, the company was already sizable, and it became apparent we needed software that could help us manage the production workflows and inventory,” Rob says.
Finding a dream ERP after nightmarish experiences
With 20 years of experience using ERP systems in previous jobs, including a 7-year migration from Epicor to NetSuite at a billion-dollar company, Rob was hopeful he would find a better solution for Forge Fire & Co. He spent two months researching options, finally choosing MRPeasy.
“I’ve used some high-level ERP systems and while I appreciate their sophistication, they are a nightmare to learn, implement, and maintain,” Rob says. “What stood out to me about MRPeasy was how quickly we could get it up and running.”
From zero to fully operational in just 2 months
Rob started implementing the new system at the end of January 2025, and the company went live with it already in March. According to him, the process was very quick and easy.
“It was just me, one person, trying to get the data in place to support a multi-million-dollar operation,” he says. “And I didn’t dedicate those full two months solely to implementing MRPeasy – I was handling plenty of other responsibilities. So going from nothing to fully operational in just two months was exceptional.”
Ease of use was just as important after go-live. While office staff adapted quickly, Rob was especially focused on making sure shop floor employees would be comfortable with the system.
“It took me 15 minutes to train employees how to use the shop floor interface,” Rob says.
Gaining control over orders, production, and margins
After more than a year of running their operation on MRPeasy, Forge Fire & Co. is seeing great improvements in efficiency and visibility.
“What I love most about MRPeasy is its dynamic nature,” Rob says. “If the engineering department updates a bill of materials, MRPeasy will ask if we want to update the related manufacturing orders too, keeping everyone on the same page.”
Rob also highlights the system’s visibility into performance metrics and its reliable QuickBooks Online integration.
“I can see how jobs actually performed against our planned costs and times, which helps us make sure our costing is accurate and margins are where they need to be,” he says.
Accurate order lead times and full product traceability
The new system has also had a positive effect on Forge Fire & Co.’s customer relationships. With a high order volume, fulfillment times can stretch beyond a year, so MRPeasy enables the team to reliably schedule orders.
“Without having a solid scheduling tool like MRPeasy, it would be impossible for us to give dependable production time estimates for our customers,” Rob says.
The system also helps the company quickly investigate any quality-related questions. By opening a past manufacturing order, Rob can immediately see which materials were consumed and who worked on the product.
“That traceability is super useful for any sort of QA issues,” he says.
Manufacturers lose money without a proper system
Rob says that without proper data, manufacturers end up making decisions with too little control over their operations and margins. As a result, companies end up losing substantially more money by not implementing a system than they would spend on putting one in place.
“Any time you can improve margins without raising prices by making production more efficient, that’s a major win,” he states. “If you care about your bottom line, a tool like MRPeasy is critical.”
After years of dealing with large, complex ERP platforms, Rob says MRPeasy has been a refreshing contrast.
“I could never go back to a system like SAP, NetSuite, or Epicor after using MRPeasy,” he says.
For more information, visit www.MRPeasy.com.
