Perfect Software for 95% of Small Manufacturers, Says Biotech CEO

Products that extend the active life of animals

AniCell Biotech is a biotechnology company from Arizona specializing in manufacturing regenerative products to extend the active life of animals, especially horses and dogs. Using the amniotic material of those animals, i.e., the inner lining of the placenta, the company provides veterinarians with alternatives to stem-cell therapy, corticosteroids, and plasma injections.

Started in 2015, AniCell Biotech is now a 15-person team that doubles in size every 12-18 months. To manage this growth, the company turned to cloud-based MRP software.

MRP was the plan from the start

For the first few years, the company was primarily using spreadsheets to manage its operations. The CEO of AniCell, Brandon Ames, knew that this was a temporary solution as spreadsheets could not provide the data security, traceability, and scalability the company actually needed.

“As an animal medical device, we are not subject to traceability regulations like pharma and food manufacturers are. Even so, we consider it a best practice to be able to track everything that goes into our products,” Ames says. “We want to be able to deconstruct a product and identify which stock lots were used in it if we discover an issue.”

In 2017, he felt that cloud-based MRP was ready for his company. As a former technology company owner with a background in software architecture, Ames knew what good software looked like. After the development of a needs assessment and a comprehensive market review of software available in the ERP/MRP space, he discovered something that seemed to be the perfect product.

“MRPeasy just fit all of our needs and any issues were sorted out in short order,” he says.

Software was set up over a weekend

As a through-and-through tech guy, Ames already had a firm understanding of how this type of software worked. This experience along with the intuitiveness of the system gave him the confidence to implement the software on his own.

“We basically went live immediately and figured it out as we went along,” he says. “The initial setup was done over a weekend and after that, it took around two weeks to import and enter all the necessary data.”

According to Ames, the company’s staff reacted well to the new system. This was largely due to the software being easy to use, reliable, and predictable in its outcomes.

“Employees always hate change,” he says. “But after the initial shock, they came to like it.”

Today, AniCell uses MRPeasy to manage all aspects of its manufacturing process, from order processing to production planning to fulfillment. Apart from the five full-time employees who use MRPeasy every day, Ames has insisted that interns be exposed to the software to acquire practical skills.

“I want our interns to use the software so that they would know a good system when they move to another company in the future,” the CEO says.

The perfect product for 95% of small manufacturers

As for the benefits the company has gained, Ames underscores the traceability the system brought to the operation. In addition, the system has organized AniCell’s historical data and made it easily accessible, facilitating analyses and deep dives into various financial and performance metrics including both product forecasting and production lot sizes. Finally, the company has been able to reduce labor costs per shipped order and made managing fulfillment much easier. All of this has been realized without the system ever being down within the six years Ames has used it.

“The back-end architecture of MRPeasy is admirable,” Ames says. “Since we’ve been using the software, there has never been an instance where the system was down and we didn’t have access to our data which is paramount when committing to a SaaS model. And not needing an in-house server is a huge bonus.”

When asked about his recommendations to manufacturers that are still on the fence about MRP, Ames had the following to say: “It would be a really easy conversation: are you looking to stay the same or are you looking to grow? If you are looking to grow, then all those disparate systems you have are going to fail you at some point. You can’t scale a business without this type of integrated system.”

Six years and counting, AniCell Biotech continues on a path of constant growth with their trusted MRP system.

“MRPeasy is the perfect software for 95% of small manufacturers. It doesn’t get any better,” Ames says as a final remark.