The Business Benefits of Discrete Manufacturing ERP: Real Results from Aptean Customers

Industrial and discrete manufacturers like you don’t invest in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for features alone—your objectives are to solve real operational problems. Missed delivery dates. Production bottlenecks. Data silos. Growth that’s straining systems built for smaller, simpler businesses. That’s where the real value of manufacturing ERP shines.

It’s easy to talk about capabilities like shop floor control, advanced scheduling and real-time data, but what matters more is how these features translate into measurable business outcomes—like higher production efficiency, organization-wide visibility, improved agility and enhanced delivery reliability.

That's why we're sharing real success stories from manufacturers who have transformed their operations with Aptean’s industrial manufacturing ERP system. These companies, making everything from custom HVAC units to precision ground bars, faced very real, familiar challenges. Byimplementing a purpose-built ERP, they didn't just fix individual issues—they built a stronger foundation to compete, scale and lead with confidence.

If you're considering upgrading to a modern manufacturing ERP, these stories show how it can help your business grow and compete more effectively.

Boosting Revenue and Scalability

In custom manufacturing, manual scheduling and limited real-time visibility create production bottlenecks and missed deadlines. When you're managing thousands of open orders like The Metalworking Group (MWG), legacy systems and workarounds simply can't keep pace.

Instead, a comprehensive system improves visibility, enhances accuracy and automates shop floor planning and scheduling, powering significant efficiencies and scaling opportunities. Doug Watts, CEO of MWG, described the transformation after implementing Aptean’s industrial manufacturing ERP: "From a scheduling standpoint, from where we were before Aptean to where we are now, it's night and day."

The results were measurable and significant. MWG increased its on-time, in-full (OTIF) delivery rate from 75% to 86%—an 11% improvement that Watts called "huge" and "really meaningful to us." At the same time, the company’s revenue grew fourfold, proving that the right ERP system doesn't just support growth—it actively fuels it by enabling a more efficient, reliable operation.

Read the full Metalworking Group case study for more.

Automating Processes To Boost Productivity

Manual tasks on the shop floor and in the office slow progress and increase errors, but with Aptean's manufacturing-specific solutions, your teams are able to do more with less, boosting efficiency and productivity. Precise, digital processes enable your team to focus on strategic work that drives your business forward instead of being bogged down in tedious and repetitive tasks.

Pipp Mobile Storage Solutions addressed this by leveraging automation in Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP and Aptean Smart Hub. Tonya Butler, IT Director, explained the philosophy: "If you can get more technology involved, you get better accuracy and you don't have to hire as many people because the system does the work for you."

She highlighted Aptean Smart Hub as a pivotal tool, calling it a "game changer for us." The automation of processes and notifications allowed Pipp to catch issues that would otherwise fall through the cracks due to human error. This shift empowered the team to focus on strategic initiatives, supporting a successful growth-through-acquisition strategy and helping the company become a market leader.

Read the full Pipp Mobile Storage case study for more.

Unifying Operations Across a Global Footprint

For multi-site manufacturers, especially those growing through acquisition, operating on different or outdated systems makes it impossible to compare performance or standardize best practices. You're running multiple different businesses under one roof.

This was the reality for Emerald Technologies, an electronic manufacturing services provider with 10 facilities worldwide. Bradley Hong, Vice President of Digital and IT, explained the problem: "Before, without a common platform, it was tough to say which sites were doing which processes well."

Consolidating onto a unified, cloud deployment of Aptean Discrete Manufacturing ERP delivered significant improvements. The software streamlined quoting, procurement, order management, financials and shop floor processes, giving Emerald Technologies the tools and reliable data to operatewith confidence. "But now it's different," Hong said. "We can easily extend those common best practices to all sites. And every time we have a new initiative, it can also be easily deployed to different sites."

The single, modern platform provided the visibility to objectively evaluate performance and the tools to rapidly scale improvements across the entire global organization, turning individual facilities into a cohesive, high-performing unit.

Read the complete Emerald Technologies case study for more.

Enabling Rapid, Controlled Growth

Scaling a manufacturing operation from 100 to 200 employees, 10 sites to 20 or into new regions, tests every system and process. Without a future-ready centralized platform, growth can lead to chaos, with spreadsheets and workarounds multiplying faster than your revenue.

Climate by Design International (CDI) was in this exact position during a period of rapid expansion. Lynn Limberg, ERP Specialist, knew the company needed modern software to fundamentally change how it operated. "We are going through a rapid growth period in our organization right now," she said. "We need to take some giant steps backward and fundamentally change how we use the software to move forward."

CDI’s strategy was to make our discrete manufacturing ERP its "one source of truth," systematically eliminating spreadsheets and disparate data sources. This gave the company the end-to-end operational control needed to efficiently manage its growth—streamlining supplier management,reducing errors, improving internal collaboration and powering data-driven decision-making. The system became the stable core around which the expanding organization could reliably grow.

Read the full Climate by Design case study for more.

Increasing Output Without Adding Overhead

The most powerful efficiency gains often come from optimizing existing resources rather than adding new ones. For industrial and discrete manufacturers like you, this means increasing throughput without a proportional increase in labor costs.

Boston Centerless achieved exactly this with our industrial manufacturing ERP, increasing production by 20% with no additional staff. According to Robert Berger, IT Director, the key was using the system to continuously refine the organization’s processes. "We've used the system to examine every process and eliminate non-value-added steps," he said. "That's how we keep improving."

This workflow streamlining and automation helped Boston Centerless slash the time from order receipt to production floor from three days to one, as well as increase on-time delivery from 88% to 98%. Our discrete manufacturing ERP system provided the data and tools to systematically eliminatewaste, creating a leaner, more responsive and more profitable operation.

Read the full Boston Centerless case study for more.

Ensuring Business Continuity and Remote Access

Modern manufacturing requires flexibility. Whether supporting a hybrid workforce or ensuring operations continue through unforeseen disruptions, relying on on-premise servers can be a significant liability.

For Black Bros. Co., the impetus to move to the cloud was weather-related downtime. Robert Letterly from the company’s IT team explained that the main goal was to increase uptime. The result was a cloud-based Aptean system that ensures 99.9% uptime.

This move also unlocked seamless accessibility. "Our people can be anywhere, for any reason and still have the same access to our operational data," Letterly said. This future-proofs Black Bros. Co. operations, ensuring that neither severe weather nor a distributed workforce will hinder its ability to manufacture and serve customers.

Read the full Black Bros. Co. case study for more.

Why Aptean Is the Partner for Your Manufacturing Transformation

The stories above are blueprints for what's possible in your own operation. But achieving these results requires more than just software—it requires a partner who understands the intricacies of discrete manufacturing.

Our customers consistently highlight this partnership as a key differentiator. Perhaps Tonya Butler from Pipp Mobile Storage Solutions put it best: "It truly is not a customer-vendor relationship, it's a partnership."

This collaborative approach is built on industry-specific expertise. As one reviewer on G2 noted, "The customer support is excellent. The support team always prove their efficiency through each and every support call."

But what’s more, our deep technical expertise and focus on innovation ensures a future focus for our partnerships. With our AI platform, Aptean AppCentral, you gain access to an ecosystem of pre-connected apps that extend the value of your discrete manufacturing ERP into areas like customer relationship management, asset maintenance and advanced analytics, all powered by intelligent automation and AI capabilities.

Ready to see what our discrete manufacturing solutions can do for you? Schedule a personalized demo to see our discrete manufacturing ERP in action and start writing your own success story.