Spreadsheets that no longer keep up. Lead times somebody worked out three years ago and never revisited. A production line standing idle because one component arrived late, and a planner who spends a day a week re-keying numbers instead of planning. This is where most UK manufacturers sit before they fix their MRP, and too many fix it by bending their operation around whatever package they bought.
ByteGears builds custom Material Requirements Planning software that fits how your factory actually runs - designed and built here in the UK. No per-seat licences, no usage-based bill that spikes in your busy season. You own the system outright and you decide what it does, what it connects to, and how it grows. We work mostly with small and mid-sized manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors whose margins live and die by inventory.
Where off-the-shelf MRP lets you down
Cloud MRP tools are genuinely good at the simple case. The trouble starts as your product range, supplier base and team grow:
- Multi-level BOMs become a fight. Lighter tools handle single- or two-level structures fine, then struggle with deeply nested assemblies, variants and by-products. Sub-contracting chains - buy a part, send it out for processing, take it back to finish - are a known weak spot and a common source of glitches.
- Per-user and usage-based pricing punishes growth. Add planners and buyers as you scale and the licence bill climbs with headcount. Usage-based plans make your software cost spike exactly when you’re busiest, which is the worst time for a budget surprise.
- Forecasting is often basic. When the built-in forecasting can’t cope, teams quietly fall back to Excel and the MRP becomes an expensive place to type orders into.
- Integrations are built for the easy path. Connectors to Xero, QuickBooks or Shopify handle standard cases, then need manual workarounds for landed costs, COGS allocation or variance posting - and they tend to lag or fail during peak order volumes.
- Most platforms default to the US. US data centres, US-centric compliance with no native Making Tax Digital support, and offshore email support on a 24-48 hour clock.
- You outgrow it. What fit at 15 staff and 300 SKUs stops fitting at 60 staff and 3,000, and you face a second migration you’d hoped to avoid.
At the other end, enterprise ERP - NetSuite, SAP Business One, Sage X3, Epicor - solves the capability problem but brings its own: 6 to 12 month implementations, partner services that often run well into six figures, and a great deal of GL, AP, AR and CRM machinery you may never touch. You end up paying for breadth instead of fit.
What we build instead
We start with your process, not the software. Before anyone writes code, we map how you plan materials today - your routings, your sub-contractors, your safety-stock rules - so the system supports your methods rather than overwriting them.
You pay once for the build. No recurring per-seat subscription. You own the software, the data and the database, and your cost stays flat as the team grows.
It models your real data. Products and SKUs, multi-level bills of materials with version control, inventory by location, sales orders, purchase orders, suppliers with lead times and quality metrics, work orders and demand forecasts - structured around how your operation actually works, not a generic template.
Integrations are built properly. Two-way connections to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage 50 or NetSuite for COGS posting and inventory valuation, Shopify or WooCommerce for demand, and EDI to OEM customers where you need it - with retry and error handling so a busy day doesn’t break the sync.
UK rules are in from the start. Making Tax Digital, GDPR with UK or EU data residency, immutable audit trails, and whatever your sector demands - built into the core, not sold as an add-on module.
It’s modular and yours to extend. We deliver a working core first, then add production scheduling, finite capacity planning, traceability or a supplier portal on your timeline. Support comes from our team in London, in UK hours.
What the software does
You get the standard MRP capabilities, shaped around how you work:
- Multi-level BOM management with components, sub-assemblies, scrap percentages, variants, alternate BOMs, and full change history so you can see any BOM as it stood on any past date.
- Material requirements calculation - automatic BOM explosion against confirmed and forecast demand, so you know exactly what to order and when.
- Inventory tracking by location with quantity on hand, reserved, available and in transit, plus batch and lot tracking where you need it.
- Purchase orders generated from real demand - supplier lead times, minimum order quantities and reorder points worked in, so you’re neither caught short nor sitting on dead stock.
- Production scheduling and work orders that line up capacity, materials and order due dates, with finite capacity planning when the shop floor needs it.
- Supplier management - lead times, on-time delivery and defect metrics, alternative sources, pricing tiers - so a single supplier failing isn’t a silent risk.
- Exception-driven alerts for low stock, overdue purchase orders, past-due production and unusual scrap, instead of dashboards nobody checks.
- Reporting your managers actually ask for - demand vs. actual, inventory variance, supplier performance, production KPIs and cash tied up in stock.
- Lot and batch traceability with forward and backward trace and one-click recall simulation, for sectors where that matters.
- Mobile access for warehouse and production staff on tablets and phones, with role-based permissions so people see only their part of the system.
How a project runs
Discovery and planning, two to four weeks. We sit with your team, document how planning works now, where it hurts, and what your BOMs, lead times and integrations really look like. This is also where we find the data problems early.
Build, eight to sixteen weeks. Our UK developers build the core first - BOMs, inventory, demand input, the requirements calculation, purchase order generation and your chosen accounting integration - then add scheduling, traceability or forecasting in later phases. Regular check-ins, working software you can see throughout.
Data migration, run alongside the build. This is where MRP projects most often fail, so we treat it as a workstream of its own. We cleanse and validate BOMs and supplier data, reconcile inventory against your physical counts, and reverse-engineer lead-time logic that’s been living in spreadsheets.
Testing and phased rollout, two to four weeks. QA and user acceptance testing, then a staged switchover - often with a short parallel-running period - so day-to-day production isn’t disrupted on go-live.
Training and support, ongoing. Hands-on sessions tuned to each role - planners and buyers need real depth, shop-floor supervisors need far less - plus documentation and someone in London to call.
We keep scope tight on purpose. “While we’re at it, let’s also add quality management and a supplier portal” is one of the most reliable ways to blow out a timeline, so we phase those deliberately rather than cramming them into version one.
What it costs, and what you own
A custom build costs more upfront than a monthly SaaS plan. Over the life of the system the maths usually moves the other way:
- No per-seat licences and no usage-based bills, so cost doesn’t climb as you hire or as your busy season hits.
- No annual price rises imposed by a vendor, and no forced upgrades that break your customisations.
- Against enterprise ERP, where five-year total cost commonly lands in six figures once implementation, partner services, per-user fees and support are counted, a focused MRP-only build is typically a good deal lower.
- You own the code, the data and the database. It’s built on standard tooling with documented APIs, so you can extend it, re-host it or hand it to another team without asking anyone’s permission.
We won’t promise a guaranteed payback date - that depends on your operation. What we will do in a free consultation is give you a fixed scope and an honest price for what you actually need.
Who this is for
Custom MRP earns its place in UK sectors where inventory or production gets genuinely complicated:
- Food and beverage — lot-level traceability, allergen profiles, yield and waste tracking, and audit readiness for BRC, SQF and HACCP. Plan a batch of finished product and the system calculates ingredients, packaging and labour, then coordinates supplier deliveries.
- Aerospace and defence — serial-number traceability through multi-tier supply chains, configuration and change control, and supplier compliance data for AS9100.
- Automotive and tier-1 suppliers — EDI links to OEM forecasts, just-in-time synchronisation, supplier scorecards and on-time delivery metrics for IATF 16949.
- Medical device and pharma — electronic record integrity and immutable audit trails for 21 CFR Part 11, with each lot tied back to its material lots, work orders and test results.
- Precision engineering and job shops — make-to-order work where every job has its own BOM built from a quote or drawing, with labour and material costs tracked back to the customer order.
- Contract manufacturing and co-packers — multiple customer BOMs, lot segregation by customer, and several compliance frameworks running in parallel.
- Wholesale distribution — getting the most from warehouse space while holding fulfilment rates, without the production overhead.
- Electronics and industrial equipment — component obsolescence, alternative sourcing, and custom configurations alongside standard stock.
If your set-up is simpler than this - straightforward BOMs, steady demand, a small team and only accounting to integrate - an off-the-shelf cloud MRP is probably the sensible choice, and we’ll say so. Custom MRP is worth the investment when the standard tools force you to work around them.
Common Questions About Custom MRP Software for UK Manufacturers
When does it make more sense to buy off-the-shelf MRP instead?
If you run simple single- or two-level BOMs, under about 500 SKUs, predictable demand and only need accounting integration, a cloud MRP tool like MRPeasy or Katana will usually do the job for less effort. Custom starts to pay off when your workflows are unusual, your BOMs are deeply nested, you have sub-contracting or co-packing, your team is heading past 20-30 users, or you have real compliance pressure. We'll tell you honestly which side of that line you're on.
How does the cost compare to a SaaS subscription or enterprise ERP?
A custom build is a larger upfront cost than a monthly SaaS plan, but there are no per-seat licences and no usage-based bills that climb in your busy season. Against enterprise ERP like NetSuite or Sage X3, where implementation and partner services often run well into six figures, a focused MRP-only build is usually a fraction of the five-year total cost. We give you a fixed scope and price after discovery, not a moving target.
What's a realistic development timeline?
A focused MRP build typically goes live in 8 to 16 weeks. We start with a working core - BOMs, inventory, demand input, the requirements calculation and purchase order generation - then add production scheduling, traceability or forecasting in later phases. Enterprise ERP rollouts for the same scope often take 6 to 12 months.
Can you integrate with our accounting software and existing systems?
Yes. The most common connections are Xero, QuickBooks, Sage 50 and NetSuite for COGS posting and inventory valuation, plus Shopify or WooCommerce for demand and EDI links to OEM customers. We build these as proper two-way integrations with retry and error handling, not brittle one-way exports, so your stock and financials stay in step.
What about regulated manufacturing - food, aerospace, medical?
We build compliance into the core rather than bolting it on. That covers lot and batch traceability with forward and backward trace, one-click recall simulation, immutable audit trails with user and reason logging, allergen tracking for food and beverage, and serialisation for aerospace and medical device work. We scope to your actual framework - FSMA, BRC, SQF, AS9100, ISO 9001, IATF 16949 or 21 CFR Part 11 - so you're not paying for compliance features you'll never use.
How do you handle data migration from our spreadsheets or old MRP system?
Carefully, because this is where most MRP projects go wrong. Legacy BOMs are often full of duplicates, obsolete parts and wrong quantities, and lead times are usually trapped in spreadsheets with logic nobody has written down. We cleanse and validate BOMs, inventory balances and supplier data before import, reconcile stock against your physical counts, and plan a phased switchover so production isn't disrupted.
Do we own the software, and can we change it later?
You own it outright - the code, the data and the database. It's built on standard tooling with documented APIs, so you're never locked to us. You can extend it, host it elsewhere or bring in another team whenever you choose. We're happy to keep supporting and developing it, but that's your decision, not a contractual trap.