Black Mamba Rod Lift is a component manufacturer for the oil and gas industry from Oklahoma, USA. At the helm of the company is Jonathan Martin, an innovator with multiple patents for rod lifts. Black Mamba Rod Lift employs 18 people and is steadily growing since the company’s inception in late 2019.
Black Mamba designs and manufactures crucial components in oil extraction called rod guides – plastic components added to sucker rods. Sucker rods are long underground poles used in beam-lift oil wells to create artificial lift as the wells operate.
The rods and their stabilizers have specific resistances and shapes requiring careful consideration. Black Mamba’s rod guides employ innovative designs to stabilize and protects the rods, representing a considerable evolution in rod lift design.
Innovative Processes Require Innovative Management
Aside from a unique product, Black Mamba Rod Lift also has peculiar inventory management requirements. The company doesn’t manufacture the rods, only the rod guides. Since numerous well designs and rod types are in use among Black Mamba’s clientele, the guides are usually installed only once a sales order comes in.
To shorten lead times, Black Mamba has contracts with many rod manufacturers to keep the rods in stock in Black Mamba’s warehouse as consignment inventory. This means that the manufacturer needs to keep track of consigned and owned inventory in parallel.
Essentially, Black Mamba employs a hybrid workflow – the rod guides are produced to stock but installed and customized to order. The product is standard but the per-well design is custom.
A Manufacturing System was Needed from Day One
An experienced manufacturer, Jonathan knew that Black Mamba needed manufacturing software from the get-go. One that would integrate well with their accounting software QuickBooks Online and support managing consignment goods. It also needed to be scalable – the team expected their product to substantially disrupt the market. An intuition that proved correct as three years later, Black Mamba is expanding operations on virtually all fronts.
In early 2020, they implemented a mid-tier ERP which initially seemed to meet their requirements. However, after about 2 painstaking years of trying to align it with their operation, it became clear that the match wasn’t meant to be. The software had bugs and its QuickBooks integration lacked in functionality.
”We were forcing ourselves to use a software that does not work for us. We realized later that the burden of forcing a square peg in a round hole was bringing employee moral down,“ Jonathan explains.
New Software was Brought Online in a Single Month
Jonathan did extensive trials and research looking for alternatives. He finally came across MRPeasy. Browsing the software’s extensive demo videos, MRPeasy seemed to tick all the boxes – it had native support for QuickBooks Online and boasted an impressive set of stock management tools. After a short trial period, the team was convinced.
Accustomed to running manufacturing systems, Jonathan took it upon himself to implement the new software. He extensively used MRPeasy’s spreadsheet import feature to copy over existing manufacturing data. A host of online materials and a highly responsive support team made implementation much less cumbersome than he expected. After about a month, Black Mamba successfully transitioned to the new system.
Robust Stock Management and Rising Efficiency
Black Mamba’s inventory and production management have comprehensively improved after switching software. Jonathan: “Previously, we’d have to do cleanup of our inventory, spending days on reconciliation every month. This is not necessary anymore. MRPeasy is a part of our workflow instead of something we’re forced to use.“
MRPeasy’s seamless QuickBooks Online integration has thoroughly increased the company’s accounting efficiency and managing consignment inventory has also been improved – the company can now effortlessly track consignment goods alongside regular stock through the same app.
Increased visibility into part numbers and parameters has also been a game-changer for the company. Black Mamba has a large number of variations for many parts and MRPeasy enables tracking all of them without needing to create separate BOMs.
A year and a half since implementation, Jonathan Martin and the Black Mamba Rod Lift team are very pleased with MRPeasy. “For many entrepreneurs, software is often an afterthought and it really shouldn’t be. It can be the difference between constant headaches and a smooth operation. I think MRPeasy is perfectly adapted to small and medium manufacturers.”
Learn more about MRPeasy by visiting https://www.mrpeasy.com/