MakerEasy
Inventory, Cost Tracking, and Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) App for Small Manufacturers
The Challenge
Two of the biggest challenges for small producers and manufacturers are tracking inventory and having a firm grasp of input costs over time. What if we could solve those problems while simultaneously creating the possibility of lower costs through the power of a Group Purchasing Organization? This is what MakerEasy aims to do.
The Goal
To provide these businesses with a tool that will make the day-to-day managing of their business easier, replace a clunky patchwork of spreadsheets, lower input costs to more than offset the cost of the app, and give companies more opportunity to thrive. Integration with accounting software will eliminate the need for wasteful double entries.
The Product
At the core of MakerEasy is a scalable recipe/input calculator that links to an inventory database. Purchases are scanned into inventory, and batch production volumes are entered to automatically calculate outputs and update inventory levels. Low level alerts, supplier lists, ingredient tracing, and reporting functions are easily integrated. Currently most of these functions are handled through spreadsheets with weak reporting capabilities (and a potentially high rate of errors), as customized Enterprise Resource Software solutions are not close to being affordable enough for small businesses.
The added layer of power that really sets the MakerEasy app apart is the opportunity for group purchasing. As a small manufacturer, you are the last priority of suppliers and sometimes are not able to purchase at all, even when meeting Minimum Order Quantities. By focussing on a small number of industries, the GPO will be able to break down barriers and lower prices for common inputs.
My Role Creator • UX Researcher/Designer/Writer
Research Summary
I conducted interviews and identified the common needs of similar businesses. There are clearly quite a number of businesses that could benefit from inventory management software, but are left to choose between creating their own increasingly-complex spreadsheets, and expensive/unaffordable Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solutions.
The main concerns of these businesses are cost management, unexpected inventory shortages, time spent creating their own solutions, and communication issues between employees surrounding the production process.
They would desperately like to have a *relatively* inexpensive tool that can tell them see what’s happening with their inventory at a glance, track their cost of goods sold item by item, and talk to their accounting software to avoid duplication of work.
High Fidelity Prototypes
The high fidelity prototype of the phone/tablet app can be found by clicking here.
It would be used primarily for the inventory and cost tracking functions, while the Group Purchasing functionality would be browser based.
Complete Case Study
The initial case study (working name: I•MASTER) including research, personas, user journeys, wireframes, and low and high fidelity prototypes can be found here.
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