The Challenge
A manufacturing company with 150 employees was drowning in software subscriptions. Their tech stack included separate tools for inventory management, order tracking, HR, accounting, project management, customer communication, reporting, and quality control.
Each tool had its own login, its own data format, and its own way of doing things. Getting a complete picture of operations required exporting data from 5 different systems and manually combining spreadsheets — a process that took their operations manager 8+ hours every week.
Monthly SaaS spend: $8,000 Data sources: 8 disconnected systems Time wasted on manual reporting: 32+ hours/month
The Solution
FastDX designed and built a unified operations platform that consolidated the core functionality from all 8 tools into a single system.
What we built:
- Inventory Management — Real-time stock tracking with automated reorder alerts
- Order Pipeline — From quote to delivery with status tracking at every stage
- Production Dashboard — Live view of production lines, capacity, and bottlenecks
- Quality Control — Inspection checklists, defect tracking, and compliance reporting
- HR Module — Employee records, attendance, and leave management
- Financial Overview — Revenue, costs, and profitability by product line
- Customer Portal — Clients can check order status and download invoices
- Unified Reporting — One dashboard for everything. No more spreadsheet gymnastics.
Technical approach:
- Stack: Next.js, Supabase (PostgreSQL), deployed on Vercel
- Methodology: vibe coding — architecture-first, AI-assisted implementation
- Timeline: 3 weeks from system design to production deployment
- Team: 1 senior engineer with AI acceleration
The Results
After 3 months of using the new platform:
- $5,600/month saved on SaaS subscriptions (70% reduction)
- 32 hours/month recovered from manual reporting — now automated
- Real-time visibility across all operations from a single dashboard
- 100% data ownership — no vendor lock-in, exportable to any hosting provider
- Scalable — system designed to handle 3x current volume without changes
Client Feedback
"We went from checking 8 different apps every morning to opening one dashboard that shows everything. The time savings alone paid for the project in the first month."
— Operations Director
Key Takeaway
The total investment in custom software was less than 4 months of their previous SaaS spend. The platform now handles their entire operation, they own every line of code, and their monthly software cost dropped from $8,000 to $2,400 (hosting and maintenance only).