Case study: Sauna maker brings 45 years of craftsmanship into the digital age

Oceanic Saunas wanted to ensure its internal systems could withstand the demands of a growing manufacturing operation and ended up with a company-wide modernisation project. “We wanted really good software to underpin it all. Something that would help us tidy up, track things properly, and make the business stronger for the future,” Director Sarah Jones recalls.

A family business with a passion for heat

Since its inception in the 1970s, Oceanic Saunas has grown into one of the UK’s leading sauna and steam room manufacturers. From compact infrared cabins to bespoke Turkish steam rooms, the Wolverhampton-based company is renowned for designing and building high-quality wellness spaces for homes and commercial locations.

Director Sarah Jones, who joined the family business about two decades ago, has led the company through a major evolution in recent years. Oceanic Saunas used to sell all sorts of bathroom products, like baths, showers, and washroom accessories, aside from their staple product, saunas. “I saw the market saturating and made the decision to focus purely on saunas and steam rooms. That’s what we’re truly good at and what customers know us for today,” says Sarah.

Fixing leaks in efficiency

The company’s internal systems had not kept pace with its product innovation, however, as can sometimes happen with long-standing businesses. As a result of the company’s dependence on inefficient productivity tools, the production process was littered with small inefficiencies: duplicate SKUs, inconsistent materials, and non-existent shop floor visibility.

What began as a system cleanup soon became a company-wide modernisation project – a complete realignment of product structures, workflows, and physical space. “And we wanted really good software to underpin it all. Something that would help us tidy up, track things properly, and make the business stronger for the future,” Sarah recalls.

After consulting national manufacturing innovation programs MTC and Made Smarter, Sarah came across MRPeasy. “I loved it immediately. It was intuitive and had a brilliant interface. My logic was that if I find using it easy, my salespeople and the rest of the staff will too,” she says.

MTC put Sarah in touch with independent manufacturing and ERP consultancy, Smart Manufacture, an authorised implementation partner of MRPeasy, who engaged directly to support the setup and implementation of the system.

A clearer view of the business

Since going live, MRPeasy has become central to how Oceanic Saunas runs its operations. It provides Sarah with a full top-down view of how the company is functioning. “I can log in anywhere in the world and see how the business is doing — how many sales we’ve had today, what’s in production, what’s coming in, everything,” Sarah says. She uses CRM filters to monitor quotation conversion rates and track daily sales performance. Something that was previously difficult to see. “It’s all there at a glance now.”

Aside from the increased visibility, accurate costing has been another significant improvement for Oceanic Saunas. “One of our major issues was that we couldn’t cost things in sufficient detail. With MRPeasy, we can assign overheads and have the system automatically calculate product cost based on SKU configurations. I’m much more confident with it now, plus, I can do it very quickly.”

Sarah also particularly appreciates MRPeasy’s BOM with Parameters feature, which allows flexible product configurations. “We have product variations — different materials, finishes, details, and so on. It’s so easy to choose the variation and have MRPeasy automatically create the related orders, calculate costs and lead times, and even generate purchase orders for missing items. It takes loads of work off the team”.

She concludes with the clarity of someone who’s done the hard work: “Going through the process of learning what I needed the software to do was essential. While it took a while, it gave me the confidence to recognise good software when I saw it. MRPeasy is just nice to use, and everything you need, from CRM to production planning, is there. That sold it to me. We’ve definitely found new efficiencies with it,” she concludes. “MRPeasy supports the kind of manufacturing discipline we were aiming for and gives us the structure to adapt to change.”