During the pandemic, homeowners focused on updating and upgrading their spaces. This resulted in a huge uptick in home improvement business. Higher interest rates over the past few years caused that trend to wane. However, the recent rate cut has seen the upward trend reemerge as more homeowners look to refinance their homes at lower rates.
A new report suggests the renovation and home improvement sector will be big factors driving more activity in 2025. The surge in remodeling projects means more orders for manufacturers of windows, doors, cabinetry, and more. However, meeting demand while keeping costs low and customers satisfied is no easy task. That’s where Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems come in.
Let’s look at how Frontier ERP can help you meet the demand for increased home improvement business products and supplies.
How Frontier ERP Supports Home Improvement Business Growth
For manufacturers, efficient processes, accurate inventory management, and effective communication are key. Delays, miscommunications, or mismanaged resources can quickly lead to cost overruns and dissatisfied customers. Frontier ERP solves issues from home improvement business growth by integrating all business processes into one cohesive platform.
Frontier offers benefits like:
- Production Scheduling: Optimized production schedules to prevent delays and maximize efficiency.
- Inventory and Supply Chain Management: Real-time inventory visibility, ensuring materials are available when needed and reducing excess stock.
- Custom Orders and Complex Designs: Complex product configuration capture and tracking of customer requirements, reducing errors in custom orders.
- Cross-Departmental Visibility and Collaboration: Unified data across departments, promoting seamless communication and coordination.
- Better Financial Management and Cost Tracking: Accurate product costing, streamline invoicing, and improve cash flow management.
- Data-Driven Insights and Reporting: Real-time reporting and analytics, helping businesses make informed, data-driven decisions.
- Customer Satisfaction through Faster Response Times: Improved customer satisfaction by enabling instant status updates and customization options, leading to better satisfaction.
- Scalability for Growing Demand: Flexible and scalable can adapt to an increase in home improvement business without disrupting operations.
For each manufacturing sector within the home remodeling industry, Frontier ERP can offer unique advantages. Let’s explore how they can support each home improvement business segment.
Home Improvement Business Sector Manufacturing Segments
Frontier ERP helps you keep up with home improvement business demand for new and custom windows by streamlining your manufacturing operations.
1. Windows and Glass: Managing Customization and Inventory
Windows are a critical part of home improvement projects. Custom window orders often come with specific measurements, glass types, frame materials, and even color choices. For window and glass manufacturers, this means complex inventory management and production scheduling.
How Frontier ERP Helps
Frontier ERP helps manufacturers track inventory levels and production schedules in real time. This is essential for complex product configurations, ensuring that materials are available when needed, minimizing delays. Frontier ERP helps window manufacturers fulfill custom orders accurately and on time with integrated CPQ software, MES, and scheduling.
2. Doors: Ensuring Quality and Reducing Waste
Home improvement business trends are leaning towards high-quality, customized doors. Uniquely designed garage, interior, or exterior doors including those with specialty finishes or energy-efficient insulation have become popular. For door manufacturers, meeting these expectations requires careful order management and strict quality control.
How Frontier ERP Helps
Frontier ERP offers tools for tracking inventory, monitoring production progress, and ensuring quality checks. Since the data is in real time, it reduces the risk of order errors and helps manufacturers avoid excess waste. Door manufacturers can also optimize their workflows and improve resource utilization with Frontier.
3. Window Treatments: Scaling Production for High Volume
Window fashions like blinds, shades, and shutters are ever-changing in the home improvement business. From smart home features to the season’s latest colors, consumers want it all. With so many design options, window treatment manufacturers may face high-volume orders with various styles and materials.
How Frontier ERP Helps
As a leading ERP solution provider for custom manufacturers, Frontier has your back. Frontier ERP allows you to streamline high-volume production and track orders across multiple product lines. With ERP-driven automation, you can realize faster turnaround times while managing diverse product styles.
4. Furniture and Textiles: Balancing Order Management and Product
As home improvement business grows, so does the demand for custom furniture and flooring. Homeowners want unique, often eco-friendly furniture, carpeting, and rugs tailored to their specific tastes and spaces. For manufacturers, this requires scalable configuration options and efficient sales order management.
How Frontier ERP Helps
With Frontier, textile and furniture manufacturers can offer a variety of design options without bogging down the sales team. Product configuration within Frontier’s built-in CPQ software allows customers to select their preferred designs within your preset parameters. Once the specifications are selected, they can receive an immediate quote. Since the CPQ is integrated with inventory, production scheduling, and logistics, the quote includes a complete BOM, pricing, and delivery date.
5. Metal Products: Handling Complex Production and Supply Chains
Metal components are vital in the home improvement business, from fixtures to structural elements. Manufacturers and metal service centers often manage large supplier networks, complex production schedules, and high material costs.
How Frontier ERP Helps
Frontier’s Advanced Manufacturing Execution (AME) MES module provides real-time production scheduling, tracking, and paperless data visibility directly to work centers. This configuration-based ERP system optimizes every step of order fulfillment, from planning to execution, ensuring efficient and accurate production. Frontier’s Supply Chain Management module improves supplier coordination and streamlines production, ensuring they always have the right materials available without overstocking or facing delays.
6. Kitchen, Closet, and Bath Cabinets: Complex Configurations and Right Pricing
Custom bathroom, closet, and kitchen cabinet manufacturing is a large part of the home improvement business. The demand for personalization creates a need for complex configurations, precise quotes, and order and production tracking.
How Frontier ERP Helps
Frontier ERP’s built-in CPQ tool is essential for cabinet manufacturers to streamline the sales order process. Frontier helps your customers order the most complex product configurations within your preset parameters. This improves the customer experience and boosts the chances of closing sales. The powerful configurator also applies the right pricing based on design, discounts, and promotions.
7. HVAC Systems: Coordinating Production and Installation Needs
As homeowners prioritize energy efficiency, demand for HVAC systems with smart controls is rising. HVAC manufacturers must meet installation deadlines, manage inventories, and handle complex scheduling requirements.
How Frontier ERP Helps
Frontier ERP provides HVAC manufacturers with tools to align production schedules with installation requirements, keeping home renovation projects on track. Inventory management features help prevent overstocking and shortages. Plus order management tools ensure timely and accurate production, even for custom units. Frontier also provides the convenience of field service call tracking from right within the ERP system.
Conclusion
The growth of the home improvement business has brought both opportunity and challenge to manufacturers. ERP systems like Frontier, allow companies to stay agile by streamlining processes, improving accuracy, and optimizing resources.
For manufacturers in the home improvement sector, ERP is no longer just a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity to remain competitive and meet customer expectations. Whether you’re manufacturing windows, doors, furniture, or closet systems, Frontier ERP is the solution for you.