Apeel Sciences is a California-based food technology company that makes plant-based coatings designed to extend the shelf life of fresh produce. Its technology can be applied to products such as avocados, oranges, mandarins, and lemons, helping fruit stay ripe longer, reach consumers in better condition, and thereby reduce food waste and the use of single-use plastics.
Founded in 2012 by scientist James Rogers, the company grew out of research conducted at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Today, Apeel is headquartered in Goleta and employs nearly 100 people.
Big-name ERP proved too complex and expensive
To manage an international operation that was rapidly growing in complexity, Apeel Sciences needed a manufacturing ERP system.
“During a period of fast growth around 2020, we implemented a big-name ERP,” says Dave Giannini, Chief Software Architect. “While it covered our functionality requirements, it ultimately proved too complex and expensive for us.”
The team conducted a market search and evaluated several new manufacturing software solutions.
“At the end of the evaluation, MRPeasy was by far the best solution for us,” Giannini says.
Implementation took 4-5 months
Apeel Sciences began implementing MRPeasy in June 2025 and went live by the end of October, completing the transition in around 4-5 months.
One of the main challenges was migrating data. The team had to extract data from the existing system, map fields to MRPeasy, and import everything in the correct order.
Employees also had to adjust to a new system, but as users became familiar with MRPeasy, the resistance gradually disappeared.
“Over time, everybody realized how easy MRPeasy is to use,” Giannini says. “Now, they love the product compared to the previous one.”
100% of manufacturing flows through MRPeasy
Today, MRPeasy is used across the company’s core manufacturing workflow, from purchasing materials to producing and inspecting finished goods. The company relies heavily on inventory management to track materials and finished products, while bills of materials define the materials and quantities going into the products. Manufacturing orders then tie the process together, connecting purchasing, production, and quality activities, including inspections of incoming materials and completed products.
“One hundred percent of the manufacturing workflow is going through MRPeasy,” Giannini states.
The company handles customer orders through a separate front-end system, which is synced with MRPeasy via API, while Xledger is used for multi-entity financial reporting and Grafana for business intelligence. Rather than having employees work with separate dashboards in every business system, Apeel consolidates information into a single company-wide business intelligence dashboard.
Lower costs and better traceability
Reducing software expenses was one of the main reasons for replacing Oracle Fusion, and according to Giannini, the transition delivered the savings the company had expected.
“That was the entire reason why we did it, and it played out just the way we'd hoped,” he says.
Because Apeel operates in the food industry, regulatory compliance is also particularly important. The company uses MRPeasy to maintain FDA-mandated one-step-forward, one-step-back traceability.
“MRPeasy enables us to trace what goes into our coatings, which produce was treated, and where that produce ends up,” Giannini says.
Another vital factor in choosing MRPeasy was security. Giannini set up user permissions in MRPeasy and granted access to specific IP addresses via its own VPN and two-factor authentication, making access impossible for those without proper authorization.
The new software’s customizability played a major part in its selection, as well. Apeel was able to add required fields to purchase orders, sales orders, and manufacturing workflows, making it easier to allocate transactions correctly and reconcile financial data across its international operations.
Move beyond spreadsheets before they become a bottleneck
Giannini says spreadsheets can make perfect sense for very small companies. But as a business grows, spreadsheet-based processes become increasingly cumbersome. For growing manufacturers, he sees dedicated manufacturing software as a much more scalable option.
“At the price we're paying for MRPeasy, it's very reasonable,” he says. “It allows you to extend your processes without needing any background in software engineering.”
Giannini also points to usability as an important consideration when moving away from spreadsheets or replacing another ERP system.
“That is why MRPeasy is a good choice,” he says. “It’s easy to learn, and it feels very intuitive.”
Learn more at MRPeasy.com.
