How High Speed Gear Eliminated 211 Inefficient SKUs and Cut Reporting from 7 Hours to 15 Minutes

What happens when reporting takes longer than making decisions?

High Speed Gear manufactures premium tactical equipment for military, law enforcement and commercial markets. With almost 5,000 SKUs, multiple brands and thousands of dealer relationships, the company had no shortage of data, but turning that data into useful information had become a daily challenge.

Every morning began with exporting information into Excel, updating formulas and manually building reports before anyone could begin analysing the business. As the company continued to grow through acquisitions and product expansion, those spreadsheets became increasingly difficult to maintain.

After implementing Business Central Insights alongside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, High Speed Gear replaced hours of manual reporting with live Power BI dashboards, reduced reporting time from six to seven hours each day to around 15 minutes, and uncovered 211 inefficient SKUs that were creating unnecessary manufacturing costs.

At a Glance

Customer: High Speed Gear

Industry: Manufacturing

ERP: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Solution: Business Central Insights

Products Managed: Nearly 5,000 SKUs

The Challenge Wasn't Manufacturing

Manufacturing wasn't slowing High Speed Gear down, reporting was.

The business had successfully implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, but management information still depended on spreadsheets, manual exports and complex Excel workbooks that required constant maintenance.

As reporting requirements grew, so did the risks. A single incorrect formula could affect critical business decisions, while every report took hours to prepare before leaders could begin analysing performance.

As Allison Mitchum, Vice President of High Speed Gear, explained:

"One wrong formula can change everything. When you're managing millions of dollars across multiple brands, it has to be accurate."

The company had even dedicated a full-time role purely to producing spreadsheets, while managers waited for reports before they could investigate sales trends, manufacturing efficiency or profitability.

From Spreadsheet Building to Business Insight

Rather than building another custom Power BI solution, High Speed Gear chose Business Central Insights because it already included the semantic model, measures and dashboards needed to analyse Business Central data immediately.

Instead of exporting data every morning, management could access live dashboards showing shipments, profitability, manufacturing performance and customer activity in real time.

The difference wasn't simply faster reporting.

Users could drill from summary dashboards directly into customers, orders and transactions, allowing issues to be investigated immediately instead of rebuilding another spreadsheet.

As Mitchum described it:

"Now I have bookmarks. I can come in every morning, hit a bookmark, and instantly see what we shipped yesterday and the profitability we made."

Business Impact

The impact was felt almost immediately across the business.

Reporting that previously occupied most of a working day now takes around 15 minutes, eliminating an estimated $40,000 per year in manual reporting costs. More importantly, managers no longer wait for reports, they simply open a dashboard whenever they need information.

Sales teams also gained far greater visibility into customer performance. Using Business Central Insights they identified 36 declining customer accounts, tracked performance across more than 500 dealers, and uncovered new revenue opportunities before accounts were lost.

Manufacturing teams experienced equally significant improvements. By analysing production data more effectively, High Speed Gear identified 211 low-value SKUs that were creating unnecessary factory runs and reducing production efficiency.

Removing those products improved factory throughput while reducing costly interruptions caused by small production batches.

As Mitchum put it:

"We were able to eliminate 211 SKUs from factory runs that were creating inefficiencies."

What Other Business Central Users Can Learn

Many manufacturers already have the information they need inside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The challenge is making that information available quickly enough to support decisions.

When reporting depends on spreadsheets, valuable time is spent preparing data instead of acting on it. As businesses grow, those manual processes become increasingly difficult to maintain and introduce unnecessary risk.

High Speed Gear demonstrates how replacing spreadsheet-based reporting with real-time Power BI dashboards can improve far more than efficiency. It gives leadership faster access to trusted information, helps manufacturing teams identify waste, and enables sales teams to react before opportunities are lost.

For growing manufacturers, reporting should become a competitive advantage, not another production bottleneck.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much reporting time did High Speed Gear save?

Business Central Insights reduced reporting from approximately six to seven hours per day to around fifteen minutes using automated Power BI dashboards connected directly to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

What manufacturing improvements were achieved?

High Speed Gear identified and removed 211 inefficient SKUs that were creating unnecessary factory runs, improving production efficiency and reducing manufacturing waste.

How did Business Central Insights improve sales reporting?

Sales teams gained real-time visibility into customer performance, identified 36 declining accounts, tracked more than 500 dealer relationships and discovered additional revenue opportunities.

Want to Improve Manufacturing Reporting in Business Central?

Business Central Insights helps manufacturers replace manual spreadsheet reporting with real-time Power BI dashboards built specifically for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Gain visibility across production, inventory, warehouse operations, purchasing, sales performance and profitability from a single trusted reporting platform.

Learn more about Business Central Insights

https://businesscentralinsights.com

Explore Manufacturing Insights

https://businesscentralinsights.com/manufacturing

Book a personalised demonstration

https://businesscentralinsights.com/demo