Exponential Grow and ERP

Isaac Rogers, Vice President of Operations, Smith Drug, said, “VAI worked to fully customize S2K to meet our needs and interface with our existing modules.  The solution has helped improve the company’s efficiency in warehousing and distribution operations, thus allowing us to open a third location, one of our primary goals.”

What happens when a wholesale and distribution company grows exponentially? 

Over the past decade, Smith Drug Company found out when it experienced enormous growth. The company knew that it would soon push the limits of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. In order to maintain its growth potential, remain competitive, respond to the dynamically changing industry and supply its customers with unparalleled service, Smith Drug Company developed an aggressive initiative to enhance its technology.

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“The company’s legacy system, written in-house, was no longer able to accommodate the business’ needs, especially in the areas of inventory management and customer service,” said Claudio Gallina, Project Manager, VAI.

Smith Drug Company had simply outgrown its technology.

·         The continuously growing company was confined to just two warehouses and unable to reach its potential.

·         Manually enter inventory information increased time usage and impeded replenishment process.

·         Difficult for users to determine exact quantities of product in the warehouse.

The ideal solution would be highly functional and capable of interfacing with existing modules, while adhering to industry regulations.

·         Strong need to expand beyond its two warehouse facilities.

·         Ability to scale its technological resources.

·         Proactively preparing for the future.

Using an ERP with a robust, integrated warehouse management system (WMS), and incorporating this into other key aspects of the business would maximize the solution’s potential throughout the organization.

·         Alerting employees of errors as they occurred.

·         Tracking inventory movement more closely.

·         Easily check received item quantities.

·         Check return quantities processed.

·         Automated replenishment.

·         Eliminating the mistakes.

·         The system schedules purchases before products runs out.

·         Employees can quickly create reports and retrieve customer and order information.

·         Focusing on exceptional customer service and accurate inventory management.

Smith Drug Company now has room to grow and is poised for continuous expansion in the years to come.

 

Corporate growth is a needed challenge and is somewhat rare in today’s economy.  More business is great, but if the overhead of the new business crushes the infrastructure of an organization, then it can be a mixed blessing.  In order to process more orders through more locations and maintain great customer service, there has to be some sort of automation.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions are a great source of automation.  Picked and implemented correctly a business will have new tools to manage material, labor and overhead associated with warehouse operations.  More information, more accuracy, better allocation of resources and the ability to look down at the maze of operations instead of being caught in the maze.

Dolvin Consulting works with Manufacturers, Distributors and Specialty Retailers to help them streamline their computer operations with ERP solutions so that they reduce costs and improve profits. 

Contact us today so we can start working with your team to drive improvements in your operations.  We are not here to tell you how to run your business.  We both know that you already know how to do that.  We are here to provide you with better tools to manage what you are already doing.