Warehouse Distribution Software Cuts Shipping Inefficiencies

Shipping is a core competency for wholesale distributors yet most distributors lack an efficient shipping process.  

Some of the biggest sources of waste are as follows:

1) Excessively large cartons: Using cartons that are too big for the products being shipped will result in wasted materials, labor and freight costs.

2) Overprotection: Poorly trained or undermanaged operators can use the wrong materials or excessive amounts of materials when it’s unneeded, wasteful and expensive. This kind of waste also makes customers unhappy because the packages are hard to open and generate a lot of trash.

3) Unneeded expensive equipment: Costly equipment is hard to justify for shipping operations that don’t handle high volumes of homogeneous shipments.

4) Improper shipments: Shipments via company trucks are a costly choice when an outside carrier could complete the job for less.

5) Eating shipping costs: Failure to recognize opportunities to pass freight costs along to customers can add up.

Fortunately, technology can help to improve the shipping process. Warehouse distribution software plays an important part in managing shipping for distributors. To read some examples of how technology can help you streamline your shipping process, visit the Advanced Distribution Software Today news blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Follow Us on Twitter

Borch Machinery Lowers Operating Costs with Epicor

Established in early 2003, Borch Machinery Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the design, manufacturing, and sales of high-precision and energy-saving injection moulding machines.

The company has two production bases in China: Guangzhou and Hangzhou, and has more than 900 employees. Over the last decade, the company has become a leader in research and development capabilities, manufacturing capacity, and marketing for the plastic machinery industry. As the company’s influence grew in reaching overseas markets, certain challenges arose:

• A need for better market response, lower operating costs, faster production, and higher quality services
• Existing ERP limitations restricted development Solutions

Borch chose Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for the following benefits:

• Increase in profit margin with the enhanced ability to control costs
• Real-time information ensures up-to-date pricing information
• Cost efficiencies delivered through streamlined business processes
• Supply chain portal has been greatly enhanced, increasing inventory turnover
• Increase operational efficiency in the production department
• Effectively reduce the number of work hours wasted and improve equipment utilization

To learn more about the Borch Epicor ERP implementation and to read other Epicor case studies, visit the Epicor Customer Success Stories news blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

 

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

 

Follow Us on Twitter

Swedish Retailer Rusta Selects IFS for Expansion Plans

IFS, a global enterprise applications company, recently announced that Rusta AB, a leading Swedish retailer of home and leisure products, has selected the IFS Applications™ Retail suite to support its future growth and international expansion. Rusta is its own importer and wholesaler, as well as distributor and retailer. Rusta has over 1,300 employees working in its 71 stores, warehouses or offices in Sweden and Asia.

Operating a network of 71 stores with more than 55,000 daily customers, Rusta is widely regarded as a best-in-class retailer in terms of key benchmarks such as growth, market share expansion, profitability, and customer loyalty. The company is currently entering a new phase of its business plan, driving the need for improved system support to enable accelerated growth and international expansion. The implementation of the IFS Applications Retail suite will replace 50 percent of existing systems.

The IFS solution, which covers all retail processes including business intelligence (BI) and enterprise mobility, will be implemented across Rusta’s international operations, comprising headquarters, stores, warehousing facilities and its extensive network of Asian sourcing offices. 

IFS™is a public company founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications™, a component-based extended ERP suite. IFS focuses on industries where management of any of the following four core processes is strategic: service and asset, manufacturing, supply chain, and projects.

To learn more, visit the IFS Newsroom.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Follow Us on Twitter

Acumatica: Helping Business Move Into the Cloud

The Cloud has changed the way small and medium-sized companies do business. Business process automation has evolved with the invention of new disruptive technologies. Companies that harness the power of new technology are able to gain an advantage over competitors. The key is knowing when to adopt – too soon and you will spend more time on technology than your business – too late and you will be at a competitive disadvantage.

ERP has evolved from the days of clunky user interface, to the early days of SaaS, to the promise of Cloud ERP software. Key technological improvements driving ERP change include moving from DOS to Windows, maturation of web technology, internet ubiquity, server virtualization, and the proliferation of mobile devices. These technologies have shaped new software that allows employees to work anywhere, on any device with a browser.

Cloud technology has also created new business models, such as software as a service (SaaS) for purchasing and delivering software. Businesses need to know the right questions to ask before going cloud. How easy is it to customize? What is vendor lock-in? Are there deployment options? Data accessibility and security? With the right software vendor, businesses gain advanced technology with a flexible pricing model that allows them to grow and shrink as needed.

To learn more about moving your business into the Cloud, visit the Acumatica news blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Follow Us on Twitter

Do You Need Better Business Intelligence?

Does Your Company Needs Better Business Intelligence?

Very often, small and mid-size business owners spend their time solving operational problems that could have been anticipated and planned for with the use of business intelligence. Phocas, makers of award-winning business intelligence (BI) software designed for manufacturing, distribution and retail companies, presents several indicators to help you determine if BI could benefit your operations.

1. Your idea of business intelligence is a spreadsheet
Using spreadsheets for analysis doesn’t mean you have business intelligence. Spreadsheet-based BI is highly inefficient and mostly ineffective. True business intelligence delivers accurate insights based on consolidated, real-time data to minimise errors. And a great BI tool is built on a simple interface to maximise efficiency.

 2. Your business intelligence process is largely manual
Business intelligence technology no longer requires manual data entry and manipulation from disparate systems. Current business intelligence tools allow you to automate several processes – report generation, data consolidation, de-duping – to expedite the data analysis and generate insight.

3. It takes a few days to draw insight from your data
The goal of BI is to help you make better decisions in real time. If its taking decision makers too long to receive, analyse and act on the data you are simply using reporting, not Business Intelligence.

To learn more about these, and other, indicators that your business intelligence methods are below par, visit the Phocas news blog and download their eBook, Sales Guide to Analytics.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Follow Us on Twitter

Wholesale Distribution and Supply Chain Analytics

Supply chain analytics can lead to better performance, but many distributors aren’t even scratching the surface of what they can do.

A recent article from Data Informed on the Advanced Distribution Software website reports that nine out of 10 distributors are struggling to bolster their business. There are two main reasons for that trend: the inability to view the supply chain as an elaborate system and the underdevelopment or ineffective use of analytics.

Analytics is the process of breaking down complex information into its elements, organizing the elements and interpreting them. For most companies, the word analytics is synonymous with reporting. But despite thirty years of supply chain technology evolution, the most commonly used system for supply chain planning is a spreadsheet. Companies cannot effectively model the trade-offs of growth, profitability, supply chain cycles such as procure to pay and inventory turns, and business operations complexity on a spreadsheet. As that complexity increases, most companies are unable to use supply chain systems to improve operating margin and inventory cycles.

To learn more about supply chain analytics and read more of the Data Informed article, visit the Advanced Distribution Software news blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Follow Us on Twitter

Distribution One's V2 ERP Helps Security Lock Distributors Achieve Growth

With over 500,000 products in stock and over 100 manufacturers represented, Security Lock Distributors is a wholesale source for lock, architectural, and access control hardware, boasting the largest in-stock inventory in the security industry.

While the company had an information-based website, it did not offer customers the ability to conduct business online or even via email. The only way to place an order was by fax or through the call center. The company's old mainframe system was extremely inefficient and non-intuitive. Unlike a Windows environment, the old system required employees to remember numerous keystrokes. This had a severe impact on productivity, taking new employees up to 30-minutes just to process a single order.

With four locations, including its headquarters in Westwood, MA and three distribution centers across the United States, it was clear Security Lock Distributors needed a modern, automated ERP system to streamline its operations, increase its visibility across the entire enterprise, and most importantly, achieve the business agility to meet the changing needs of its customers.

After considering various solutions, Security Lock Distributors selected the V2 ERP solution from Distribution One. V2 ERP is a complete system for Wholesalers and Distributors for automating all aspects of business operations, including order entry, sales, purchasing, inventory, CRM, accounting, and finance. In addition, V2 is extremely user-friendly with all screens and menus have a consistent look and feel that is similar to most Microsoft® products which reduces training and processing time for employees. Since implementing V2 and its e-commerce website, Security Lock Distributors has decreased the number of calls to its call center by 20%. The company has also increased its shipping rate to 98% because employees are far more productive and efficient.

To learn more about Distribution One, their products, and case studies, visit their vendor webpage.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Follow Us on Twitter