Profiles in Supply Chain Enablement: A manufacturer of custom storage products for the home market gets its distribution house in order.
Company: Rev-A-Shelf (Jeffersontown, KY)
Company Size: Medium
Company Sector: Manufacturing
Area(s) of Enablement: Fulfillment/Logistics, Supply Chain Integration & Infrastructure
Enabler: Epicor Software Corporation (Irvine, CA)
Case Study: As the world's leading manufacturer of custom storage organizing products, Rev-A-Shelf produces and distributes products such as "lazy Susans," kitchen and bathroom organizers, closet organization products and childproof locking systems dealers, cabinet and furniture manufacturers and retail home centers. Rev-A-Shelf employs approximately 250 people in a 200,000 square-foot facility, producing a line of products manufactured and marketed globally to kitchen dealers, cabinet and furniture manufacturers, cabinet industry distributors and retail home centers.
Prior to implementing Epicor, Rev-A-Shelf operated with a paper-based receiving, picking and shipping process that provided no real-time inventory visibility, and as a result the company was experiencing a host of data-related problems. Michael Rodgers, information systems manager for Rev-a-Shelf, knew that to correct those problems, he would need a workforce management system (WMS), focusing on the return on investment (ROI) the implementation would bring.
"If you are a company with only $5 million in inventory and you are writing off just under $10,000 a month because you are losing it, that's more than $100,000 a year," Rodgers says. "Add to that the excess man-hours spent and the productivity losses, and it can easily cost between $200,000 and $300,000 just in the first year."
The Solution
Rev-A-Shelf implemented Epicor for Distribution which includes integrated modules for financials, sales order management and shipping, purchasing and receiving, quality control, production and warehouse management. The company wanted to make certain they could remain operational during implementation, which involved data migration in two stages. Both stages were completed within a month, assuring the company could close its month-end books. The last stage was to implement the Epicor Warehouse solution. Total implementation time was approximately two months.
"With Epicor, we're able to track every item from the time it comes in the door until it leaves our facilities," said Rodgers. "Productivity has increased in every work cell and we've reduced our warehouse space by one-half because the automated system enabled us to significantly reduce our on-hand inventory requirements. We've nearly eliminated inventory write-offs, increasing both inventory and shipping accuracy to 98 percent, while increasing our overall productivity by 25 percent."
At project kick-off, Rodgers estimated the payback for the total costs to purchase and implement his company's new WMS would be three to three-and-a-half years. Today, less than two years after going live with the project, Rev-A-Shelf has already been repaid for its investment.
For more stories of successful supply chain implementations, read the "2005 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100" article in the June/July 2005 issue of the magazine. Also watch the Today's Headlines section of SDCExec.com every Tuesday and Thursday for more in depth best practices drawn from this year's Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100.
Company: Rev-A-Shelf (Jeffersontown, KY)
Company Size: Medium
Company Sector: Manufacturing
Area(s) of Enablement: Fulfillment/Logistics, Supply Chain Integration & Infrastructure
Enabler: Epicor Software Corporation (Irvine, CA)
Case Study: As the world's leading manufacturer of custom storage organizing products, Rev-A-Shelf produces and distributes products such as "lazy Susans," kitchen and bathroom organizers, closet organization products and childproof locking systems dealers, cabinet and furniture manufacturers and retail home centers. Rev-A-Shelf employs approximately 250 people in a 200,000 square-foot facility, producing a line of products manufactured and marketed globally to kitchen dealers, cabinet and furniture manufacturers, cabinet industry distributors and retail home centers.Prior to implementing Epicor, Rev-A-Shelf operated with a paper-based receiving, picking and shipping process that provided no real-time inventory visibility, and as a result the company was experiencing a host of data-related problems. Michael Rodgers, information systems manager for Rev-a-Shelf, knew that to correct those problems, he would need a workforce management system (WMS), focusing on the return on investment (ROI) the implementation would bring.
"If you are a company with only $5 million in inventory and you are writing off just under $10,000 a month because you are losing it, that's more than $100,000 a year," Rodgers says. "Add to that the excess man-hours spent and the productivity losses, and it can easily cost between $200,000 and $300,000 just in the first year."
The Solution
Rev-A-Shelf implemented Epicor for Distribution which includes integrated modules for financials, sales order management and shipping, purchasing and receiving, quality control, production and warehouse management. The company wanted to make certain they could remain operational during implementation, which involved data migration in two stages. Both stages were completed within a month, assuring the company could close its month-end books. The last stage was to implement the Epicor Warehouse solution. Total implementation time was approximately two months.
"With Epicor, we're able to track every item from the time it comes in the door until it leaves our facilities," said Rodgers. "Productivity has increased in every work cell and we've reduced our warehouse space by one-half because the automated system enabled us to significantly reduce our on-hand inventory requirements. We've nearly eliminated inventory write-offs, increasing both inventory and shipping accuracy to 98 percent, while increasing our overall productivity by 25 percent."
At project kick-off, Rodgers estimated the payback for the total costs to purchase and implement his company's new WMS would be three to three-and-a-half years. Today, less than two years after going live with the project, Rev-A-Shelf has already been repaid for its investment.
For more stories of successful supply chain implementations, read the "2005 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100" article in the June/July 2005 issue of the magazine. Also watch the Today's Headlines section of SDCExec.com every Tuesday and Thursday for more in depth best practices drawn from this year's Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100.
