Success Stories

Builders and contractors in the greater Houston area rely on Acme Architectural Supply for everything from locks to door closers to washroom fixtures to weather stripping. The company's success in serving its customers, however, hinges on knowing what's going on in its warehouse, and Acme's Great Plains Software solution lacked the capacity to tell managers what was on the shelves.

"We had already barcoded our inventory and kept looking for warehouse management systems for our old solution," said Acme Comptroller Larry Rice. "We kept getting pushed to third-party providers." Acme decided it was time to abandon their solution for one that was tailored for the distribution industry. They chose Activant Prophet 21.

From Chaos to Certainty in the Warehouse

"It changed the whole way we do business," said Rice. "We had struggled to keep accurate inventory counts in our old system, so our salespeople had been pulling their own orders, which was disastrous for many reasons.

"Our company isn't set up to handle annual inventory counts," he explained. "Shutting the business down is something we can't do, and having everyone come in on the weekend, it's not the way our company's set up. So we have to rely on cycle counts."

On Acme's old solution, cycle counts required staff to come in early, before the start of business, and cover a section of the warehouse. With Acme's existing hardware and Prophet 21's Wireless Warehouse Management Solution, cycle counts can now be done on the fly, cutting cycle count time by two-thirds. "We've now gotten to the point where the sales force can rely on our numbers," Rice said.

They Did It Themselves and Saved

This in turn has allowed Acme to allocate staff more effectively. Instead of having a large sales staff act as part-time warehouse staff, Acme shifted sales positions to the warehouse floor, resulting in labor cost savings of 15 percent. "Warehouse staff can now make sure items are properly received and put in the right bins," he said.

Rice said that Acme also wanted to do the data conversion on its own. That Prophet 21 used the same database their old solution helped, and, Rice added, "Activant was flexible enough to let us implement the system ourselves."

It all adds up to faster operations and better margins across the board for Acme. "It's allowed for a fairly rapid return on our investment," Rice said.

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