Success Stories

Make no mistake about it: David Roberts is really an easy-going kind of guy. But listen to him talk about business for a few minutes and you might find yourself thinking otherwise.

Roberts is General Manager of ET Fasteners, a well-established distributor of industrial and construction fasteners based in Tyler, TX. Ask him about improving his company's efficiency and he'll tell you flat out: "Our business is far better served by maintaining 100 percent accuracy than by doing things faster. There just isn't room for errors."

Still, he will admit that as long as error rates remain under a fraction of a percent, "improving efficiency is an added bonus." It's not surprising to learn that Roberts has spent a lot of time recently thinking about both reducing error rates and improving efficiency - especially since ET Fasteners went live with their Activant Eclipse solution in mid-2001.

Keeping Customer Service Front and Center

Founded in 1978, ET Fasteners has always maintained a firm focus on customer service. Today, the company operates out of two facilities - in Tyler and Longview, TX - with a total of nearly 70,000 square feet of warehouse space and 25 employees. "That makes us large enough to offer a full range of fasteners, and small enough to provide our customers with personal service," says Roberts.

"With Eclipse, we can track every aspect of a customer's account," notes Roberts, "from order entry to delivery and beyond." The system lets customers order products using their own part numbers, for example, and even offers them detailed inventory reports after delivery.

Big Changes and a Big Step Forward

The company made the move to Eclipse after 13 years with their old system. And according to Technical Services Supervisor Mike Wilkins, the switch resulted in big changes throughout the organization. "We were prepared for the fact that it would take some time to get acquainted with all the new capabilities we had to learn," he explains. "In addition to installation training, all the training that Activant makes available is tremendous. Between UFO [the Eclipse user organization], face-to-face classes, and courses on the Web, you can find training on just about any subject at almost any time."

According to Wilkins, the biggest - and most important - changes have come from the use of Eclipse RF Warehouse, a fully integrated, real-time system that uses radio-frequency technology to automate warehouse operations. The system makes use of handheld RF data collection devices, which eliminate typing errors and keep inventory variances to under .01 percent, making for higher order fill rates and dramatically improved accuracy throughout the warehouse.

When the System Says It's in Stock, It's Got to Be There

You can appreciate how important inventory accuracy is to ET Fasteners when David Roberts points out that, "We may have someone driving 100 miles to pick up a single bolt from us. So when we say we've got something in stock, we'd better have it."

"We get real-time order and product flow information from the system," says Wilkins. "When it comes to line item order-picking, our average fill rate is now just a minute-and-a-half. Before we switched over to Eclipse, it was six minutes!" To understand the impact of that kind of improvement, consider that the company's warehouse staffers pick hundreds of line items a day.

What's more, average order select time has decreased by 33 percent, dropping from 18 minutes to 12, and average pull time has fallen by more than 50 percent - from 12 minutes to five and a half.

"But the system also makes everyone accountable for their speed and efficiency," Wilkins adds. "We get a report every week that shows exactly what's going on. And that's obviously a good thing."

From Roberts' perspective, the system offers another important benefit. "The whole thing is so easy to use that's it's virtually foolproof. It's actually hard to make an error," he jokes. "In fact, we could probably pull someone in off the street and they could be picking orders in five minutes."

Having RF Warehouse also helps Roberts in his role as General Manager. "With two separate facilities to run, I can watch what's going on at either location remotely. And I can check numbers all day, if I want," he adds. "So I can have a snapshot of how we're doing at any given moment - including a sudden leap or drop in sales. That really helps us nip potential problems in the bud."

More Features Lead to More Improvements

Even though the folks at ET Fasteners admit that RF Warehouse has made the biggest impact on their business since they installed Eclipse, there are other parts of the system that have made them equally happy. For example, when the conversation shifts to Work Order Processing, Wilkins points out that, "It's so easy to use, there's almost nothing to talk about."

And the company now uses e-manifests loaded onto palm computing devices for outbound orders. "That means we're totally paperless on the way back from a delivery," says Wilkins. "The system can print out a signature on an invoice, which eliminates a lot of confusion and potential errors."

Roberts adds, "Signature Capture cuts out a lot of steps for us, because everything we need is right there. And the same is true for Document Imaging. We're scanning in all our receiving documents. All of that gets order entry - and important information - closer to the customer. That's a tremendous benefit for both them and us."

The System Does All the Heavy Lifting

Task Automation Queues have also made a dramatic change in the way things are done at ET Fasteners. "By auto-generating everything from sales orders, to pick tickets, to invoices, the system turns the whole prospect of selling and purchasing into one efficient process," explains Wilkins. "It knows what to do next, depending upon what's required. It prioritizes everything for everyone - from day one."

"The Eclipse message system lets you send comments about orders or other transactions," Roberts notes. "So you can see exactly what someone is talking about. It even sets deadlines for responses, which all gets back to accountability. That's important to us.

"People here like the fact that information can flow so easily throughout the organization," he continues. "The system works for everyone's needs. It's not just a management tool."

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