Success Stories

Activant Helps Florida-based Fastener Distributor Decrease Inventory Levels, Save on Freight Costs, and Simplify Cycle Counts

Allowing salespeople to determine what inventory to carry in your warehouse is a "golden no-no," says Don Rushlow, inventory manager of Fastening Systems, Inc. Yet, for many years, that is exactly what many distributors - including Fastening Systems - did.

"We had so much extra stock because we gave our reps indiscriminate power to buy whatever they thought customers needed," Rushlow says. Now, because of parameters entered into Acclaim, the company's Activant solution, staffers cannot place purchase orders for non-stock items - like left-handed hex nuts - without first receiving the customer's order.

"We've reduced inventory levels by at least 15 percent because we've established rules and set limits in our system," Rushlow says. "Plus, we're not just walking through the warehouse to decide what we need to buy. We base purchasing on usage and requirement reports now."

Dollars on the Bottom Line

Fastening Systems, based in Jacksonville, FL, employs 50 people at its nine locations. As a distributor of fasteners - including nails, staples and ancillary tools - it imports many of its products from overseas markets.

To ensure that Fastening Systems always takes advantage of vendor incentives - like vendor-paid freight - Rushlow uses functionality that translates the amount of product he imports into its weight. "I have 16 containers coming in from overseas each month, and freight gets very expensive," he says.

Fastening Systems' Activant solution stores information about minimum purchase requirements for free freight, as well as item weights for its major vendors. "This way, when I finish creating a PO for threaded rods or nuts and washers, the system tells me how much more I need to order to get the prepaid freight," Rushlow says. The functionality has saved thousands of dollars: "Every dollar we save in freight is a dollar on our bottom line."

Inventory Simplified

Fastening Systems' distribution center, at its main location in Jacksonville, has dozens of aisles lined with thousands of bins, each stocked with different sizes of nails, staples, screws, and other fasteners.

Recently, Rushlow realized that he could save a substantial amount of time during inventory by assigning each bin a location in the company's Activant solution. "We were printing lists by item code, and running all over the warehouse, trying to find things. It wasn't the right way to take inventory."

Before Rushlow assigned items bin locations, inventory took more than 15 hours and lasted an entire weekend - from Friday evening through late Sunday afternoon. Now, inventory takes 8 hours, and employees are home before dinner on Saturday - saving Fastening Systems hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars in overtime costs.

Other Benefits

Other areas of Fastening Systems' operations have benefited, as well. Denise Stinson, controller, reports that use of credit validation functionality and better utilization of Acclaim's Cash Collections module have resulted in a 20 percent reduction in accounts receivable (AR) days.

"We use Activant in every part of our business," Stinson concludes. "The key is using everything that's available. It's a great system, and we've seen a lot of great results."

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