A $58 million food manufacturer was watching money literally expire on their warehouse shelves. With inventory moving at lightning speed, products were constantly being misplaced in their warehouse. By the time they were found, many items had already expired – resulting in unhappy customers, missed shipments, and massive compliance fees.
In this episode of One Fail, One Fix, Stephanie Clark from shares how implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Insight Works Warehouse Insight transformed their warehouse operations. Watch as she reveals the sometimes chaotic journey from manual processes to barcode scanning – including consultants running around with signs yelling "SCAN, SCAN, SCAN!" – and how it led to saving $350,000 in compliance fees in just six months.
Transcription
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
This is One Fail, One Fix with Stephanie Clark from Elliott Clark Consulting. Today we are talking about a $58 million food manufacturer that learned the hard way how fast-moving inventory can lead to some major warehouse fails.
Here's the problem: with food inventory moving so quickly, they were constantly misplacing products in the warehouse. When that happened, the products expired before they even left the building.
The result? Big headaches. Unhappy customers, missed shipments, and massive compliance fees. They needed a better way to manage and track inventory before this fail got even more out of control.
Stephanie, what was the fix for this fail?
Stephanie Clark, Elliott Clark Consulting:
Well, the first step was to get them off their old Microsoft Dynamics platform and onto Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Yet, that wasn't going to be enough. That would give them control over their locations, their bins, those kinds of things. But inventory moves fast in a food warehouse.
So we also included Insight Works Warehouse Insight, so they could also do barcode scanning. That way, they could finally track inventory in real time and eliminate all those warehouse errors and issues.
But I'll be honest, it wasn't smooth sailing at first, as is often the case when you go from a warehouse that's fully manual to fully barcoded. There's a lot of practice needed there, and the client just didn’t get enough practice in. We recommended to delay the go live and get a little bit more practice for a few more weeks, but the leadership said, nope, we're gonna move forward.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
Okay. So what happened next when they moved forward?
Stephanie Clark, Elliott Clark Consulting:
So we did go live. Imagine this fast-moving warehouse, forklifts everywhere, consultants running around with big signs screaming, “SCAN, SCAN, SCAN!” That’s the only way we could keep all the inventory accounted for and keep them on track. It took a couple of weeks of that. It wasn’t fun at the time, but now it's a funny story.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
That sounds like quite the scene. But it also sounds like you were really truly committed to their success as their ERP partner, not everybody would do that. So what were the results from this fix?
Stephanie Clark, Elliott Clark Consulting:
Really good fast results within the first six months. They had already saved $350,000 (in the first six months) just in compliance fees from missed shipments or incorrect shipments. They reduced their expired inventory by 55%, which in food, that’s amazing, and then most importantly, they had a huge boost in customer satisfaction. So it was a fantastic win for them.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
Stephanie, what would your advice be for other companies to really try to avoid this type of fail in the first place?
Stephanie Clark, Elliott Clark Consulting:
In the first place, my key advice is don’t wait. They implemented Microsoft Dynamics SL for their accounting team. They thought that would be enough, they kind of forgot that operations, as they grew, was going to need systems as well. Paper was not going to be enough, and by waiting so long, they got themselves in a lot of trouble. And so leadership even admitted, had we done this sooner we would have literally saved millions. So don’t let that happen to you. If, you know, you’re growing, if you know you’re having these problems, make sure you have systems in place for both accounting and operations.
And if you're on one of the older Dynamics products, get to the cloud. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is amazing; you will love it. Your partner can help you get there and you’ll wonder why you waited so long.
Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog:
Great advice. And what should people know about your company, Elliott Clark Consulting?
Stephanie Clark, Elliott Clark Consulting:
Thanks. Here at Elliott Clark Consulting, we are a boutique Partner with a mission. We are bound and determined to help smaller manufacturers level the playing field. We help growing manufacturers with optimizing their processes and embracing technology so they are positioned for that growth and can increase their profitability. In short, we want to give them a chance to be more competitive.
By ERP Software Blog Writer, www.erpsoftwareblog.com