Key Takeaways:

Maintaining and improving the high levels of customer service within a complex multi-channel distribution network would be key to the project's success while reducing the total amount of cash employed in the business.

• A global supply chain with multiple production data collection systems (PDCs) would need a structured sales and operations planning (S&OP) process along with a warehouse management system (WMS) that could affect ‘right place right time’ inventory deployment and planning for the manufacturing and purchasing operations.
• State and local compliance for consumer packaging and chemical products presented challenges and complexity.
• Quick access to business information through KPIs from “one source of truth” allowed management to forecast financials and positively impact the business outcomes on a timely basis, including a best-in-class financial closing process and cost management.

Client:

A $480 million Chemical & Consumer Goods Manufacturer engaged RubinBrown to help them evaluate and understand how a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system could help solve the company’s current pain points. Additionally, they wanted to know the differentiators for facilitating ERP system best practices in the pest control industry. The selected software solution was expected to facilitate the following key business objectives:

• Efficiency of process and enabled workflow
• Data Integrity – a single system of enterprise data
• Compliance and control
• Scalability to support future growth (organic and acquisitions)
• Flexibility and Agility to satisfy changing market demands
• Customer satisfaction

Challenge:

The client sold through multiple channels of distribution, most of which carried extremely short lead times and required a high level of on-time delivery to avoid penalties and maintain a high supplier ranking. The industry in which they worked had strict levels of compliance due to the chemical materials being used, and the product had to maintain certain certificates and registrations in each state to allow for sale.

After the company experienced rapid growth, the internal systems and processes did not keep up with the increased workload, putting more pressure on the staff to accommodate the additional product lines and customers. The client had grown its systems by augmenting the backbone of the IT architecture with multiple localized software packages that worked independently and required multiple interfaces with the AS400 system. This made data difficult to deliver to management and often conflicted as there were multiple sources of information. The financial closing process, as well as AP and AR processing, were also extremely cumbersome.

To meet customer demand, multiple product distribution centers (PDCs) were established, resulting in inflated overall inventory levels. The new system needed to optimize stock levels and internal transfers between PDCs to reduce total inventory while maintaining, or improving, current high service standards.