Accellos WMS for Microsoft Dynamics GP
COMPANY: Dosatron International, Inc.
KEY BENEFITS:- Accuracy improved from 60% to 98%,
- Efficiency levels increased from 75% to 85%
- Customer service levels increased from 60% to 90%
The Company
Dosatron International, Inc. (Dosatron) is a manufacturer and distributor of chemical dispensers known as Dosatron Units. The Florida-based organization works with companies in industries ranging from food and agriculture, to manufacturing and printing. The versatile Dosatron chemical dispensers are used by customers for such tasks as dispensing medication to livestock, sanitization, fertilizing soil, controlling pest problems, washing vehicles or metering out chemicals used in industrial manufacturing processes. Founded in 1986, Dosatron is a leader in its space, driving innovation in energy efficient and precise chemical dispenser systems.
The Challenge
Dosatron ships all customer orders for Dosatron units, accessories as well as parts and other maintenance products from of its 9,000 square foot warehouse. Eleven warehouse employees manage the warehouse operations from receiving through to order fulfillment and shipping.
The Dosatron warehouse was managed through a warehouse management system, but the organization found that the lack of inventory control tools within its WMS and poor integration with its ERP system—Microsoft Great Plains—were creating productivity and customer service challenges. Due to the WMS’ poor integration with Microsoft Great Plains, inventory information residing on separate systems was difficult for the management team to find, frustrating the organization’s efforts to accurately measure and increase warehouse productivity levels. "Our existing WMS was proving to be a stumbling block in our continual drive to increase our customer service levels, something that is of utmost importance to our organization," Temko says. "The system we were operating on provided us only with location management tools and was unable to give us the means to use our WMS as a business intelligence tool. As we began looking at ways to increase our throughput and improve order accuracy, not being able to access such information became a real challenge for us." As Dosatron’s business grew the existing WMS’ performance also became a challenge. The existing system required a high level of maintenance and support, placing new demands on Dosatron’s warehouse employees. The amount of errors and omissions caused by the WMS meant the company had to dedicate one of its warehouse staff to resolving such problems on a full time basis.
The Solution
In 2004, Dosatron began working with Warehouse Management Solutions Inc., a warehouse technology consulting organization, on finding a new WMS. The consultants recommended Dosatron implement RADIO BEACON WMS within its warehouse, based on its effective integration with Microsoft Great Plains as well as its short roll out time, flexibility and ease of use. In November of 2003 Dosatron decided to implement RADIO BEACON WMS V5.1 in its warehouse.
"The implementation of RADIO BEACON WMS exceeded our expectations. The first day of use in our production environment was a complete success and our heaviest users of the system were able to operate it with little support after only a few days," Temko says. "A big part of the success of this project was the service provided by Warehouse Management Solutions Inc. It is refreshing to work with a company who understands the importance of knowing a customer’s operations to make sure the solution works as needed." The RADIO BEACON WMS integrates with a number of Microsoft ERP products, including Microsoft Axapta, Microsoft Solomon as well as Microsoft Great Plains. Through this integration, Dosatron is able to gain complete visibility into its supply chain performance and is able to leverage such information to make more informed business decisions. The integration of the RADIO BEACON WMS with Microsoft Great Plains also allows Dosatron to accurately track the movement of products and components through its distribution cycle, significantly improving inventory management capabilities. With RADIO BEACON WMS Dosatron has also gained powerful inventory planning, productivity monitoring and reporting tools to the organization, allowing them to track warehouse operations in real-time. "Our goal through the WMS selection process was to create a much more highly performing system so we had definite requirements that our new WMS would have to meet for us to consider it and RADIO BEACON met all those requirements," Temko says. "Through a standard interface provided by Blue Moon Industries, RADIO BEACON WMS was able to seamlessly integrate into Great Plains, providing us with the functionality we had been hoping for." The Benefits Introducing RADIO BEACON WMS to Dosatron gave the company the high performance system they were looking for, and has brought significant productivity, efficiency and accuracy benefits to the warehouse. In the first six months the organization has seen its accuracy levels rise from 60% to 98%, and efficiency levels increased from 75% to 85% throughout the warehouse. Operations improvements have allowed Dosatron to continue improving its customer service levels, raising customer satisfaction with service from 60% to 90%.
The company has also seen marked productivity gains since implementing RADIO BEACON WMS. In early 2004 Dosatron experienced a 17% increase in sales over the same period in 2003 and were able to handle the increased workload with the same number of warehouse staff. WMS performance issues, which once plagued the Dosatron warehouse forcing the organization to dedicate one of its warehouse staff to only resolve WMS issues, have also largely vanished. The company has been able to reduce the amount of time spent on WMS maintenance from eight hours to two hours per day, freeing the support staff to concentrate on more strategic tasks. "Our company is focused on providing the highest quality product and services to our customers and we’re thrilled to have a new tool at our disposal that will make it easier for us to consistently meet and exceed our customers’ expectations," Temko says. "We’re excited to know that RADIO BEACON WMS will be able to support our business needs as our organization grows for years to come."
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