|
Growing Pains.
A small manufacturing company was experiencing rapid growth. Their existing
processes could not sustain further expansion as the number of trading partners
with complex and varied data requirements began to increase. In order to
enable that growth, they turned to RESPEC. RESPEC partnered with this
manufacturing to produce a solution that not only met their needs, but exceeded
them. The project paid for itself in less than 6 months due the cost
savings that were realized. Follows are just a few examples of the problems
that were faced, and how RESPEC helped this manufacturing company overcome and
manage their growth.
Problem : Double Data Entry
An existing Enterprise resource planning (ERP) application was in place. This
system was used to manage most of their internal processes such as order entry,
invoicing, inventory control, and financials, but was not used for shipping
distribution. An automated process exported order data from the ERP system to
their existing legacy shipping and distribution system. Once an order is
fulfilled, manual data entry was required to update the ERP system so that
invoicing could be done and inventory updated.
The RESPEC Solution
While developing the shipping and distribution application, RESPEC incorporated
interfaces to accommodate importing of data as well as exporting completed
orders back into the existing ERP system. This integration reduced manual input
by an average of 10 hours per day producing huge cost savings and increased
accuracy.
Problem: Dependency on 3rd Party and Closed Architecture Software
A major concern was the dependency upon 3rd Party software that became
“orphaned”. Orphaned software is software will no longer be updated or
supported by the company offering and selling that software. Often times even
when support was available, the support received was inadequate.
Not only is there a risk of software being orphaned, but there is also a
significant risk in reliance on that software for important business practices.
The software had a “closed” architecture, which means it could not be modified
or updated by anyone who did not own the code. Often, trading partners changed
their EDI requirements which in turn required a change of the software. If
support has been dropped, or if timely changes cannot be made to the software,
then business was negatively impacted.
The RESPEC Solution
RESPEC responded to this issue by architecting the shipping and distribution
software by using industry standard tools and processes. In addition, RESPEC
provided a complete set of the source code of the modules that comprised the
software application. This provided an unprecedented level of flexibility for
future changes that were not presently available with proprietary software. The
application belonged to the manufacturing company, not solely to a software
company. This essentially de-coupled the manufacturer from a complete
dependency on RESPEC. Due to strong customer satisfaction, RESPEC continues to
extend and enhance this application, but RESPEC did not lock the manufacturing
company into a relationship. This approach of providing the source code of this
application, put the manufacturing company’s future needs in the driver’s seat
with regards to future changes and enhancements.
Problem – UPS Integration
UPS’ WorldShip product was being utilized for smaller-sized orders.
Although the Worldship product handled the job adequately, it still required
that shipping information already available with the current system be
re-entered into WorldShip.
The RESPEC Solution
RESPEC’s solution was to fully integrate the shipping application with UPS
Online services. A separate application like Worldship was no longer needed as
the shipping and distribution application communicated directly with UPS. This
allowed for accurate and up-to-the-minute rate charges for shipping a package
to be captured automatically during the packing process. Labels were
automatically printed and could be applied to the box as soon as it was closed.
Daily manifests were automatically created and transmitted to UPS from the
shipping application.
UPS address validation was used to ensure that shipping addresses were valid
BEFORE it was shipped, thereby reducing the costs associated with product
returns due to non-delivery. When UPS changed it rates, nothing was needed to
be done as rate quotes were received directly from UPS’ online system. UPS
tracking numbers were automatically generated and available the minute a box
was fully packed providing for better customer service.
This full and robust integration with UPS Online Services not only provided
greater accuracy and improved customer service, but reduced manual data input
by an average of 6 hours per day.
Problem: Information Flow
In a broader sense, a substantial problem also existed with controlling
information flow. Since EDI systems rely fundamentally on the ability to pass
information seamlessly and reliably to trading partners, this is the area where
the problem is most acutely felt. Success in business relies increasingly on
the ability to move information fluidly while protecting its integrity. Because
of budget considerations, small manufacturers, often depend on third-party
proprietary applications to process data. Inherently, these applications seek
to control access and dissemination of data through very rigid and narrow
channels. Thus small manufacturers are faced with a continual problem in trying
to move information from one aspect of business to another while using programs
that are designed to inhibit this movement. The end result is either a great
deal of manual data entry, which leads to loss of information integrity, or a
series of complicated and unreliable “patches”.
The RESPEC Solution
RESPEC’s response to this fundamental and broad problem was to design and build
an fully functional shipping and distribution application. The list below
highlights just a few of the many features of the solution:
-
Integrate automatically with the existing ERP system
-
Support local as well as remote-shipping warehouses
-
Allow e-mail capability to advise customers of shipments
-
Interact directly with UPS Online Services
-
Process non-EDI orders in the same manner as EDI orders, thereby reducing the
error rate
-
Provide greater scalability, thereby reducing the error rate
-
Allow the manufacturing companies internal personnel to make minor changes to
the program in response to changing trading partner requirements such as
changes to shipping label formats, EDI document structure, packing
restrictions, etc.
-
Utilize an open architecture with the code owned by the manufacturing company
-
Use XML technology and modular programming to improve information flow
-
Use a database type consistent with our other software programs thus reducing
the complexity of inter-database mappings
|