Ajax Rolled Ring & Machine is a custom manufacturer of seamless rolled rings that are used in a variety of critical industrial components including bearings, gears, flanges, and valve seat rings. End-use markets include the bearing industry; power-generation including steam and gas-turbine; wind energy; mining and construction equipment; oil and gas; petrochemical; defense; rail transportation; and a wide variety of general industrial applications.

Established in 1980 and located in York, South Carolina near Charlotte, North Carolina, Ajax employs approximately 100 employees within a 140,000 square foot facility situated on 29 acres. Ajax's seamless rolled ring capabilities range from 7.5 to 120 inches in diameter, weighing from 15 to 3,000 pounds using carbon, alloy, and stainless grades of steel. Ajax offers value-added services including design-engineering of ID/OD contour shapes, heat-treating, testing, shot-blasting and semi or finish machining.

In 2012, Ajax made the strategic decision to move into precision machining services. Ajax is investing in a new, state-of-the-art machine shop facility which will soon provide capabilities of turning, milling and drilling to cover a complete range of ring sizes. The machine shop will allow Ajax to become more ‘Lean’ in the sense that it can significantly reduce lead time for the supply of fully machined rings. Ajax believes that operating a fully-integrated, machining facility will be the best way to supply machined rings to its customers in the shortest time possible.

The attention to customer service and quality that has put Ajax in its market-leading position remains stronger than ever today. “Our goals are: to make doing business with us easier, to keep our lead-times within 2-3 weeks, and to offer solutions which will contribute to the success of our customer’s business,” said Simon Ormerod, CEO. “We are a customer-focused enterprise that believes in delivering value to our customers. We are dedicated to Continuous Improvement by working together with all Ajax team members, our customers and our suppliers.”

With its proud past, solid financial position and strong executive leadership, Ajax is poised for a very successful future.

Ajax’ Shield is VISUAL

Simon joined Ajax in 2006. As a seasoned manufacturing executive, Simon recognized there was a need for a new enterprise system. The legacy character-based application did offer limited functionality for managing Ajax’ manufacturing operations but had almost no financial capabilities. Consequently, Simon tasked the Ajax management team with selecting a new industry solution that would better align with the company’s business model. Simon also wanted to shield Ajax by sourcing the best available and widely-supported technology available in the marketplace.

After a thorough review, in early 2007 Ajax selected Infor VISUAL, a powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed with the manufacturer in mind. Scott Sprouse, Information Technology Manager was recruited in early 2007 to help drive the implementation to conclusion. Bob Komisarski, CFO headed up all of the financial aspects of the transition. By September, 2007 everything was successfully installed including the new software, hardware and a staff of well-trained computer end users.

Today, Ajax has 36 users who rely on VISUAL to manage a highly efficient and effective operation. From accurately forecasting demand to materials requirements planning, scheduling, production, quality inspection, testing and shipping, Ajax uses VISUAL to manufacture at a level of speed and efficiency that makes the best use of its available resources.

Managing the Plant with Infor VISUAL

Ajax competes in an industry with a high barrier of entry. Acquiring the plant and machinery had required major long-term capital investments. Ajax contends with a myriad of fixed and variable costs, as well. For example, the raw materials inventory consists of steel ingots that are subject to market price volatility. A highly skilled workforce is required to run the operation in shifts to meet demand. The furnaces consume huge quantities of natural gas whose price can spike during cold weather season. All of this means that Ajax must run at peak efficiency to earn a reasonable profit.

In order to control costs and to maximize its return on these investments, Ajax has learned that it is critical to make intelligent use of its information technology assets. Fortunately, VISUAL provides Ajax with access to an advanced shop floor scheduling system that has been refined through years of experience and thousands of successful customer implementations. Ajax relies on VISUAL’s patented finite scheduling algorithm that accounts for actual capacity and includes on-hand and expected material availability. With VISUAL, Ajax can utilize its capital, labor and material assets in the most efficient manner possible.

VISUAL helps Ajax bring order to the thousands of orders that are processed each year in the sales engineering and customer service departments. The requirements for each customer’s job can vary widely from ring dimensions to the specific kind of machining, heat treating, machining and other services. Ajax can capture new opportunities more easily with VISUAL by modeling changes to its production schedules quickly. Ajax uses VISUAL Scheduler to work backwards from the delivery date through all of these processes to schedule jobs in mere moments. With this information, Ajax can communicate in a very precise and effective manner with its customers including when their jobs will be started, finished and delivered. With a full grasp on the decision’s impact on costs, schedules and resources, Ajax knows instantly what to do next; meaning that the company can attain its goals that much faster.

VISUAL outputs bar codes that are used to track jobs and materials through the plant. Workers scan paper labels to check jobs in and out of their work areas. The data provides an accurate picture of the operation with real-time data, allowing Ajax to quickly adjust to customer changes as the need arises.

For example, having the right dies on hand is essential to keeping production moving forward in a timely manner; similarly, the time associated with changing out dies for different jobs can significantly slow down the lines. Additionally, VISUAL has been configured to allow Ajax to group and schedule jobs in a way that minimizes the number of die changes and keeps things moving along faster. “We use the VISUAL Scheduler to create our schedule,” said Scott. “We then use a custom program we developed to group like tooling jobs together. We can run these jobs back-to-back-to-back. This saves us the expense and downtime that comes with frequently changing out dies for different jobs. That’s one of the great things about VISUAL. It is very simple to customize as the need arises,” continued Scott

Ajax uses VISUAL to monitor its overall manufacturing progress. VISUAL features built-in reporting capabilities that make it easier to manage a complex enterprise. Ajax uses VISUAL to gain a clear, complete, up-to-the-minute view of its entire operation from the forecast to the shop floor to the shipping dock. “We track a capacity view of our shop,” said Scott. “VISUAL looks at the production forecast against our available resources including machines and the number of shifts on each day.”

Ajax drives quality into every aspect of its manufacturing operation with the VISUAL Quality module. Ajax thoroughly inspects and runs quality control checks before, during and after production to catch problems before they go out the door. “Although it might be expensive to have scrap in house, it’s far more expensive to ship a defective product to the customer,” said Scott. “We use VISUAL Quality to ensure that we fix quality issues before they become a problem for someone else.”

Ajax Grows Stronger with E&A

E&A supports Ajax with a number of professional services for its VISUAL system. Ajax enjoys access to local consultants who are available to provide both remote and onsite consulting and technical support services. Ajax also participates in local E&A user groups to keep up-to-date with software enhancements and to gain exposure to fresh ideas.

E&A’s Gary Ussery is a VISUAL business consultant who has worked very closely with Scott, Bob and Simon for a number of years. Gary has frequently advised Ajax on how to best use VISUAL to support Ajax’ unique business model including implementation services. Gary has also provided an array of technical support services to Ajax including data analysis, programming and report writing.

Most significantly, Gary wrote a custom application that helps Ajax better cope with fluctuating commodities prices. Although the base price of the final product – the ring – remains the same once it has been sold to the customer, it is generally accepted that prices for steel, energy and other commodities will change frequently. To help ensure that Ajax can adapt to these price increases and decreases, Gary created a SQL server database stored procedure. Ajax personnel simply enter the price indexes for the commodities the company’s management wishes to surcharge. A stored procedure runs nightly to add the surcharges to each invoice. Surcharges for up to ten commodities including steel and energy is then added or subtracted from the cost of the finished good. When the invoice is sent to the customer it contains additional line items for each surcharge item.

Ajax was inspired to use technology to provide customer self-service tools on the web. In 2012, Scott began work on a SharePoint site for Ajax that would enable customers to access their own information.

Gary was asked to create a customer-facing report for the SharePoint project. Gary examined the existing printed reports that had been provided to Ajax customers in order to determine what pieces of information end users might request. Because the data might be stored within and without VISUAL, Gary wrote a query that is capable of searching through multiple databases. Once the information has been retrieved, the final report is rewritten in SQL Server Reporting Services. The end user is presented with a read-only report in SharePoint.

One of the most valuable reports that is now available to Ajax customers through the SharePoint site is the steel certificate. Steel needs to be traceable to its source of origin. Customers must know everything there is to know about the steel including the specific alloy content, lot number, supplier, testing, treating, and so on. Ajax’ customers can now retrieve this information simply by entering their purchase order number after logging into the SharePoint customer portal (https://myajax.ajaxring.com).

The convenience of online self-service has relieved Ajax’ customer service representatives from fielding many routine requests, saving the company significant time and money. “We have definitely cut down on the types of calls where our people are asked things like, ‘Hey, can you print an invoice and send it to me?’,” said Scott. “Although we are happy to fulfill the request, many of our customers are finding it easier to get into SharePoint to view and print their invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, shipments and other information on their own. It’s a win-win for us both,” continued Scott.

At a local E&A user group, Scott was inspired by the feature/functionality of VISUAL 7.0 to upgrade to the current version. Gary provided close support on the upgrade project including stress testing the test environment prior to go live. Gary also worked with Scott on a practice upgrade in a test environment. During this upgrade they created a procedure to be used for upgrading the production environment at a later date. Scott was then able to upgrade production through this series of steps to bring the software live over the weekend. “Gary was very helpful to me when we upgraded,” said Scott. “I sent Gary several emails over the weekend and he was very responsive. Gary is super helpful in that way. In the end, the upgrade went well and was successful.”

Scott commented on the support relationship with E&A. “Gary is great to work with,” said Scott. “Gary has a comprehensive knowledge of VISUAL. All you need to do is tell Gary what you want the end result to be and he can handle the rest. Gary is there whenever we need him.”

Ajax is Ready for the Battle Ahead

Ajax is excited to have its new precision machine shop ready to enter production soon. With the ability to reduce the number of jobs sent outside the plant for machining services, Scott believes that Ajax will be able to dramatically decrease turnaround time and improve quality for many customer orders while reducing freight costs. By simply adding the additional machining resources into VISUAL, the VISUAL Scheduler will expand its existing traveler to include these new machines; thereby enabling Ajax to closely coordinate the flow of materials between the two shops.

Ajax is using VISUAL to implement lean manufacturing principles into action. Ajax has defined two ‘value streams’ meaning the labor and processes associated with those jobs that are routed into the large and small rolling mills. Employees are encouraged to contribute improvement suggestions (‘My Continuous Improvement’) on-the-ground that can help Ajax reduce wasted motion, time and energy in the value streams. Many of the ideas are then implemented in VISUAL. In this manner, Ajax continuously improves and thus becomes a leaner and more competitive business.

With sound management practices, savvy use of VISUAL technology combined with expert support services from E&A, Ajax is ready for the battle ahead.

To learn more, go to www.ajaxring.com.

Since its founding in 1936, Littlejohn, Inc. has established itself as the largest single source distributor of petroleum, chemical and dry bulk tank trailer parts in North America.  Headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Littlejohn’s singular focus gives it the ability to service its customers in an unparalleled manner.

"Our vision is not just to be the biggest parts distributor in the nation, but the best,'' said Tully Brewer, president of Littlejohn. "Two principals drive the Littlejohn philosophy: We believe that what we do is more important than what we say, and we believe in service that exceeds expectations. We want to create raving fans, not just customers.”

Littlejohn goes to great lengths to provide their customers with access to a parts inventory that is second to none.  Littlejohn’s purchasing power enables the company to provide these parts at competitive prices.  Over 5,000 items are kept in stock including couplers, discs, flanges, gaskets, gauges, hoses, manways, pumps, tee’s, valves, vents, and related petroleum, dry bulk and stainless products.

The sales staff at Littlejohn has a combined experience of over 100 years in the industry. From the moment a call, fax or e-mail is received to the time the order is processed and shipped, Littlejohn’s customers are treated with true professionalism.  Littlejohn’s salespersons are very knowledgeable, each having additional specialized knowledge in different product types.  "Our large and diverse inventory, pricing and customer service is what sets Littlejohn apart from the competition,'' said Tully.

Recently, we visited with Littlejohn to learn about their history with FACTS, Earnest & Associates (E&A) and their plans for the future.

Littlejohn Meets FACTS and E&A

In 1991, Littlejohn was using an archaic DOS system to help run the business in a limited manner.  After reading a book  by distribution industry expert Gordon Graham, Tully decided to replace the legacy computer system with Infor Distribution FACTS, a comprehensive software solution that would allow Littlejohn to automate its operations, end-to-end.  “We knew a lot about parts distribution but only enough about computers to realize that we needed an industry-specific computer system,” recalled Tully.  “Graham recommended FACTS for distributors who want to become more efficient and effective.  So, we purchased FACTS and ever since then we haven’t looked back. It’s been a fantastic distribution system for us.”

E&A’s Jeff Sprowls has worked with Littlejohn for all these many years.  In fact, Jeff advised Littlejohn during their initial purchase of FACTS and through numerous system upgrades and enhancements.  Jeff’s experience working with many dozens of distributors has proven valuable.  Jeff has matched E&A subject matter experts with Littlejohn as its needs have grown, enabling Littlejohn to get the most from its technology systems.

“We choose our partners strategically and with certainty we can say that E&A has played a big role in what we have accomplished,” affirmed Tully.  “We feel that E&A brings the kind of technology solutions and value-added services to the table that have helped us achieve an extremely high level of service.  And that’s how we believe we will continue to create separation between ourselves and our competitors in the future.”

Littlejohn has managed and sustained a track record of steady growth with the aid of FACTS.  Initially, 8 computer users were installed in the Spartanburg office in 1991.  E&A helped Littlejohn gradually scale the system as new branch offices were opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois and most recently in Los Angeles, California.  Today, FACTS supports Littlejohn’s thriving business and its 24 computer users.

Tully believes that Littlejohn’s financial commitment to FACTS has been fully justified.  “We want to get better, better and better,” said Tully.  “Our FACTS system is key; we’re putting a lot of our eggs in this basket.”  Tully told us that Littlejohn allocates dollars in its annual budget for continuous improvements to its information technology systems.  “We feel that it’s important to stay up to date, so we budget for technology upgrades to occur every single year,” said Tully. “We feel that strong about it!”

Littlejohn’s managers stay up to date on technology and industry best practices by regularly attending conferences at both the local and national levels. Purchasing manager Steve Willard and chief financial officer Bryce Simpson recently attended E&A’s local user group in Greenville, South Carolina to learn about the latest version of FACTS,  related technologies, and to network with fellow end users.  Tully and Bryce traveled to TUG (The User Group) 2012 in San Antonio, Texas to meet with end users from all across the country.  “We learned so much from that conference,” enthused Tully.  “It was first class and very educational. I highly recommend TUG to everyone!”

Indeed, Littlejohn’s technology partnership with E&A has allowed the company to get a day’s work done in a day and with fewer people.  “We’ve gotten better, quicker and faster doing the same jobs as before,” said Tully. “Most companies our size have a lot more back office support, but we’ve become extremely efficient. That’s why we see the value in technology!  We believe that we get a real return on our investment.”

Littlejohn Delivers Exceptional Customer Service

Littlejohn services a diverse customer base including hundreds of tank trailer repair shops, original equipment manufacturers and industrial customers in the consumer products, soft drink, and nuclear industries.  Although there are repair shops located just about everywhere across the country, a relative small number of distributors support this specialized industry. “People like ourselves are not in every city,” said Tully.  “It’s very much a niche market.  Last year there were maybe 2,000 new tankers made in the whole country. Compared to other distribution companies in our industry we’re one of the biggest in parts distribution,” he continued.

Littlejohn delivers exception service by relying heavily on FACTS to stay on top of what their customers need most.  “We use FACTS to track what our customers have purchased in the past and to better predict what we need to keep in stock to satisfy future demand,” said Tully.  “We’ve grown primarily because we stock more of the parts that our customers need than anybody else. That’s a big part of what we’re doing.”

Tully explained that having the right inventory on hand is critical in an industry where downtime is costly.   “Our customers call us because they have a need: a tanker’s down,” said Tully. “That tanker truck represents an expensive asset to someone who can’t make money when it is sitting idle in a shop.  Therefore, there is intense pressure to get that tanker back on the road!  If you’ve got the part in stock at a reasonable price, typically you’ll win that business.”

To that end, Littlejohn has found that using FACTS’ multi-warehouse functionality during the order entry process has helped the company maximize its sales opportunities.  “The beautiful part about our system is that we can service our customers from whichever warehouse makes the most business sense,” said Tully.  “For example, if a customer calls from Indiana, we don’t have to choose between Chicago or Cincinnati.  We can process the order from any site because we can view the available stock quantities at all four of our warehouses.  We can take the order and send a pick ticket to print out at the warehouse that is located closest to the customer and/or has the items they need.  Our customers really love that flexibility!” exclaimed Tully.

Littlejohn is careful to set credit limits in FACTS to minimize its exposure to bad debts. “It’s great that we can setup terms in the back office,” said Bryce. “We store our customer’s past purchase and payment histories in FACTS so we’ll know if a customer still owes us money, or not.  FACTS can also alert us at the time the order is being processed when customers have reached their limits to make decisions about whether or not to extend credit to them.  Of course, we want to make as many sales as we can but we need to collect on those sales, too!” said Bryce.

Orders typically ship UPS on the same day when they are received as late as 4:30 p.m.  Littlejohn can turnaround orders with such remarkable speed in part because it uses FACTS to keep track of inventories set aside for specific customers.  “We’re not afraid to make a deal to secure that customer’s business over the long run,” said Steve.  “We make an upfront investment in purchasing the parts we think they will use over a set period of time. We create virtual warehouses in FACTS to track these customer’s inventories and make sure the parts are available for them when they are needed most.”

Littlejohn’s pick, pack and ship processes are facilitated by the warehouse location codes that are stored in FACTS. “It really helps that everything has its own location in FACTS,” said Steve.  “FACTS points our guys in the right direction!  Anything that’s dry bulk is in one area, petroleum is in another, and so on.”  Steve added that the three full-service branch locations are organized similarly to the Spartanburg warehouse.  Overall, the efficiencies made possible with FACTS has allowed Littlejohn to process an average of 75 to 80 orders every day, nearly double the amount from years past and with almost the same number of people as before.

Although the industry it serves generally uses standard parts, on occasion Littlejohn will process requests for non-stock items.  Littlejohn’s salespeople can easily use FACTS to generate purchase orders for non-stocks and arrange direct shipments from vendors to customers.  These special purchase orders are stored in a FACTS file folder for management review and control.  “We use the Suggested PO feature in FACTS to see if there might be special orders pending that we can aggregate,” said Steve.  “This helps us meet vendor minimum purchase requirements and obtain additional discounts.  We closely manage the process to ensure that we generate the five to ten best POs possible on any given day.” 

Littlejohn Upgrades to FACTS 7.7

In late 2010, Littlejohn approached Jeff about a major project.  Littlejohn wanted to upgrade to the latest version of FACTS in order to utilize the software’s latest feature/functionality. Littlejohn was also interested in migrating from Linux to the Windows operating system.  Additionally, Littlejohn wanted to improve its efficiencies by implementing add-on modules to FACTS including several of E&A’s Pro Series applications. 

Jeff made arrangements with E&A’s presales consultant, Dave Johndrow to demonstrate the software to Littlejohn’s decision makers in January, 2011.  Jeff then presented a comprehensive plan for hardware, software and implementation services. The following month, the proposal was accepted by Littlejohn, and work soon began. 

E&A’s Paul Muller spearheaded the hardware project from E&A’s office in Greer, South Carolina.  Paul delivered and installed two new Dell PowerEdge computers in the Spartanburg location.  One of the machines was configured as a FACTS server and the other as a terminal server to provide remote connectivity and data services to the branch offices.  Littlejohn installed new dual monitors at each workstation, allowing end users to open multiple sessions of FACTS and other applications simultaneously and improve their productivity.

Commenting on the install, Bryce said, “Paul was a big help moving us from Linux to Windows.  The new platform has noticeably improved our system’s performance.  From our branch locations, using the remote desktop via the terminal server has sped things up considerably.  When you’re on the road or at home you can get right into FACTS.  It’s fantastic!  And the Windows server has allowed us to be a bit more independent with our hardware support and reduce expenses,” he concluded.

E&A’s Wendy Oakes provided training to help Littlejohn understand how to use the new features in FACTS 7.7.  Wendy spent several days before and after go-live to train end users and to make sure that everything went smoothly.  E&A University was a core element of Wendy’s training strategy, encouraging Littlejohn’s end users to go online to familiarize themselves with the software beforehand.  “E&A University is a great training tool!” said Bryce. “It really helped because we were able to learn a lot about FACTS in general and the 7.7 upgrade in particular.”

Bryce credits the training services provided by E&A and the improved feature/functionality of FACTS 7.7 with helping Littlejohn to attain greater efficiency.  “Now we have more time to do things that can help us generate revenues and cash to invest in our business growth,” said Bryce.

For example, prior to the upgrade Littlejohn had been using two separate systems for credit card processing.  Littlejohn now uses the PayPal integration with FACTS to save time and improve service to customers.  Applying deposits for customers who pay on multiple accounts has been made easier because Littlejohn can now credit multiple accounts with a single check.  Littlejohn is also using the FACTS bank reconciliation system (available in version 7.5 and up) to update all bank transactions that occur during regular processing, including AP checks, PR checks, AR returned checks, AR cash receipts, SO invoices, and AR invoices.  (The bank reconciliation feature can also be used to enter other transactions such as bank transfers and fees; which are posted to the General Ledger when a subsequent bank transaction register is run and updated.)  And Littlejohn has recently begun to use Automated Clearing House (ACH) services to send payments electronically, with receivables planned in the future. 

E&A’s add-on solutions for FACTS have also proven useful to Littlejohn.  E&A installed its Document Delivery and Email modules to empower Littlejohn to send invoices and statements to customers electronically, saving substantial amounts on labor as well as paper, printing and postage.  With E&A’s solution, Amanda Deaton testified that she spends much less time printing and sending documents than before.  “We used to spend an hour and a half folding and stuffing envelopes every day,” said Amanda. “It doesn’t take anywhere near that amount of time now because the majority of our customers have chosen fax or email as their preferred form of delivery, although we can still print and mail if they want.  For instance, we’ve found that some of our larger customers with multiple branches want copies of hard copy invoices sent to their home offices for record keeping.  In other cases, our customers might want a combination of all three – fax, email and print.  The Document Delivery system can handle that for us, too,” she said.  Steve added that sending invoices by email and fax versus snail mail has helped improve Littlejohn’s cash flow by speeding up the billing and payment process.

UnForm, a forms management solution, complements the FACTS system including Document Delivery and Email.  UnForm is designed to eliminate the expense and limitations inherent with using pre-printed forms while preparing them for print or electronic delivery.  E&A’s Edgar Diaz worked with Littlejohn to customize UnForm to meet the company’s business and branding requirements.  With the UnForm project complete, Littlejohn maintains greater consistency in how invoices and statements are presented to customers.  Additionally, Littlejohn has been able to replace its slow and expensive dot matrix printers with laser printers that output printed materials much faster and at less cost than before.

An E&A Pro Series module that has benefited Littlejohn is Pro ShipLink, an application that links FACTS with popular shipping services including UPS WorldShip.  Steve described the features and benefits of Pro ShipLink to us.  “The integration with UPS to bring in the tracking numbers has been helpful,” said Steve. “We often have customers call us to ask, ‘I ordered this part yesterday. When shall I receive it?’  With Pro ShipLink, we can provide accurate information to the customer.  We can go to the FACTS sales orders inquiry screen, click on the tracking link and pull up the relevant information from UPS.  In addition to serving customers better, Pro ShipLink saves our salespeople the time and hassle of walking to file cabinets in the back office to find this information,” emphasized Steve.

Improved Inventory Control Helps Littlejohn Expand

A major motivating factor for upgrading FACTS was to gain access to new tools that could help Littlejohn control its inventory better.  As a distributor, freeing up cash from making unproductive inventory investments is key to helping Littlejohn expand across the country. “We need to keep up with our customer’s buying habits and patterns and invest in the right inventory,” said Tully. “We have to have cash to grow. That’s where the upgrade to 7.7 has helped us.”

Several of E&A’s Pro Series solutions for FACTS have proven important to Littlejohn. Pro Buyers Control Center (Pro BCC) streamlines replenishment processes for multi-location distributors.  Pro Decisions extracts the data locked in FACTS and makes it come to life in a series of graphical dashboards and pivot tables to facilitate more effective data analysis and decision making.  Together, these two applications have helped Littlejohn achieve its business objectives.

For example, Pro BCC’s central work center design makes it easier for Littlejohn to manage the transfer of inventory between branches and make better purchasing decisions.   “Pro BCC has made my job easier,” affirmed Steve.  “I used to open two separate screens to view the information I needed. Now, Pro BCC puts it all right in front of me on a single screen including usage, turns, cost, movement class, and so on; everything is right there!” 

Tully concurred.  “How did we ever live without Pro BCC!  It’s fantastic because it streamlines all of our purchasing processes for us.  Seeing all of the connections between the data points has been like an eureka moment for us,” said Tully.

Similarly, Pro Decisions has vastly improved Littlejohn’s insight into its operations. FACTS data is stored in a SQL data warehouse and presented in Excel, making it both accessible and familiar to a large number of people in the organization.  Importantly, Littlejohn has used Pro Decisions to identify dead stock and reduce its inventory carrying costs.

“Pro Decisions makes information readily available to us, even for our ‘non-computer’ people,” said Tully. “Computer consultants call it ‘data mining’ but we prefer to think of it as ‘hunting for cash’.  That’s because we want to find the inventory that is not working for us and replace it with inventory that turns faster and produces greater profit. With Pro Decisions, we did in fact succeed in finding the cash sitting in our inventory.  We converted the inventory to cash and opened up another branch location.” 

“That’s why I’m putting as much as we can that makes sense into FACTS and E&A,” continued Tully. “Information technology allows our company to grow because we can grow our cash.  Growth gives us more profit; and on we go.” 

Over the past ten years, Littlejohn has doubled in size.  2010 and 2011 were both record sales years, with 2012 on track to do the same again. “We’re just now hitting our stride, if you will,” said Tully.  “We think we can go from four locations to ten.  Technology has been a huge part of our success but we feel that we’ve now got the right management team to really put the pedal down.”

Littlejohn Plans for the Future

Littlejohn is taking steps to improve even more with technology. In January 2012, Littlejohn purchased Infor10 Distribution Storefront, an e-commerce solution for FACTS.  Littlejohn expects to use the Storefront module to provide self-service capabilities to existing customers as well as capture new business opportunities.  “We just feel that it’s a strategic move,” said Tully.  “We want to lock in customers who are already doing business with us by offering greater value-added services through the Storefront.  We want our customers to check our inventory levels at all locations and place orders online.”  Tully also believes the Storefront can help Littlejohn expand its market share.  “We want to make an executive-level pitch to larger companies where we say to them, ‘You will gain access to the Littlejohn Storefront when you award your national contract to us.’  We don’t know that anyone else is doing that in our industry yet.  We think it will help us leapfrog past the competition.”

Looking ahead, Littlejohn has factored in an upgrade to FACTS 7.8 into its current year’s budget.  Bryce is excited about implementing the Grant W. Howard-approved inventory management features built into 7.8.  Steve would like to see bar coding used more widely and hopes to begin using the FACTS cycle counting system soon. And Tully anticipates that Littlejohn will use tablet computers to access data on the go, including at the customer site.

 “We’ve had such a great relationship with everyone at E&A who have simply done a fantastic job of taking care of our information technology needs,” said Tully.  “We are pouring even more money into technology because we think that’s going to increase the degree of separation between us and our competitors.”  Tully emphasized that Littlejohn relies on E&A to recommend the tools and best practices that help his distribution business remain competitive.  “We need that support and that’s the value that E&A brings to us.  They’re looking out for our best interests.  They’re a part of us.”

To learn more about Littlejohn, go to www.littlejohninc.com.

Philadelphia Reserve Supply Company (PRSCO) was founded in 1930 by local building material dealers who wanted to form their own wholesale distribution center.  The purpose of this new entity was to collectively pool its member’s purchasing power to buy materials at the lowest available prices. Furthermore, all net profits of this entity would be rebated back to each owner in the form of patronage dividend.  Today, PRSCO is recognized as one of the most successful regional cooperatives in the nation with over 100 stockholder dealers consisting of over 175 locations.

PRSCO is headquartered in Croydon, Pennsylvania where it serves independent lumber and building material dealers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.  PRSCO functions as a wholesale distributor, providing warehousing and delivery services to its customers.  PRSCO’s stock inventory features drywall, insulation, roofing, treated lumber, plywood, lumber, sheathings and other commodity-type products that are widely used in the new construction or remodeling industries.

PRSCO maintains a 65,000 square foot central warehouse for pickup and delivery service to all its customers. PRSCO also facilitates direct order shipments from various manufacturers to its customers in railcar, truckload or skid lots, just like other buying groups. PRSCO also sells material to non-stockholding, independent lumber and building material dealers on request.

PRSCO provides purchasing power and marketing services to assist its members in competing and surviving against the mass merchandisers.  The organization seeks to make an important contribution to its owners’ success through its purchasing, sales, marketing, service and financial activities and indirectly through its product knowledge, professionalism and relationships.

Since 2007, PRSCO has implemented a successful Stocking Dealer Program where its members can purchase stock inventory from PRSCO’s warehouse at the same direct price they would pay if the dealer had bought direct from the manufacturer.  “Our members can buy one skid of material from PRSCO at the same direct price they would pay if they were buying from the manufacturer by the truck or railcar,” said John Grasso, assistant controller.  “We can break down packages and ship smaller quantities to our customers from our local warehouse faster than if the customer ordered direct.  The program works because when we buy more from our vendors, our invoice rebates grow; which in turn allows us to offer more attractive pricing to our members. And, our customers are able to streamline their payables and purchasing departments because there’s only one entity to pay: PRSCO,” he continued. 

Non-members can order from the warehouse as well, but in this scenario PRSCO will markup the price to more accurately reflect its actual material handling and overhead costs.  The money PRSCO earns is taken out of its operating costs.  “Most of our margins are a result of earning back-end rebates, and when there’s money left over at the end of the year we pay dividends back to our members,” explained John.

PRSCO has been led for many years by its president, Frank Dalinsky.  In October, 2011 long-time PRSCO board member Kim Coleman assumed the role of general manager and chief operating officer. Kim will lead the organization when Frank retires in 2012. "Throughout his career, Kim has had great rapport with the industry's manufacturers and vendors, dealers, and contractors," said Frank. "The strength of these relationships will enable him to lead PRSCO and continue its success in the future."

PRSCO Selects Infor Distribution FACTS and E&A

Prior to 1998, PRSCO had relied on a custom-written software application to manage the business. As the year 2000 approached, PRSCO recognized its systems would not be compliant. Chas Gormley, controller was asked to search for a new enterprise solution.

“When we looked at systems, we looked for the best fit for the distribution portion of our business,” recalled Chas. “Infor Distribution FACTS by Infor was the best solution we found.”

FACTS is a proven distribution based software package that enables customers to streamline processes and maximize resources. With a track record that is unparalleled in the industry, FACTS allows distributors to enhance customer service, optimize inventory levels, increase productivity and improve profitability.

PRSCO installed FACTS in 1998 with assistance from John Genter Associates (JGA) of Downingtown, Pennsylvania who served as the local Infor representative in the Philadelphia area. JGA configured FACTS to run on a UNIX server supporting 20 computer end users. The project included customizations to facilitate the direct order side of the business, where PRSCO handles paperwork for its customers but does not take actual ownership of inventory.  JGA also relocated the computer system when PRSCO completed construction of its new office building in 2007.

Shortly after PRSCO had settled into its new space, Chas and John Grasso decided the time had come to significantly upgrade the information system.  Specifically, PRSCO was interested in migrating FACTS from UNIX to Windows; upgrading FACTS to the current version; and implementing strategic third-party applications that might help the company gain efficiencies.  With this ambitious agenda in mind, Chas and John approached JGA who in turn recommended that PRSCO contact Earnest & Associates (E&A) in Baltimore, Maryland.  JGA felt that E&A could bring relevant expertise to the project.

PRSCO contacted E&A’s Mike Manning who subsequently met onsite with Chas and John to discuss how E&A might support PRSCO’s information systems.  Believing that E&A had the specific technical expertise they were seeking, PRSCO immediately signed an agreement with E&A for professional services including access to the FACTS Help Desk, UNIX operating systems support, and computer programming services.

As an added benefit of being an E&A client, PRSCO gained access to E&A’s user group series which currently meets in eight cities across the country.  In the spring of 2008, Chas attended the user group in Williamsburg, Virginia and John participated in the event held in Baltimore, Maryland.  Chas and John intended to meet with technical experts from E&A and Infor in person, network with fellow FACTS end users, and learn more about FACTS and related technologies.  PRSCO came away from the meetings satisfied that they had made the right decision to partner with E&A.

“We wanted to see what E&A was all about,” admitted Chas. “We recognized that E&A had the resources we needed to support our FACTS system and impressed that E&A was in direct contact with the developer.  It seemed that E&A could help us grow our business with technology.”

The user groups energized PRSCO with new ideas on how to get more from their FACTS system investment.  At both the Williamsburg and Baltimore events, E&A’s Bill Briggs had demonstrated UnForm Document Archiving & Management (DAM) a document management system that has been fully integrated within and without FACTS.  Simply put, UnForm DAM allows end users to capture, store and retrieve their paper-based and electronic documents through a single interface.  UnForm DAM resonated with PRSCO for the reason that its employees are challenged with sifting through and matching up the many thousands of paper-only direct orders that its members place with PRSCO-approved manufacturers each year.

“We really are interested in getting document management,” affirmed John. “Our vision is to decrease paper by getting digitized.  We want to deliver information and documents to our customers electronically via email or fax.”  John estimates the manual processes that will get eliminated using UnForm DAM could save PRSCO as much as two to three hours of labor per day. “We can put those hours to more useful purposes than simply alphabetizing documents," John emphasized.

E&A Helps PRSCO Upgrade its System

In 2009, John started planning for the upgrade to FACTS 7.7 which featured full Windows feature/functionality and integration with UnForm DAM.  E&A’s Jim Thomas served as the primary consulting and technical support contact to PRSCO on the project.

E&A began by providing specs for the Windows server to PRSCO’s local network support company. Jim used the new machine to setup a test system for FACTS 7.7 in PRSCO’s training room.  Jim stayed onsite for several days of testing and training.  “Jim was really good about going around and showing everyone the basics,” recalled John. “He sat down with everyone!”

PRSCO employees, who were accustomed to using FACTS 7.5 in character mode, learned how the improved graphical display in 7.7 made FACTS easier to use. “Before, nearly everyone had defaulted to the character display in 7.5 because that’s how our people had been accustomed to using the software,” explained John. “But the problem with character is that if you get stuck somewhere, it’s not always clear how to get out.  Whereas in a Windows environment, navigation within the system is more obvious. There might be a red ‘X’ to help you exit the program or an arrow to go back to the previous screen. It’s more intuitive,” said John. 

FACTS 7.7 went live in October, 2010. Jim was onsite for two days to make sure everything went smoothly.  The months spent preparing for the event paid off.  With the small number of technical issues resolved the first day, the second day was dedicated to wrap-up and additional end user training. PRSCO has used FACTS successfully ever since.

With the upgrade complete, John was glad to see the UNIX server retired.  Previously, John had been concerned about his ability to communicate with PRSCO’s technology services providers in the event of an emergency.  “With UNIX, I couldn’t see what was going on at all,” said John. “There’s no GUI interface!  I couldn’t tell what the UNIX prompts or code lines meant; it was all Greek to me.”

The Windows server now empowers John to provide more competent first-line technical support for PRSCO, helping save on support fees.  “I can open up the server and see if something’s wrong. It’s more obvious!,” exclaimed John.  “If FACTS isn’t running I’ll look at the server first. If there’s anything glaring or obvious that I can see, I can report it right away.”  The quality of PRSCO’s interactions with third-party vendors has been vastly improved as a consequence of the Windows interface.  “It’s been much easier for me to explain a situation while I’m on the phone with our technical support people,” said John.  “I can make sure the system is connected to the Internet and possibly make a pre-diagnosis.  The interaction goes a whole lot faster when I’m communicating with the network guy.”

Since the go-live, E&A’s support services have proven useful to PRSCO.  “The FACTS Help Desk is very beneficial,” said John.  “Having people available at E&A to answer the phone who are competent enough to figure out what’s going on is great.  If our issue is not resolved immediately then E&A will escalate the call to someone who will make sure we’re taken care of.”  John added that PRSCO values E&A as a resource to help them do more with FACTS.  “When our people are unsure about how to do something, I often recommend that they call the Help Desk. E&A is like an education tool for our end users,” he asserted.

FACTS Benefits PRSCO

Chas believes PRSCO has made good decisions about its enterprise software.  “FACTS has proven to be a nice fit,” commented Chas. “FACTS handles everything for us from sales orders to purchasing, inventory and accounting.”  The integrated solution provides PRSCO with a 360-degree view of its operations, allowing the organization to provide outstanding service to its customers.

Chas told us what he likes about FACTS sales orders. “We can enter all of the pertinent customer information about what our customers are buying including description, pricing, our cost, shipping routes and so on,” said Chas. “Our salespeople have the pricing information available to them at the time they take the order.  We have the convenience of seeing what’s on hand, what’s available, if items are on backorder or if there is more material on the way.”

The FACTS purchasing system has proven to be beneficial.  PRSCO uses FACTS to take advantage of available manufacturer discounts, a critical feature when one considers the very large amount of materials PRSCO purchases.  “Suggested Purchase Orders has been a nice feature,” said Chas. “We can view reordering reports that show us precisely when the time is right to place an order; for example, when we have reached a buying target with a specific supplier.”  PRSCO has also setup movement classes to better support its buying decisions, making sure that the warehouse has stocked up just in time to meet peak demand.  “FACTS recalculates turns on a monthly basis.  We use the information to break our inventory out into different classes with one being the most turns, thirteen the fewest turns or dead stock, and everything else in between. We analyze the data to make decisions about what we want to stock going forward,” said Chas.

Importantly, the information provided by FACTS has empowered PRSCO to negotiate the best possible deals with manufacturers and save money.  “We have over 500 suppliers but a core group of 80 to 100 suppliers comprise 80% of our business volume,” said Chas. “Using historical data from FACTS, we can talk to our vendors from a position of strength.  We can say, ‘We’re moving a lot of your inventory.  Let’s talk about how you can support us through a new incentive program or by offering us additional rebates’.  With FACTS, we have a tool we can use to gain leverage with our suppliers,” continued Chas.

E&A Customizes FACTS to PRSCO’s Requirements

E&A has written several modifications to suit PRSCO’s unique business model.  Jim modified FACTS so that PRSCO can process paper-only orders without touching parts of the system that might otherwise skew the FACTS purchasing system or cause extra work in data entry.  “When a piece of paper comes in with the vendor’s invoice indicating ‘bill to PRSCO’, we’ll go to the FACTS direct invoice entry screen to enter the order,” said John. “When we’re ready to print, a screen opens where we can enter the vendor information – name, dollar amount, account, due date and so on.  The modification bypasses our purchase order system and creates an accounts payable.  It’s a huge savings for us because it’s automated and there’s no double entry of data!”

With rebates providing PRSCO with most of its operating margin, it is crucial that claims are submitted accurately and on time.  To that end, Jim wrote a modification that links direct invoices to vendors and showed PRSCO how to access this data using the FACTS 7.7 custom reporting tool. “We can run a report where we can see all of the vendors that our customers might have purchased from,” said John.  “We can drill all the way down to the vendor’s invoice number and the FACTS invoice number. And we can do it vice versa.”   PRSCO sorts the data in Excel in order to determine the exact amount it can claim in rebates from each supplier.  “It’s been really helpful!” enthused John.
 
Other modifications have helped PRSCO improve its management of inventory.  Jim created a field in FACTS to enter the four-digit numbers PRSCO uses to tag its stock inventory to allow for better inventory auditing and reporting.  Jim also formatted the shelf label to include the warehouse location; thereby improving worker efficiency.  “We can export the relevant information from FACTS to Excel and make sure that every tag has been accounted for,” said John.  “If we find a discrepancy, we know exactly what to do.  We can go to zone AA, AB and so on; make our counts; and adjust our inventory numbers very quickly.  It’s been a huge help for us,” John concluded.

PRSCO has developed a good working relationship with E&A.  John especially values Jim’s knowledge of FACTS and the insight he has gained through supporting PRSCO’s system.  “Jim Thomas has been great,” said John.  “We can contact Jim whenever we have an idea for a modification and to discuss whether he thinks it’s plausible or not. If we have a really urgent day-to-day issue we’ll often go to Jim since he’s done a lot of the programming for us and copied a lot of the modifications we had from 7.5 to 7.7.  Jim has also implemented some new programs for us, so he’s knowledgeable about our system right away.”

PRSCO Implements UnForm DAM

Since 2009, John Grasso had been mulling over how UnForm DAM might streamline PRSCO’s paper-intensive direct order process.  John had developed a flowchart that proposed how the handling of paper documents might become more efficient by introducing UnForm DAM into the process.  Later in 2011, John attended an E&A user group in Edison, NJ where he met with a fellow FACTS user who highly recommended E&A’s work on its own document imaging system.  With this encouragement, PRSCO decided the time had come to activate the UnForm DAM project. 

To get things started, PRSCO’s accounting staff met with E&A’s Craig Fromm remotely via Webex to view a demonstration of UnForm DAM within the context of John’s proposal.  An agreement was signed with E&A in September, 2011 to move forward with the project.

PRSCO’s challenge is to sort through the thousands of invoices that arrive via email, fax or mail.  PRSCO needs to sort these documents alphabetically in order to match up the vendor invoices with the customer invoices generated in FACTS, a labor-intensive process that consumes hours every day.  PRSCO intends to improve the process by scanning the vendor invoices using UnForm DAM. Using dual monitors, users will be able to digitally cross reference and match the documents. John explained the process.  “Our vision is to have UnForm DAM on one screen and FACTS on the other,” said John.  “We can have the digitized vendor invoice here and the FACTS direct billing over there.  We can bill the customer right from the screen and have the two documents associate with each other.  FACTS can provide the linkage.  This will enable us to eliminate the sorting process.  At the end of the day, all that we will have to do is pull up the invoices in UnForm DAM, check the ones that we want to send, and then send them to each customer per their preferred method of delivery.”

E&A began work on the project. Several other pieces of software were necessary to support the UnForm DAM system.  E&A installed the FACTS Email and VSI-Fax modules so that PRSCO can choose to either print, email or fax documents to customers directly from the system. Meanwhile, Craig began customizing the UnForm DAM software to meet PRSCO’s requirements. 

At the time of writing, the majority of the UnForm DAM system has been installed.  Vendor invoices have been successfully scanned and archived. The next step will be to associate the invoices with the FACTS billing system so that the process can be completely automated, end-to-end. 

“UnForm DAM is already saving us a lot of time with our direct billing,” said John. “E&A is configuring a solution that is unique to us and how we do things.”

PRSCO Looks Ahead

Although the construction industry has taken a big hit in the Great Recession, PRSCO has managed to weather the storm.  PRSCO’s smart use of technology has enabled the company to do more with less. PRSCO continues to improve upon its core strengths in purchasing and customer service, making the company more relevant than ever to its members’ survival and promising a great future ahead.

E&A is actively engaged with PRSCO on several projects. In addition to working towards the completion of the UnForm DAM installation, E&A is currently installing and configuring the FACTS Document Delivery module which will be used to send acknowledgements automatically to PRSCO customers when pick tickets have been issued in the warehouse. 

In the future, Chas thinks PRSCO might take a look at bar coding to improve the accuracy of its physical inventory and implement cycle counting.  Recognizing the limitations of backing up PRSCO’s important FACTS data on external drives, John believes that E&A Managed Services might provide a solution.  Data could be stored securely in the Internet ‘cloud’ and made available for recovery anytime or whenever an unexpected event occurs.  “We have a rotation going where we take one backup offsite every night,” said John. “We’re not quite in the cloud yet but it’s going to be our next step.” 

In July, 2011 it was announced that JGA would combine its resources with E&A. The deal formalized what had previously been a professional relationship based on mutual respect and cooperation for over thirty years. Dozens of companies like PRSCO would enjoy greater continuity and level of support for their FACTS systems as a result of the merger.

John commented on the benefits of working with E&A.  “We can’t hire someone with the kind of technical skills we can get by partnering with E&A,” said John.  “To have a resource like E&A accessible to us has been great.  We now have a partner to help us game plan how we might improve our processes and save labor.  We couldn’t do that before.”

To learn more about PRSCO, go to www.prsco.org.