Background
Founded in 1976, Anderson Manufacturing produces specialty fasteners and offers sorting, packaging and secondary services for all of its custom manufactured cold formed products. Headquartered in Bristol, Wisconsin, the company has more than 60 employees in its modern 52,000 square foot facility.
In 2011, Anderson was using outdated MRP system with an accounting add-on that lacked the enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities required. “Our previous solution was cumbersome and lacked the flexibility and reporting capabilities we needed. Anytime we wanted to make a modification, we’d have to hire someone to do it on site, costing us unnecessary time and money,” said Anthony Eisemann, IT Manager at Anderson Manufacturing. The company also struggled with obtaining timely and accurate data. “Because the two systems were not fully integrated, the data was never available real-time, causing inconsistencies in reporting and headaches across the entire organization,” he added.
Overall, Anderson needed an ERP and partner that would provide:
- Easy integration and customization capabilities that would grow with the business
- Real-time data for greater cost control
- Better visibility into operations for quicker decision-making
- Streamlined financial reporting
- Enhanced customer service capabilities
After an extensive search, the Anderson team decided Microsoft Dynamics NAV was the answer. The company turned to leading Microsoft Dynamics Gold Certified Partner, Innovia Consulting, to implement the NAV ERP. “We chose Innovia because NAV is what they do. The combination of NAV and Innovia allowed for future growth with reliable support,” Eisemann said.
A System Formed to Fit
Identifying the technology was only the beginning. With thousands of customizations under their belt, Innovia stepped up to tailor NAV to Anderson’s specific requirements. “As a manufacturer, we needed to accurately track our total costs including splitting our overhead and tracking both our fixed and variable costs. In addition, we needed the staff to be more efficient and productive with their time.”
Managing costs also required integration with day-to-day operations, a key component accounting software couldn’t provide. To integrate scheduling, inventory management, ordering and customer service, Anderson took advantage of Innovia’s previous manufacturing experience and agreed to implement a manufacturing add-on within NAV. This add-on simplified the reporting of labor and material data, allowing for quick and accurate production cost calculations. “Our manual collection and keying of data was an antiquated process. With Innovia’s customization, we’re be able to collect data directly from the shop floor, capture labor and measure it against production orders in real-time,” said Eisemann. “Now, we finally have a system that give us necessary insight and Innovia has our back to support it.”
Successful Implementation Leads to Measurable Results
Improved business efficiencies and reporting is one benefit. Realizing cost savings sweetens the deal. “After the implementation, we immediately noticed a reduction of 20 hours per week for the manual data entry of scheduling and ordering. Plus, financial reporting takes only minutes, down from two hours before.” Eismann continued, “This reduction allows us to move our staff into more productive roles, while gaining the real-time data needed to track true costs and variances.”
Benefits were realized in customer service as well. By automating processes, Anderson is more proactive with its customers. “We’ve been able to grow from $8 million to $12 million without adding customer service staff to handle the additional needs. Much of that is due to NAV’s functionality and Innovia’s ability to integrate our systems and optimize our infrastructure,” he added.
Conclusion
Anderson Manufacturing now has a reliable NAV partner and the system it needs for efficient business growth. Eisemann concluded, “Innovia made this happen for us. We are extremely pleased with the results and now have a partner so we don’t have to worry about it. Their talented staff takes time to understand our needs, streamlines our processes and customizes the application to fit our business. We couldn’t be happier.”
