Project - ERP Reporting and Customizations

Labeling

As the company grew, we attracted larger customers having larger inventories and who carried products from other providers, and thus required our items to labeled. In order to secure their contracts, we engaged our ERP provider in the writing of a label program. The requirements for this application grew along with the customer base, so the IT Department eventually absorbed the responsibility of updating the application (lowering maintenance costs and providing a faster turn-key service).

Milk-Run

After a review it was determined that the company could reduce costs by establishing a regular delivery service using corporate assets rather than contracted services, to the Ontario and local US customer base. 
Through this, the customers could schedule work around pre-established delivery / pickup dates. In support of this activity, I created the level loading (Milk Run) reports that were used to forecast shipping requirements, and to create production schedules to ensure that the orders would be processed on time. The report also helped Shipping plan manpower requirements.

Purchasing Worksheet

The majority of our commercial orders required custom springing solutions. To reduce lead times ordering these custom built springs and ensure on-time delivery, I created a custom Purchasing Worksheet to bring visibility into customer orders.

Using Custom Fields In The CRM

From time to time bulletins would be sent to the wrong customer, or to the wrong person at the customer’s location. For instance, US pricing should not be sent to a Canadian customer’s receptionist. To help ensure bulletins were distributed to the appropriate individuals and customers, I created custom groupings using custom form fields in the CRM, and then created reports to generate email distribution lists. The system would capture the sending of the email to the distribution group, and then record which of the individuals received the bulletin.

Error Detection Scripts

Order entry errors were reduced through the introduction of programmed scripts that checked item incompatibilities to ensure the order was aligned with product offerings and color selections. Dates entered were validated to reduce errors.

Customer Item Pricing And Discounts

To ensure pricing and discount accuracy, I rebuilt the pricing and discounting model in the ERP, moving to a more appropriate model (contract pricing). This also simplified the coding of new item prices and discounting. Once complete, I imported the new model directly into the ERP.