Merrick Pet Care Streamlines Warehouse Production to Increase Accuracy, Better Understand Costs, and Deliver Shipments in Record Time
When your team is logging overtime hours to manually fix data discrepancy errors, you know it’s time to take action. For Merrick Pet Care, the struggle of dealing with incorrect inventory on-hand balances had become routine. Not only was it hard on personnel, but this costly and inefficient process was also causing shipping delays.
With a goal of gaining worker productivity and moving more product out the door, Merrick Pet Care brought in Stoneridge Software to assess the configuration of their Microsoft Dynamics AX system. Stoneridge Software worked with the team at Merrick to develop a game plan that would not only fix their current issues but fit current business processes and in preparation for the future.
Removing unnecessary customizations
The first step was removing some prior customizations that were found to be causing the data corruption. An intricate process, the Stoneridge team was able to search through the Dynamics AX environment and remove custom code without breaking the system or causing bugs within the native solution.
The next phase of the project was to implement the Dynamics AX Warehouse Management Solution to improve warehouse functionality. Within Warehouse Management, inventory is now managed and tracked throughout each step of the manufacturing and warehouse process, reducing manual entry and increasing inventory on-hand accuracy to nearly 100 percent.
Reduction in non-standard shipments save time, money
After learning about some specific needs in the shipping process, Stoneridge worked with Merrick to develop a custom feature to help reduce non-standard shipments by automatically adding the correct shipping fee. This has increased efficiency in multiple departments. Office staff no longer needs to manually enter orders, calculate shipping costs, or update invoices. Clients have begun to use standard shipments to save money, which in turn has resulted in reduced shipping costs for Merrick, as well as shortened the amount of time it takes warehouse employees to pick pallets. For the accounting department, this project also increased productivity through:
- Enabling an Excel upload of pending costs for multiple items when required
- Implementing fixed assets for both accounts payable and purchase orders to eliminate double entry
- Calculations and resulting journal entries are now automatically entered within the general ledger.
Transportation Management
A recommendation to implement the Dynamics AX Transportation Management Solution has greatly improved driver management and reduced wait times. When a truck arrives at the plant, shipping can be prepared to load inventory because they are alerted when trucks are available.
With more accurate data and information, short ships have been nearly eliminated and Merrick Pet Care experienced record setting shipment numbers the month following their reimplementation of Dynamics AX. Merrick Pet Care is now positioned to optimize their use of Microsoft Dynamics to continue to increase productivity and efficiency. The project was a true partnership of Stoneridge consultants and the Merrick Pet Care team, achieving the goal of increasing operational efficiency today, while also planning for the future.
“The Stoneridge Software is a team of knowledgeable professionals with a broad degree of expertise,” said Wayne Freeman, Director of Information Technology at Merrick Pet Care, Inc. “They are partners that help move our business forward.”
The final solution addressed:
- Accuracy of inventory balances
- Increasing productivity and efficiency across multiple departments
- Reducing shipping costs
- More accurate costing methods
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