Distribution Company Improves Thanks To ERP Software

Contributed by DDI Systems

In 1932, Russell, Milhench & Harrison Co., a distributor of production supplies to the textile industry, opened its doors. Through the years, this company has experienced several business and location changes to become today's Milhench Supply Company, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Now as a third-generation, two-location, certified women-owned business, Milhench Supply has become a leading provider of facility supplies that helps businesses throughout New England run cleanly and efficiently.

To do so, Milhench Supply trusts in DDI System's Inform ERP Software and Warehouse Management System (WMS) to maintain a commendable reputation in the jan/san industry. Inform not only provides functionality such as embedded CRM for quick customer insight, but also offers strong financial reporting, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and a complete warehouse management solution to keep each area of Milhench's operation in sync with the other.

"The trick was to adopt the complete system. Maximizing our usage to give us the best processing and efficiency outcomes," says Bob Pontes, operations manager for Milhench Supply Company.

Two years after experiencing the operational advantages of Inform ERP, Milhench decided to also upgrade warehouse operations. DDI System led Milhench through the setup and go-live of Inform WMS, which provides complete control over warehouse operations with insight into inventory location, staff allocation and order completion status.

The wireless WMS has become a critical component to attaining top-notch efficiency and accuracy.

"Inform WMS has greatly improved our operations. After about six months post-implementation, we noticed an 80 percent reduction in our mispicks," says Carlos Alexandre, IT manager for Milhench Supply Company. "Users have to specifically scan something and the system tells them whether they should be getting it or not. It's foolproof."

One of the largest advantages for a distributor such as Milhench is minimizing time spent executing operations. Since Inform WMS works in combination with Inform ERP, distributors capitalize on efficiency using smart picking, guided putaway with location slotting, cycle counting, automatic bin stocking and replenishment, mobile scanning with confirmation and easy product and location lookup, as well as dashboard reporting and analytics. All of this makes training new employees easier than ever before.

"One of the biggest and best features that we've discovered is that we can take a new employee and, within a week, they'll be so familiar with the system that they don't have to be supervised," says Alexandre. "We are able to set up a new user and have them pick an order within a couple of hours."

For Milhench, the benefits of streamlined operations not only help improve efficiency, but they keep the distributor maintaining a stellar reputation in the industry.

"WMS streamlines everything we do, from the time an order is placed to the time that it gets out the door. It saves us a lot of time catching errors before they happen," says Alexandre. "It shows our customers that we're doing it right the first time — which is all that matters to them."