Boat Cover Manufacturer Recognizes a Significant 40% Reduction in Production Time and Costs
Case Study: Carver Industries
When it comes to manufacturing and fabricating boat covers and bimini tops, no other company leads the industry like Carver Industries, Inc. Located in Landrum, South Carolina, Carver Industries manufactures, fabricates and distributes products through local marine dealers and internet retailers throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. For the past 30 years Carver has fabricated quality-made products that withstand the rigors of boating. While most of their competitors have moved manufacturing facilities offshore to save productions costs, Carver manufactures all of their boat covers, tops and specialty canvases in the United States. By constructing their products in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the United States, the company can control quality, promptness and customer satisfaction with every item carrying the Carver name.
The Challenge
The company experienced explosive growth which led them to re-evaluate their entire business process. Far too many manual steps occurred in different areas of the business. As a result, the company needed an automated, efficient system from order entry to order fulfillment and turned to Personal Computer Accounting, an Elite AccountMate Business Partner, for a solution.
The Solution
After conducting a thorough needs assessment, Personal Computer Accounting implemented AccountMate SQL. By implementing and customizing their AccountMate system, Carver had a sophisticated, modifiable business solution that provided superior scalability for their growing business.
Overhauling Order Processing
The first step in the Carver’s technology make-over included an overhaul in the batching, routing and processing of all orders. To handle these transactions, Personal Computer Accounting built a highly customized system within AccountMate’s Sales Order and Inventory Control modules that communicates directly with Carver’s material handling system called Eton. The product is cut, loaded onto the Eton system and then routed to the specified sewing machine operators for fabrication. Once canvas covers are built to specification, pre-made accessories and frames are added to complete the order. As a result, the necessary internal processes required to place, fabricate and build custom orders increased production efficiency by 25-30% and allowed Carver to expand from 10 to 15 work stations without adding additional costs.
Order Pick, Pack and Ship Automation
The next step in Carver’s system enhancement involved modifying their packing and shipping process. AccountMate’s award-winning program design allows industry-specific programs to be seamlessly integrated. To reduce delays in order packing and shipping, Carver needed an order fulfillment solution that automated the pick, pack and ship processes. With the integration of the Accurate Direct Access Remote Terminal system (ACCU-DART), the company uses radio-frequency bar-code scanning technology to scan orders as they move through the warehouse. Then, order information is transferred to the Ship-IT system, which automatically prints shipping labels. Integrating directly with UPS and FedEx, shipping and tracking information is available to authorized Carver personnel and internet retailers instantly.
“Before implementing AccountMate, it took 3-4 hours to place shipping labels on 300 boxes,” recalls April Fisher, Vice President and General Manager, Carver Industries. “Now all the guesswork is eliminated and we’ve reduced packing and shipping time by at least 40%. Order accuracy has increased by a minimum of 50%.”
Online Order Requests
To expand Carver’s capability to accept online order requests, Personal Computer Accounting used AccountMate’s sales import functionality to link to the company’s website where internet retailers could place their orders with the data uploaded to an FTP site. In the past, this process was handled manually, which was extremely inefficient.
“Previously it took 20 days to ship several hundred orders in bulk from the warehouse to distributors”, said Fisher. “Now these orders can ship in 10 days.”
“Business Alerts has added a significant improvement in our customer service at no cost, increased our office productivity an hour a day and provided over $4,000 a year savings in postage.”
Streamline Corporate Communications
The final step in Carver’s technology update involved streamlining communications. Previously, company personnel manually e-mailed order acknowledgments and mailed invoices to their customers. AccountMate’s Business Alerts Powered by Info-Alert module provides real-time data monitoring and sends automated e-mail alerts and reports to predefined users based on event driven activities. With Business Alerts, Carver e-mails an acknowledgement to customers every hour and automatically e-mails invoices at the end of each day.
The Result
With an award winning, scalable program design, Carver has a comprehensive front-to-back office solution using AccountMate SQL as its business backbone and industry-specific solutions for warehouse functions. According to Fisher, “we would not have come this far without AccountMate and Doug Meredith. All I had to do was pitch the idea to Doug, and he made the magic happen.”