International Importer / Exporter Dramatically Improves Inventory Management Using RF Barcode Scanning
Case Study: Hampton Forge
Founded in 1992, Hampton Forge, Ltd. is a privately-held design, importing, marketing and sales company headquartered in Eatontown, New Jersey. Recognized as a key innovator in the tabletop and housewares industry, Hampton Forge creates exceptionally designed flatware, cutlery, serveware and metal-based kitchen tools. In addition to its branded Hampton Forge collections, the company markets private label products for retailers such as Walmart, Williams-Sonoma and Target.
Hampton Forge employs approximately 40 people in five locations in Asia, South America, and the United States. Inspired by the newest trends, Hampton Forge melds remarkable form with quality and affordability. From casual to contemporary designs, Hampton Forge’s array of trendsetting and traditional flatware and signature cutlery options appeal to consumers world-wide.
Since 1995, Hampton Forge has leveraged AccountMate’s secure financial management system with integrated third-party solutions to solve forecasting and inventory challenges, process EDI orders, and manage multiple company profiles. Originally, the company used Visual AccountMate for LAN when they had 5 users. Since then, Hampton Forge has upgraded to AccountMate SQL. Due to AccountMate’s scalability and open architecture to incorporate integrated third-party solutions seamlessly, Hampton Forge has a comprehensive front-to-back office solution that accommodates their global, multi-million-dollar business. Working directly with AccountMate Business Partner AKA Computer Consulting, Hampton Forge has fully automated its international business processes.
The Challenge: Multiple Company Consolidation
As an international conglomerate, Hampton Forge has multiple companies in the US, Canada, and other countries around the world. General Ledger’s standard drill-down feature enables company personnel to quickly analyze information by sales person, department or division. Multi-view capability allows Hampton Forge employees to toggle between companies, view pertinent company data and track global trends by company, country or division.
With Consolidated Ledger, Hampton Forge has the ability to quickly combine account balances and budget information from multiple companies into a single unified ledger to present consolidated financial statements and other reports as well. Using AccountMate as their financial management solution, company policies and procedures help monitor management and organizational metrics at any given time.
Efficient Order Processing & Warehouse Management
Over the years, continual multi-national growth provided several business challenges which significantly impacted Hampton Forge’s shipping operations. Previously, outdated inventory remained in stock which was costly to the company’s bottom line. Consequently, every warehouse required oldest inventory pulled, packed and shipped first following the FIFO (first in, first out) inventory management technique. This process was time consuming and inefficient.
The Solution
To solve this business challenge, AKA Computer Consulting customized AccountMate logic by adding received dates to the inventory and travels from location to location. As a result, the necessary internal system required to pull orders utilizing FIFO was automatically generated for all of Hampton Forge’s warehouses around the world.
With the increase of internet orders generated, Hampton Forge needed to pick, pack and ship small packages. ShipIT integrates directly with UPS and FedEx, and posts the order status online instantly, providing shipping and tracking information to the consumer on-the-spot.
Leveraging AccountMate’s open database architecture, Hampton Forge solved EDI and alert challenges easily with seamless third-party integrations.
With AccountMate’s award-winning program design, adding on industry-specific programs to solve shipping challenges was a seamless integration. As consumer demand increased for Hampton Forge’s private-label brands, they needed an automated pick-pack order fulfillment solution.
With the integration of Accurate Direct Access Remote Terminal system (ACCU-DART), the company has a real-time shipping and inventory management solution. Using radio-frequency bar-code scanning technology, ACCU-DART automates inventory management, controls FIFO inventory processing and instantly updates AccountMate. This supports a knowledgeable workforce that ensures the continuum between planning, picking and shipping.
To solve the complexity of calculating commissions to inside/outside sales representatives, Hampton Forge installed Sales Commission Module by AKA Consulting. Designed to automate commission payments, Sales Commission Module seamlessly integrates with AccountMate so every transaction is posted in real time.
Routine cycle counting is tailored to focus on items with higher value, higher movement volume, or that are critical to business processes by season, design-type or warehouse.
Hampton Forge also needed an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution that automates order acknowledgments, invoices, ASN’s and other status updates with customers. Auto-generated e-mail alerts report key inventory and sales information and document time sensitive operations. A bulk picking solution that supports wave picking from bin locations and for multiple orders helped solve warehouse inefficiencies.
The Result
As a result, these changes have enabled Hampton Forge to effectively and efficiently manage warehouse functions with minimum effort.
“After using the AccountMate system and ACCU-DART for 12 months, year-end inventory was off by under $1,000,” recalls Siletski.
“We’re completely satisfied with AccountMate in all aspects: inventory management, forecasting, purchasing, reporting,” said Siletski. “With international trading, we need to be on top of our game, and AccountMate gets us there.”