In the fast-paced world of consumer goods, our client A1 Plast suppliers and manufactures of microwave safe containers face some challenges in this industry focusing on operational efficiency, inventory management accuracy as well as integration across your departments. In order to remain competitive, organizations in this sphere are looking for forward-thinking technology solutions such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. In this case study, we take a deep-dive into how one such manufacturer streamlined their operations with the help of Odoo which is an emerging and most popular open-source ERP software.
For the supplier of microwave safe containers clients in the consumer goods industry the other key success factors include the need to ensure and maintain high levels of product quality, manage large inventories often in different locations and comply with strict delivery schedules. However, as the businesses develop, the task of handling these aspects becomes even more challenging.
This is where an ERP system comes into play effective for supporting the organization’s infrastructure and growth. ERP is a software application that joins different aspects of an organization so that work is conducted with an increased level of efficiency, control, and productivity. For microwave safe container suppliers, an ERP can be the silver bullet to apply new efficiency and lift its business operations to meet increasing demands.
Before adopting Odoo, the company was facing several challenges that threatened to hinder their growth. These challenges included:
Manual Data Entry: Business used spreadsheets and conducted manual operations on inventory, sales and schedules of production. With this, not only did it take a lot of time, but also the chance of making mistakes was daily.
Inefficient Inventory Management: It was not easy for industries to monitor the availability of its products, and this led to overstock on some products while out of stock on others. This led to high costs of storage and lowered chances of business sales as some products began to overstay their welcome at the customers’ doorstep.
Lack of Integration:It is rather noteworthy that the company applied several specific software applications to control various aspects of business processes, however, such solutions were not interconnected. This led to development of data silos, where the important information required by different departments of the organization could not be easily retrieved easily hence resulting in improper communication and stretching of time.
Limited Scalability: With the growth of the company, their requirements finally overburden the existing systems of processing transactions and coordinating activities. They required something that would be capable of growing as their business did.
After a thorough evaluation of several ERP solutions, our client decided to implement Odoo for several compelling reasons:
Open-Source Flexibility: The fact that Odoo was an open source was an added advantage to the company because it could easily bend the source code to suit their needs, without the constraint of having to deal with proprietary source code. This was important for a growing business especially one that needed to operate in a very specific manner.
Comprehensive Modules: Odoo comes with many modules which tackle key aspects of business such as inventory management, sales, accounting, and human resources among others. Dave White from Safe Kitchen Supplies said that the firm only required certain modules for it to offer and it could implement these immediately while rolling out others when the firm started growing.
User-Friendly Interface: Nevertheless, thanks to its massive functions and features, Odoo offers a friendly user interface, which justified the transition of the company’s employees to a new level.
Cost-Effective: It was also an advantage since Odoo was an open-source system, and the cost of purchasing it was much lower than that of many licensed ERP software out there, which would be affordable by a company the size of Safe Kitchen Supplies.
Implementing an ERP system is no small feat, and Our client approached the task with a clear, step-by-step plan. Here’s how they did it:
The first phase was setting up a proper plan of action and forming a specific team whose duty is to manage the implementation process. This team comprised members from various departments such as inventory, sales and marketing, production and finance in order to cover all bases of the business.
Thus, the implementation team undertook a sustained analysis of the company’s processes in order to determine the glitches which need improvement. They then broke down the structure at a micro level from receipt of orders to shipment of the products in a bid to understand where Odoo could be of help.
Accordingly, with a result from the needs assessment, the team finally implemented Odoo ERP system with the help of Odoo consultants providing input for customizing the Odoo system which met the organization’s needs. This means that it entailed setting up of modules such as inventory, sales and accounts.
However, one of the biggest areas of focus during the implementation process remained the extraction of data from the company’s legacy systems to Odoo. The team was very much diligent in cleaning and moving data from one location to another to avoid loss of data or even inaccuracies.
Training was another important strategy that had to be anticipated during implementation and to provide sufficient and effective trainings so that the employees could familiarize themselves with the new system. This consisted of practical demonstrations as well as other forms of printed material such as manuals with special focus on usage of the products.
As mentioned it was always a goal to have minimality of issues with running the system before running live, therefore the team always spent a lot of time testing the system. This entailed making several simulations at what was to happen daily, so as to iron out any problems.
When all the configurations and updates were done, our client implemented it with Odoo fully. They also put in place measures to address any problem that may arise during the initial stages of implementing the new ERP.
The implementation of Odoo brought about a transformation in A1 Plast operations. Here are some of the key benefits they experienced:
On their part, our client was able to get real time updates on their inventory status through Odoo. The system was based on its ability to update the stock quantities whenever there was receipt of products or when it dispatched the products to other outlets thus preventing overstocking or running out of stock. This in a way helped reduce storage costs while at the same time made sure that products were always in stock to cater for consumer’s needs.
Being an integrated platform, Odoo helped in avoiding the time-consuming task of manually inputting data and at the same time, also prevented data entry mistakes. Implementation of this software means that sales, inventory and production information became integrated and therefore processing of information became efficient.
Basically, the accounting module which is an Odoo app gave the client with much needed view of their financial situation. It also helped them in managing the expenses, their cash flow, and even their financial statements. This enhanced the financial management procedures thus allowing the company to make better strategic management decisions.
Our client kept growing, and the more it developed, the more Odoo as the option to integrate it into the company’s business processes advanced as well. It could adopt other users and modules with a lot of ease without much interfering with its current processes. It translated into opportunities, giving the organizations the flexibility of expanding their enterprises without running into the issue of scalability of their ERP systems.
Due to improved inventory and organizational control the firm was able to meet order quotas more efficiently and effectively – delivering the orders with higher precision. This helped give the company more repeated patronage from customers as everyone became confident with the company’s ability to deliver at the right time and promise quality goods.
While the implementation of Odoo was largely successful, The client did encounter some challenges along the way. These included:
The environmental impact was relatively small but the biggest issue was to convince the employees to change their mind. Some were rigid in their thinking and had kept to the traditional jobs which earned them a lot of negativity towards the change. To counter this, the company highlighted features of the new system and provided constant assistance to the employees.
When migrating data, the team realized that the data in its previous systems were not uniform. This also meant that there was a need to spend more time and energy in cleaning the data before transferring it into Odoo. The biggest thing that could be gathered from this was that data preparation was important prior to migration.
During the go-live there were some technical issues that manifested in intermittent system outages although they were for short durations. However, the support team was very responsive in addressing such concerns, and the firm had back-ups for such aggressive actions.
In the future, the Consumer industry aims at expanding more where it will be using Odoo to help it in this process. They are planning on adding other modules including the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the eCommerce to complement their operation and interaction with their customers. They have Odoo as part of their ERP that gives them a strong foundation on which they can expand their business in reaction to the customers’ requirements.
Our client A1 Plast suppliers and manufactures of microwave safe containers journey towards achieving organizational success discusses the benefit of an effectively implemented ERP. By selecting Odoo they received a multitasking tool that helped to optimize their work, organize stocks better and not omit the factor of customer satisfaction and adaptability to the further expansion. For any company in the consumer goods industry especially one that deals with microwave safe containers, an ERP such as odoo could be the magic want for increased efficiency and fortunes.
Overall, if your business is experiencing the issues of growth, complexities, or obsolescence in some business processes, it is high time to start with the implementation of an ERP solution like Odoo. The benefits, as illustrated above by this case, are numerous and vast, resulting in increased efficiency, enhanced client satisfaction and ultimately a prosperous future for your business.
