FEATURED WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION CLIENT


McCordick Glove & Safety: A Tale of 5 Distribution Centers on 1 Network

Supplying a complete line of work gloves and safety supplies, McCordick Glove and Safety has been protecting the Canadian worker since day 1, which happens to be thirty years ago. With five distribution centers across Canada, including warehouses in Cambridge, Surrey, Edmonton, Boucherville, and Winnipeg, McCordick has made every effort to be accessible by their customers, who include direct to industry companies like Toyota, Maple Leaf Foods, and multiple Fortune 500 companies, and customers on the consumer side, such as Home Depot, Walmart, and Canadian Tire. Some of the products most widely distributed include industrial work gloves and eye, respiratory, and hearing protection. Fall protection harnesses are also a high volume item.

From the very beginning, McCordick’s mission has been to be the leader in their industry; to be the partner customers know they can count on for the highest quality products, services, and value. Importing a full range of superior products direct from overseas, McCordick turned to Group Laurier, a founding partner of Distributor’s EGDE, and SX.enterprise to continually achieve this mission. However, this initial partnership and implementation were only the first phases of the project. More recently, McCordick implemented TWL, Infor’s Warehouse Management Solution, to further improve their customer service.

The Early Years: McCordick Glove and Safety Selects SX.enterprise
McCordick prides themselves on their ongoing commitment to the customer, for they consider the quality of their product and services to be of equal and substantial importance. They are committed to educating the customer before, during, and after order delivery, and they will work closely with their customers to understand needs and best fulfill these needs. That said, McCordick immediately began searching for a scalable ERP solution after their old system began counting sales backwards in the mid nineties. Without a dependable ERP system, they would not be able to reliably provide for their customers.

Knowing they would need to move quickly or risk disappointing valued customers, McCordick hired a search consultant to expedite the search process. In addition to wanting a scalable system that would only count forward, McCordick was looking for a system that could network all five of their warehouse locations into one system. After searching for a few months, they selected SX.enterprise. McCordick’s Vice President Dave Huck, Director of I.T. John Jackson, and Distribution Manager Derek Porri said SX.enterprise “was one of the more expensive ERP solutions but brought a lot more to the table and would align us for growth, which was a big factor for us.” Once McCordick selected Group Laurier and SX.enterprise, they worked quickly to get their new solution online, and Group Laurier and SX.enterprise’s bilingual capabilities aided the process.

SX.enterprise Steals the Show
McCordick executives credit their hard working team and Group Laurier, who helped them develop an implementation team, for a fast and successful implementation of SX.enterprise, but they admit the undertaking was far greater than they expected. Still, Huck says, “If I had to do it all over again, absolutely I would do it; I would probably do it five years sooner.”

Their old system’s counting flaws lended urgency to the process, but McCordick had many reasons for implementing a new system. In Huck’s eyes, the single most important goal was getting all five distribution centers on one network. Since McCordick imports their products from overseas (deliveries can take ninety days), they have far fewer turns than domestic importers, and their inventory must be even more accurate. Since Group Laurier and SX.enterprise were able to connect all five warehouses on one network, McCordick could process orders with better certainty; in the past, they could not trust their information. In fact, once they implemented SX.enterprise, McCordick’s fill rate increased from about 77% to 96%, and with it, customer service improved dramatically.

Connecting all warehouses on one network was the main goal, but phase two of that goal was to extract better, real time data from the system. On SX.enterprise, McCordick can run reports to determine what sells, thus improving inventory. Additionally, McCordick employees no longer have to handwrite quotes, which at times could be novels, depending on the order. With real time data, orders can be shipped to the customer directly from other branches, if need be.
McCordick executives are quick to say SX.enterprise and Group Laurier positively affected their bottom line—cash flows more smoothly, customers receive better information faster, and McCordick has brought on more, larger customers. With SX.enterprise, McCordick is able to maintain the same number of personnel because they can do far more with fewer people. Even though initial implementation was completed over ten years ago, McCordick is continually improving their business, and recently, they turned to a new warehouse management system for an added boost.

TWL Reignites the Spark
McCordick purchased TWL, Infor’s warehouse management solution, far before installing and implementing it, and at the end of 2007, McCordick decided the timing was right. McCordick had three goals for TWL: improve inventory integrity, increase productivity in the warehouse, and secure the ability to measure both. Before even completing implementation, McCordick was on their way to accomplishing all three. Huck, Jackson, and Porri liken preparing to implement a new system to draining a lake, “A lot of sunken ships and anchors are sitting below the surface; you don’t see them until you start draining the lake. It is a good exercise because you end up cleaning up your inventory, reorganizing your warehouse, updating information, and so on.”

Similar to the training technique used when introducing SX.enterprise, Group Laurier consultants trained a few key champions in each department to learn TWL, and in turn, these prodigies taught their team members the ins and outs of TWL. Once they grasped the basics, McCordick team members were comfortable using TWL very quickly, achieving their goal of inventory integrity very rapidly. They are still improving today. Inventory accuracy, with regard to order picking, has increased greatly to 99% while errors decreased by 50% in the first four months. Employees can now identify actual part numbers by being able to barcode individual parts instead of just boxes. With these improvements, workers are far more productive because they know exactly where everything is in the warehouse.

In addition to knowing the location of inventory within their warehouses, McCordick now knows exactly what is in each carton, which is especially helpful when working with outside carriers. If an issue occurs before the order leaves the warehouse, McCordick can use TWL to locate the exact problem because TWL lets them see where the order was picked, who picked it, and how they packaged it with other goods. These benefits help save time and improve customer service, which has drastically increased the bottom line.

McCordick Glove and Safety and Group Laurier
McCordick considers their relationship with Group Laurier to be very strong; after all, Group Laurier and SX.enterprise helped McCordick increase inventory accuracy, productivity, morale, and their bottom line while decreasing errors. McCordick praises Group Laurier’s support and response time, recalling that issues were resolved in a timely fashion. Overall, McCordick mentions that they have hosted many of Group Laurier’s prospects for site visits while exuding nothing but praise for their partner and SX.enterprise. In closing, Huck, Jackson, and Porri simply agree, “Group Laurier is a great partner to work with.”

For more information about McCordick Glove & Safety, visit www.McCordick.com.

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