Mid-West Metal Products Co., Inc.
For nearly 100 years, Mid-West Metal Products has been a premium producer of wire-formed, sheet metal fabricated, and tubular metal products for customers ranging from leading global corporations to small emerging enterprises. With four locations in Muncie, Indiana, including three manufacturing facilities, as well as production operations in Dalian, China, the company specializes in the custom design and manufacturing of items like enclosures, bag stands, pet crates, shelving, and displays from concept to finished product. This is performed in both a “job shop” atmosphere as well as a wholesaler/distribution environment dedicated to quality, timeliness, and competitive pricing.
- “"We really didn't look beyond Epicor for our needs since we knew they were such a good fit.””
Over the past four to five years, the company has grown steadily, especially on the pet side of the business with sales increasingly rising among general and big box retailers as well as distributors worldwide. As a result, the fabricator decided to accommodate this ongoing growth and invest in its future by transitioning to the new Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, and is now actively working to update the system to the next level.
Epicor - the ideal ERP partner
“We really didn't look beyond Epicor for our needs since we knew they were such a good fit,” says Chip Rolfsen, ERP administrator, Mid-West Metal Products. “We made the move to Epicor ERP based on the desire to retrieve and review more information company wide through dashboards and reports. Our new goal is to leverage the technology platform to allow us to provide a better way of doing business.”
Another objective was the establishment of metrics and benchmarks that could not be produced with the previous system. This included a wider variety of sales information and periodic volume reports providing greater sales, historic, and statistical details related to the company's line of pet products and manufacturing and production capabilities.
Facilitating operations company wide
“Since going online with the Epicor ERP system in April 2014, we've identified several production inefficiencies, which enabled us to reduce labor costs by 20 percent, while increasing sales by 30 percent,” explains Rolfsen. “This was achieved through the ability to slice and dice information and gain better insights into who is doing what and when. The solution revealed product lines that just weren't profitable in addition to items that not only sold well, but increased the bottom line.”
“We make heavy use of the advanced materials module for automation of our shipping, processing, packing, and picking activities. In addition, general ledger reporting functions are more easily customized.”
Mid-West Metal Products is in the process of creating a web store to integrate with the existing portal for their distributors and customers. This would offer a more streamlined alternative for those customers currently submitting orders using fax, phone, or e-mail.
Partners in growth
“The support from Epicor has really improved over the last two years,” adds Rolfsen. “We've really counted on their conversion team to get us to the next growth stage. I would certainly recommend Epicor to any company considering the implementation of an ERP system. They have not only been customer-focused, but also actively worked with us to ease the transition to our new programs and maximize the enhanced benefits.”