Agenda
· Doing gigantic orders that may require getting production input, but ideally want to get away from having to walk and inquire about what it will take
· Wanting to take the guesswork out of the question for order entry
· Want to have the system recommend what the lead times should be based on actuals
· Project Plan has not been updated in a long time (current discrepancy between Sandbox and Production)
· Have not been using the Implementation bundle (an update was done and all the items disappeared, so hasn’t been maintained since early on in the project)
· Internally, they have tried many methods for managing Activities/To-Dos, but had no luck getting traction on a set of tools
· Upcoming Projects
o No known new projects are coming down the path
o Can always assume something will be detracting people’s attention
o Nobody really knows what the end state is, what their action items – really need to know what needs to be done so people can get behind the vision (end state is cloudy at best)
o Jon will be tasked with helping to manage this
o Gregg noted that only about five people outside of the attendee list for the agenda will interact with the system
o Customer service and sales will be most impacted (half a dozen people who will need to know how to do things like Order Entry)
· Will need to define responsibilities in systems (inputs, outputs, work done in between)
o Sounds like it will be roughly 25 people using the system, some with very limited access in NetSuite (e.g. just order entry)
· Crye team will produce an org chart to spell out who will be doing what
Project Review
· Scott
o At the very beginning, things looked quite different than now
o WFX was a big part of the implementation (PLM)
o Would be the start of all new product information
o So strictly focused on apparel, other items didn’t work well
o Any connection point, could only push data one way, not the other
o Formatting information was a pain
o WFX was good at showing what the apparel should look like, but was apparent it was for making the design and sourcing it to China
o WFX had no concept of a Tech Pack
o Gerber PLM would work for clothes, but has no concept of dealing with something like a helmet
o WFX not being a part of it, was quickly apparent there was no way to deal with it
o Purchased Unipoint was purchased for Quality Management
· This is the first meeting to talk about how to go live with limited tools
· Considering going live with basic tools, but need to have a map to get to phase 2, 3, etc.
· Non-conforming reports, tests that could be done with incoming materials
o Realized that they can’t even use it for that either
o Might be useful for record keeping within a certain record set (e.g. shrinkage of fabric)
o Can’t be used for the entirety for the entire incoming product
o Might be good for keeping track of training records, etc.
· Have found that Vinyl may work better as a duplication of their current system
o They have purchased from them to design one specific function; if that goes well, will purchase the entire platform
o Function being designed is the material requirement (when you want to specify a fabric/button/etc.; becomes a document with the vendor that they need to perform – basis for the ongoing inspection record)
o When they find the non-conformance, baseline for the non-conformance report
o Touches all the right departments with approvals (they had a good baseline system before, tried to replicate/improve that system)
o Vinyl has evolved even further than what Fuuz has done, will show with Craig tomorrow to see if that will work
o Important for each function to see what they need for each department
o Linked into Misys currently to get them out of spreadsheets
· Team found they had limited bandwidth of their team, then had a breach of their entire network/systems (took a long time to recover from)
· A big part of the current distraction is a product that they are in the midst of developing (special relationships involved, doesn’t make sense to be developed in their traditional departments)
· What they intend with the re-engagement is to get Scott out of it, get the department heads more involved in their respective areas (they need to grab the reins for their respective departments)
· Sage, Misys and their websites will be all disappearing
· Got screwed up when WFX dropped off, spent a lot of time exploring other systems
· Subsidiaries
o Vantage was used for a branch of revenue (firearms) they are no longer doing, but it still pays Crye Precision rent
o Crye American is Payroll
o Crye Precision is where the bulk of transactions will take place
· Locations
o Will be adding a location for the new build out
o No concept of locations in Misys today, all run off tribal knowledge
· Website was one of the largest drivers for switching to NetSuite
o Was THE biggest driver for re-evaluating systems
· Only 2% of their inventory is lot tracked
o Only Ballistic
· No ITAR compliance (yet)
o Would be great if they could future proof for it
· Light Implementation
o Production Planning (even if it’s just re-order points/minimum order quantities)
§ Outside Manufacturing – will have different revisions for an outside processor than their own in-house production
· Have a mix of BOMs with outside processing
· Some where there is no outside processing cost in the BOM, a complete mix
· Makes standard costing unreliable
· Yields are for an estimate of a given item, but rather than changing that number constantly, want to feed scrap back in
· They purchase the labor in their current system today, but never really gets relieved from their books
§ Drop management is an ongoing problem
· Markers for a given job, will drive yields
· They come up with good estimates, then they see estimates
· Would go a very long way if they could maintain multiple revisions
o Costing will be another big improvement
o Beth is the number one person to really have improvements
o Was based off my suggestion to piece this together at a small scale
o SuiteCommerce is a big win theme
§ Limping along with current websites right now (some investments had to go into it that they were looking to avoid)
o Need to get off Misys/Sage
§ A lot of functionality of Misys not used
· BOMs are there, but not even revisions
· Raw Materials
· Manufacturing/Work Orders
§ Not using Master scheduling, production planning purposes
· Didn’t start using them 15 years ago
· Was never really a thing they did
o Current Systems
§ Misys
· Jean is the only person who creates items in any system
· The handling of work orders – NetSuite looks more cumbersome than what they are doing now
· Backflushing off pure quantities
· Lot tracking done, but done manually
§ Gerber/Acumark
· Onsite, sits on a few machines with a SQL server sitting on the backend
· Wouldn’t trust it for much of the data (e.g. yields)
§ Process Shipper
· Horrible system, no longer supported by Sage
§ Fedex Worldship
· Not used much
§ Avalara
· Will be used moving forward
§ CAD
· Solidworks
§ Liquid Planner
§ Quality System
· NS Quality could be decent for certain things like inline check
§ PDF Designer
· Adobe tools to create the tech parts/artwork for marketing purposes
§ RingCentral
· Customer Service keeps notes in a module in Sage
· Looked at Sage CRM, but bailed on it
· Customer service truly interested in seeing how they could use NetSuite’s tools for ongoing customer service
§ Sage
· Expense management done there
· Will be used for all their financials
· Credit card reconciliation
· Financial reporting is virtually non-existent (all put together manually)
· Connection between Misys and Sage is real time
· Labor Tracking is an entry against a COGs account, not factored into the production cost at all
· Item numbers are linked (with sales item, triggered when a work order is completed in Misys)
· Vendor bills once a receipt is done
· Sage holds finished goods, Misys is raw materials/WIP
· They know what is in WIP from a material issue standpoint, but not updated in real time where the inventory is
· Going to be switching to Bank of America
o Currently RBC & City National
§ ADP/Timeforce
· Used for clocking in/out
§ Conlego
· Credit card processor for the website
§ SiteFinity
· Website they use
· No current software/application footprint
· SuitePeople not a requirement for phase 1, would be nice
o Have original documents, haven’t filled out any of the requested employee info
o Ian Augana (Consultant)
o Janice Preston (PM)
· SuiteCommerce
o Cryeprecision.com is up and running in Sandbox, been delayed since December 2020
§ Matt knows he needs to update pricing for them to get this back on track
§ SuiteCommerce team waiting on ERP team solution
· Current NetSuite Implementation
o NetSuite CRM is not a big driver for them
§ Management of notes/feedback is more important to them
§ Would need to pare back the statuses/stages as they would never fill it all out
o Manufacturing Cost Templates are relatively new concept to them
o Don’t care about logistics costs for outside manufacturing
o Project management with Stan is fine, don’t get all that much value out of the sessions
§ He has a few questions asked each week, all surface level
§ Has no interest in the nuances as to why they can’t do part numbers with say SuiteCommerce
§ Too generic for their tastes
o SuiteCommerce
§ Those sessions went really well, helps Crye understand things
§ If they fire off a question, SuiteCommerce is on it
§ Cryeprecision site is up in Sandbox
· Format of the new site would be about the same, just different products
§ Three sites, could kill the Atlas one if it’s still in there (currently operating on Spotify)
o WMS
§ Bins has been the big topic of conversation, created an initial map, but has not been set in stone yet
§ May go down the RF Smart path
§ Work order picking was the core drawback, knew it would not work for them
· Current Partners
o Pacejet
§ The guy they worked with left, but no known issues, mostly because they haven’t tested orders in the system yet
§ International Shipping Paperwork
· Don’t have now with Process Shipper, not sure if Pacejet can do the same type of work
· Process Shipper does so little for them, even from a quoting perspective
· Have their own pre-negotiated rates for Pacejet
o Fedex, UPS
o iPaaS
§ Shopify for a boutique
§ Atlas (is the one standard)
§ Crye Precision will also be a SuiteCommerce site
o 1099.com
§ Have some reps that need to be 1099
§ Curious to know if SuitePeople will cover the 1099 forms??
· Out
o Barcoding
o WMS
o Budgeting
· Current Content
o SuiteCommerce aspect is the biggest improvement
§ Customers can see their history, account info
§ Ongoing maintenance being relieved from them
§ Data entry improvement
o Implementing basics for planning will be an improvement
§ MRP type asks keep coming up
DEPARTMENT STRUCTURE
· Product Development (Stefan Rublowsky)
o INPUTS
§ About 50ish products in development
§ Some are slight improvements, others are disruptive
§ Can be a solicitation (quick turnaround), or others can be their own roadmap
o TOOLS
§ They work primarily with Gerber/Solidworks/AutoCad/Illustrator/Excel
§ Use MISys to pull part numbers for the Tech Pack
§ Liquid Planner (manages time entry, scenario driven)
o OUTPUTS
§ They publish Tech Packs
§ Documentation related to product design
§ Some models of things for tooling/process
o CHALLENGES
§ Tech pack holds the detail of length of cut on an item, but MISys aggregates all the individual pieces into one amount, not breaking out the detail
§ Marketing is not included in Liquid Planner (really only Stefan uses it)
· Manufacturing Engineering (Sean Flaherty)
o INPUTS
§ They define how things are made
§ Product Development provides Tech Pack
§ Production provides input on improvements from a Production perspective
o TOOLS
§ Excel, some MISys to understand BOMs, but no data entry (would enter routers)
o OUTPUTS
§ Routing Steps
· No real data to drive the data (timings were not trustworthy, minimum stock quantities are incorrect)
§ Time studies are conducted for sample run for new products (what is used for cost and scheduling)
§ Items for various sizes and colors
o CHALLENGES
§ Tech pack doesn’t fully specify all the items/sizes
§ Need to identify best tool to define steps for sample making, time study, shop floor layout, resource management (not currently tracked against after creation)
· PRODUCTION (Peter Freire)
o Jean reports to Peter, only person to develop items in any system
o INPUTS
§ Time Studies from Manufacturing Engineering
§ Tech Pack from Production Development
§ Incoming Purchase Orders
§ New Item Requests from Production Development
§ Sales Orders/Quotes (presumed Sales Orders)
o TOOLS
§ MISys (largely Peter and Jean, John and Doug also doing data entry)
§ Sage – all the sales stuff that drives making orders
o OUTPUTS
§ Work Orders
· Transfers to Sales
§ Mostly tribal knowledge (drop physical material)
§ MISys – update that a move occurred (Anthony or Jose, primarily Jose)
§ Item Numbers (raw materials and finished goods)
§ BOM outputs (revisions)
§ Supply Planning
o CHALLENGES
§ New Jersey isn’t technically a sales location, but can’t complete the Transfer to Sales until after the Transfer happens
§ Some items are not sold, but are sub-assemblies (don’t get triggered on the To Sales button) – there is a status to show that material is reserved before it goes into WIP (affects Jean’s view of availability of materials); once a work order is reserved, the stock is removed from stock and put into reserve
§ Items get put into reserve as soon as the work order is created
§ Have times where the customer will provide just one line item of a specific size, then an actual order will come later breaking out the actual sizes needed
§ If you took out weird stuff and big contracts, would be huge to have a lead time determined based off historical output
o NOTES
§ Does the production schedule once per week
§ If he sees something happens, will be proactive in planning/scheduling to prevent sales having to ping him for things they don’t have goods for
§ Plans out 32 weeks
§ Actual orders and quotes (anything forecasting is based off Sales History)
· Big dimension is looking at past 9 months at G3 combat pant
· Sometimes the numbers are not correct because of one large order that happened over that time horizon
§ Just requests Purchase Orders
§ Spends a lot of time updating work orders
§ Will make work orders to reserve time but won’t commit to WIP (would reserve materials for that work order)
§ Once work order goes to WIP, then he will check to see if the items have been received and cut
§ Will then work on the reconciling any loss of material that prevents the work order from being completed
§ Very controlled now based on his current process
o In house/OM
§ Newer items will be manufactured in house
§ Labor costs determine it as well
§ Overall, the picture of how densely they are booked will determine if they outsource
§ First option is to build in house, but Peter will call his OMs to see if they can do it faster
§ Talks to the OMs every day (goes to OMs every day)
§ Jumps between facilities constantly
§ Peter does all the updating in the systems on the spot
§ Does not change the complete date on the work order
§ Probably 32 POs at 15/20 line items per PO, updated every single week
§ Ideally would like to have a planned date versus the actual completion date
o NUMBERS
§ 150 work orders being managed on any given day
· Almost like a PO – their work orders can have multiple items on the same work order
§ A work order is going to have multiple line items
§ Style and color are primary ways of grouping items into a work order
§ They do this because they can all be cut at the same time, but they will be physically completed products at different times
§ Line items have their own expected completion dates (usually a week earlier than they have told Sales)
§ Has the OM working off the PO completed date, factors in two weeks of lead time
§ Does not currently have to toggle between BOM Revisions for items if they are going outsourced (they definitely would want to)
o WORK ORDERS
§ Does not tie work orders to sales orders (currently don’t have a way of doing it)
§ Outsourced Manufacturing – consistent pricing, but different by item
· SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE (Beth Rodriquez)
o Lifetime Warranty
o Beth is the gatekeeper (also heads up the warehouse)
§ Have people that report to Gregg that are largely remote, primarily just interfacing at the quote level (rely heavily on Beth to make things right)
§ Also works with accounting to make sure accounts are setup correctly
o INPUTS
§ Sales Reps (quotes), e-Commerce (sales) – spends a lot of time tracking down lead times for either
§ Customer Returns
§ Customer Service Requests
o TOOLS
§ Sage (Quotes/Sales Orders); record some notes on the quotes, but little else
§ Process Shipper (shipping)
§ Fedex Tool (shipping)
§ Sales Inquiry (Report)
§ Shared Google docs (customer service/shipping)
§ Phone (customers)
§ Email (internal communications)
o OUTPUTS
§ Documentation for Outbound
§ Sales Orders
§ Quotes
§ RMAs
o CHALLENGES
§ Beth wears a lot of hats, has to keep things flowing for warehouse, web sales, user rep sales
§ Manual nature of all the updating
§ Triage of order fulfillment is brutal
§ Weight/Box Type all have to be entered manually
o NOTES
§ Manual nature for things even like web orders
§ Some parts are synced for the orders
§ Rest of the process steps, ship dates, etc. is all manual
§ Efficiency and consistency
§ Not a lot of it is reportable
§ Documents that are manually populating
§ Generally dealing with customer inquiry (general – what do you make, how to get it)
§ Quote process requires manually entering an account to classify them
§ What type of pricing do they get
§ Some quotes may get converted to an order, others do not
o What they like
§ They can see what they have on order versus what they are making
§ Curious to know how ship dates are assigned
§ Ops Inquiry - any direct effect on assigning dates and priority, they can see what they have, what’s on order, what they’re making and when (really important to know)
§ Determining quoted time of delivery is hyper critical for them
· Works only on a part number by part number
· Doesn’t have a long pole in the tent to know what will make them late
§ The tool doesn’t increment/decrement for them
o What they don’t like
§ Web store can mess with their schedule, requires a lot of time to figure out a ship date
§ Merchant won’t validate information, so they go through entire process before the final validation is done
§ Calculated there is 40 hours of work per week for declined orders (capture payment earlier)
§ Ship date is line by line, the shipping notification to the customer is a manual process (exporting from a shared drive, then emailing based off of a template)
§ Order triage takes brain work as well (does it from 2-4 PM EST with two individuals)
§ Every morning, John Nelson is running an order report by line item on every order to know what he can fulfill
· First thing Beth does is updating everything that is late for things like a material being late
· Update to the customer is also manual
· Scheduling everything new
§ Peter and Beth communicate a lot during the week (if there are late orders and it’s not obvious, will work together to determine what the issue is)
§ Peter updates the work orders one by one, the goods usually arrived, but the goods failed inspection
§ B2B functions take a long time, even if it’s an existing account (no Customer Portal) – same with Purchase Orders (doing the same accounts over and over again)
§ Requires the manual application of the ship date, a shipping line item, all things that could be automated with defaults
§ No login for any customer account on their current web store (Beth and team fill that void – takes half the day to update the orders for things like a ship to address)
· A lot of support is required for customers for lack of function
· No real time availability or lead time, so spend a lot of time tracking down if they have something
§ A lot of credit notes get created – a lot of issues with just CC processing
o NUMBERS
§ Shipping roughly 200 orders per day (web store and B2B)
§ Quotes/Orders – about 40 per day (fluctuates on time of year)
§ 100 manual emails going out for general reasons (quote or order, responding to an inquiry)
§ Depending on the day, can vary from 30 – 80 phone calls for lead times/availability/web support/updating information to accounts
o PROACTIVE
§ Biggest opportunity to really work with their existing base, offer training and more insight into their accounts
§ Don’t pay enough attention to the upkeep of good customers
§ Would be good to follow up with leads
§ Would like to be the initiator
o CUSTOMER INVOICES
§ Collect the packing lists from Sage, enter into sage, then choose a template to email out to a customer
§ Challenge is, if an individual doesn’t choose the correct template, within 30 days, the money isn’t coming in
§ There are a few templates (due by invoice, international/domestic, net 30)
§ Steven currently sends out statements for past due, want to drive it automatically
§ Want automatic emailing of invoices
§ Automatic creation of invoices on fulfillment
§ Email invoice, pack packing slip
o OPPS
§ Get rid of the declines – it’s the biggest waste of effort on the day
· Would lead to more order fulfillment
· Shipping/Customer paperwork has to be all shuffled, all with hand written notes
· Order has to be pulled off the shelf into a secondary location, held for one business week (did that as a courtesy because the client may be out of service)
· Shipping department maintains that for five days before putting it back on the shelf
· Two customers go out for update (update payment type)
· Three to five people that will touch a declined order for the week
§ Having a functioning web store
§ Having accurate ship dates
· Ship by order date
· Have priorities they where they will shuffle orders around to meet higher priority items
· No way to signal that in the system other than to change the ship date manually
· Not going to be obvious, so it’s a series of steps to get to the promise dates
§ Getting a login/password with their customers so the customer can look up on the website to get the latest information on dates/credit card processing/etc.
§ Quotes – they won’t do the heavy lifting, Peter will track it for 30 days
· Peter will put together a placeholder for quotes – will make a work order to set the wheels in motion to order product
· Doesn’t happen often where quotes simply won’t materialize
§ Can be up to sixty/seventy orders they are modifying on any given day if a material is going to be late and adjust their timing
§ Do partial shipments (have some items that have very long lead times)
· Line items have ship dates independent of the order header
§ International is tricky because they don’t take CCs, only wires
· Makes order fulfillment a challenge
§ Shipping
· Special requirements (consent of search, country of origin)
· Will get requests for special documentation (they have templates for all this, but it’s all manual)
· CoC
· BOL
· Commercial Invoice
· Customs Docs
· EAI – for all items that are over $2500 per item
o Customer Returns
§ Manual, there is a form on the website that a customer can download and fill out, then send to Crye
§ The form then needs to be manually entered into their system
§ In order to enter the RMA, the rep has to understand the cause, they need to update whether it’s a refund/exchange
§ No shipping label is provided to the customer
§ Shipping department will verify items in the package, will then give to Quality for an inspection – if it’s an open item, goes back to packaging, then goes back to shipping department to be put on the shelf
§ The RMA will then be marked complete, which gets email
§ Manual checking of the order, refund, etc. is all manual
§ Customer Service will setup the exchange and refund
§ Hard to know when they should update an RMA (issue refund, application, timing, etc.)
· Timing for all the transactions is always off
· Beth runs a report to make sure all the elements are in line from an accounting perspective
o Case Management
§ Beth was in some meetings last year to talk about some of it
§ Has a basic knowledge of NetSuite, has been playing with the system a little bit
§ No end to end walkthrough yet
o User Reps
§ Generally receiving forwards from reps
§ Only time sending things to them is testing/evaluation (general inquiries)
o Avalara
§ All manual to denote orders that have exemptions
§ Resale certificates
· Requires manual application in their Sage program now
· Have to go back to all orders that are impacted by new sales tax – update one at a time
· MARKETING (Ernesto Rodriguez)
o Will be using campaigns in NetSuite, maintaining websites
· QUALITY (Michael Liu)
o INPUTS
§ Incoming Goods (raw materials) – unreceived until inspection completed
§ Finished Goods (in house or subcontract) – all unpackaged garments
§ Samples
§ Tech Pack – guides inspection for finished goods
o TOOLS
§ Excel
§ Maintain a library of the production items (first time use based off sample)
o OUTPUTS
§ Packaging Inspections
§ Quality Tests
§ In Process Inspections
o CHALLENGES
§ Unipoint and NS will not be able to handle the complicated nature of their inbound inspections
§ Notifications to take action (how do they know they are needed)
· In-line, Incoming, Outbound – believe NS QMS could help them identify it
Lead to Quote (Beth lead/Peter support)
· Beth is really wanting to improve her department
· Kitting
o Does a kitting date and a ship date (kitting date is only used internally)
o Treated as a new item that is put together
Order to Cash (Beth lead, Steven will be on-call)
· Currencies
o Pounds
o Euros
o CAD
o USD
· Government Contracts
o Can be tied to another distributor that wins the contract, they fulfill it
o Australia, Europe, Middle East, Canada
Call to Resolution (Beth lead, Steven will be on-call)
· Didn’t discuss in much detail outside of
Design to Build (up in the air)
· Items, BOMs, Manufacturing (Jean, Peter, Sean)
o Tech Pack creation is all done with manual manipulation
· Production Planning/Scheduling (Peter)
· Cycle counting is an issue for them today, don’t have functionality to do it today
· Tech Pack may serve as the starting point for Item creation
Procure to Pay (Jean)