Custom corrugated box manufacturer Value Added Packaging moved from legacy ERP system to cloud-based software and grew 40% in 10 months. “We can now look at the data and see if we can cut costs, adjust selling prices, or manufacture something more efficiently to make the outcomes better,” says Tyler Hoosier, General Leader.
Manufacturing fully assembled complex packaging solutions
Value Added Packaging is a custom corrugated box manufacturer from Englewood, Ohio. Unlike typical brown boxes commonly seen in e-commerce, their focus is on creating fully assembled packaging solutions, particularly for the automotive and industrial machinery sectors. Their products are distinctive because they arrive at customer facilities completely assembled, e.g. as cartons that are pre-stapled to pallets with the necessary partitions and lids, allowing for immediate use without additional assembly.
Founded in 1997 by Jarod and Mari Wenrick, the company started with standard cardboard box manufacturing but has since then evolved to focus on pre-assembled solutions, meeting the complex packaging needs of other manufacturers. Over the years, the company has expanded its facilities two times and today employs 58 people. The Wenricks, who still actively manage the company, have guided this evolution from simple box suppliers to leaders in advanced packaging solutions.
Moving on from a niche software
The company had been using a corrugated-specific software, Imaginera by Amtech, since 2005. However, this older system failed to meet the growing needs of the business, particularly in providing the necessary insights into costs and inventory.
“Imaginera was our backbone for many years, but as we grew, its limitations in scalability and visibility became apparent,” says Tyler Hoosier, General Leader at Value Added Packaging. “The lack of detailed cost insights prevented us from accurately calculating actual costs on both a customer and unit level.”
The decision was made to explore other software options that could offer more robust and flexible solutions. After first reviewing various industry-specific solutions, including Amtech’s newer offerings, they turned to more general inventory management and manufacturing systems.
“The pricing of industry-specific software made us reconsider our options and look for a solution outside of the corrugated sector,” Hoosier noted. “In addition, a bulk of our business now includes materials that aren’t corrugated materials so a more general solution just made sense.”
In late December 2022, after an extensive search and comparison of features and benefits, MRPeasy emerged as the preferred solution, promising both an affordable pricing model and the comprehensive capabilities necessary to address the company’s operational challenges effectively.
Visibility and traceability were a top priority
Hoosier emphasizes the user-friendliness of MRPeasy, which was surprising considering that most ERP and MRP packages have a notoriously steep learning curve. “I realized very quickly after starting the trial that the system was exceptionally intuitive,” he says. “I was able to teach myself by using resources like tutorial videos and the user manual.”
Another deciding factor was the visibility and traceability the system provided. In their legacy system, it was very easy for an employee to accidentally create or delete inventory without anyone realizing the mistake. This made their inventory records inaccurate and created many headaches for their finance department.
“This traceability along with the item- and customer-level cost and profit analysis are features that we never really had before,” Hoosier says.
According to Hoosier, MRPeasy also offered better manufacturing tracking capabilities and more customizability than the other options they considered. “Being able to customize tags, barcodes, and labels is something we now take advantage of extensively,” he says.
The feeling that MRPeasy was the right choice was reinforced during the trial period when Hoosier encountered an issue and turned to the software’s support team. “Within 12 hours, not only were we given a response but the issue had been resolved,” he recalls.
Implementation was completed in-house
The implementation started in February 2023 and was completed by the end of June, taking a total of five months. According to Hoosier, their old system proved to be the biggest obstacle when implementing the new one.
“We had no way of exporting our bills of materials from the old system so we had to create a spreadsheet from scratch, which we could then upload to MRPeasy,” he says. “That’s what took the most time.”
Apart from data migration complexity, the implementation of the new software went very smoothly. And although change never comes without resistance, the switch was well-received by team members.
“We saw the potential of MRPeasy from the start and everyone is learning new things about what it can do each day to improve our business,” Hoosier states. “And everyone really uses the software: from the office workers to the factory floor, everyone interacts with it.”
New data enables better business decisions
Apart from the traceability and cost analysis, Value Added Packaging has gained greater visibility across their operation after implementing the new software, enabling managers and owners to make better business decisions.
“For example, we can see which of our products are not selling as well or are not as profitable as we’d want them to be,” Hoosier says. “We can now look at the data and see if we can cut costs, adjust selling prices, or manufacture something more efficiently to make the outcomes better.”
While Hoosier describes the company’s processes before implementing MRPeasy as “opaque”, now all changes, be it inventory movements, adjustments, cycle counts, etc., are recorded and visible. “Everyone is able to see what’s happening now,” he says.
The company also benefits from the fact that the new system is cloud-based, which makes it accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. This is especially advantageous when administrative team members are working out-of-office or when designers or salespeople visit customers’ facilities and need to pull something up.
“It’s easy to log in from anywhere and at the same time, it’s easy to lock a user down if we need to, preventing a particular person from logging in from outside the facility,” Hoosier says.
Company on a growth streak
Today, Value Added Packaging uses MRPeasy to manage every aspect of their operation, from sales and purchases to inventory management and production planning. Additionally, with the native QuickBooks integration, the company’s financials are automatically transferred from MRPeasy to their accounting system. Thanks to the order tracking functionality, the team can keep an eye on the progress and possible delays of specific customer orders, purchase orders, and manufacturing orders.
“Every piece of information you would otherwise spend an hour searching for is now front and center,” Hoosier maintains.
Although MRP systems have a reputation of being complicated, expensive, and taking a long time to implement, Hoosier urges small manufacturers to consider one.
“We took a look at some larger systems as well and I definitely understand why the MRP or ERP industry can leave a bad taste in your mouth,” he says. “But MRPeasy really is the opposite of that.”
Hoosier feels that implementing the system in-house enabled the VAP team to learn the ropes much better than bringing in someone from the outside who would have done most of the work.
“That being said, it was good to know that if we were to run into any difficulties, there were consultants available that could help us out,” he adds.
The company is on a growth streak and according to Hoosier, MRPeasy has definitely helped them achieve this.
“When we went live with the system in July 2023, we had around 40 team members and in just 10 months, we have grown to 58,” he says. “I think a lot of that can be attributed to not just our team but to MRPeasy enabling us to make our processes more efficient.”
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