From Four to One: Custom Profile’s Success with Comprehensive ERP Software from IQMS

• Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
• Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)

• Plastics

• Discrete Manufacturing
• Warehouse & Inventory Management

• Manufacturing System Automation
• Inventory Management
• Warehouse Automation

• System Integration
• Software Design & Engineering Services

Custom Profile, a profile extruder based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was in growth mode. They had recently moved into a newly constructed building, and the company was continuing to expand and hire new employees. But as its extrusion business naturally developed, it became painfully clear that Custom Profile’s enterprise software was failing to support its basic needs. The company was trying to run a competitive business through four different software systems. A combination of homemade software, Access™ databases, QuickBooks™ and Excel™ spreadsheets was resulting in several system crashes a day and costly data entry errors from duplicate information entry into both Access and QuickBooks. Additionally, customer service was struggling as sales orders took a costly amount of time to produce due to a lack of easy access to accurate production data, plus shipping was cumbersome, delayed or inaccurate. In short, the pieced-together legacy systems did not support the basic needs of a growing business.

Custom Profile is a profile extruder based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The company has a notable motto: It strives every day for zero product defects and 100 percent on-time delivery. With only three late customer shipments in a single year, Custom Profile is pretty darn close, boasting a current benchmark of 99.99+ percent on-time delivery and zero shipping errors from incorrect quantity or item selection for three consecutive years. Founded in 1992, Custom Profile began with one employee and one extrusion machine in a simple 3,000 square foot facility. Today, Custom Profile boasts 150-plus employees, 13 extrusion lines, comprehensive secondary operations, a finishing department and two manufacturing plants (Grand Rapids, Michigan and Juarez, Mexico) that run 24 hours a day. Custom Profile provides specialized extruded plastic products to the appliance, furniture, point of purchase and marine industries with an emphasis on design support, quality assurance and in-house tooling.

Custom Profile’s top requirements in a new system included highly configurable modules that could manage increased business transaction volume, detailed and easily configurable manufacturing Bills of Materials (BOMs) specific to the profile extrusion process and a business management system that provided an integrated platform with the infrastructure to support continued growth. After an intense evaluation process, Custom Profile selected EnterpriseIQ from IQMS because it provided structure for perpetual inventory and BOMs, it provided instant access to data required to meet customer requests for information and requirements and because it had knowledgeable employees who were willing and able to support Custom Profile’s efforts. Having made a selection, Custom Profile wasted no time getting started and fully implemented all of EnterpriseIQ’s business critical modules in five short months on time and under budget. In addition to the EnterpriseIQ core ERP system, Custom Profile installed IQMS’ Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution. With the ability to now automatically and seamlessly translate incoming orders directly into EnterpriseIQ with EDI, as well as generate outgoing files and advanced shipping notices (ASNs), order entry time and data entry errors have been significantly reduced. Custom Profile also decided to implement EnterpriseIQ’s robust warehouse management system (WMS). By equipping personnel with hand-held scanners and labeling inventory items accurately with barcodes, Custom Profile has virtually eliminated shipping errors. Finally, Custom Profile invested in IQMS’ RealTime Production Monitoring system to track work center production on some of its machines as it occurs in real time.

• Nearly immediately, Custom Profile gained the ability to service customer requirements during the initial contact with a much higher degree of accuracy.
• Custom Profile automatically updates its schedule a minimum of six times a day in less than seven minutes, resulting in real-time, optimally scheduled orders with no wasted production time or materials.
• After only three short months of using the system, Custom Profile employees were able to focus on set up and scrap reduction projects and decrease raw material stock outs to their production work centers based on EnterpriseIQ provided date.

• Production scrap was reduced by more than 55 percent over a four year period, with annual savings in excess of $100,000.
• Inbound and outbound EDI saves Custom Profile an estimated $35,000 annually in data entry time.
• They reduced labor required to ship product by one person, resulting in an increased on time delivery rate of 99.99+ percent and zero shipping errors due to incorrect shipped items or quantities for three consecutive years.