As an engineer-to-order furniture manufacturer, A.C. Brothers depends on correct costing to enable growth and profitability. Limited by the inefficiencies and errors of manual processes, the company implemented Epicor Kinetic to automate systems and improve decision-making with a single source of accurate data.
Founded in India in 1972, A.C. Brothers is a market leader in gifts and home accessories. Today, the company makes hard goods such as wooden and metal designer home furniture and accessories using the traditional skills of local artisans. The company's goal is to supply top quality accessories and furniture with international designs-all while building strong ties with its customers.
A.C. Brothers strives to maintain the high quality they are renowned for and have a loyal and growing customer base. However, they found that they did not have the best systems and processes in place to accommodate further growth.
The company used disparate software systems in finance, sales management, and customer relationship management (CRM), and none of these systems were integrated with each other. In addition, they were using Microsoft® Excel® macros for costing-which was proving to be cumbersome and inefficient. Departments were not able to collaborate and act in sync.
Correct costing is vital to revenue growth and profitability. As an engineer to order (ETO) company, product configuration is the first stage of order processing. Historically, this had been handled manually, which was time consuming and prone to human error.
“With information residing in silos, manually joining up the dots across the business meant that we had multiple versions of a cost,” explained Mr. Gaurav Chandra, managing director at A.C. Brothers.
Another problem the business faced was material planning and inventory management. Sometimes, there was extra inventory, and other times they were falling short. This created waste and production delays. Mr. Chandra commented, “A lack of proper inventory management meant that the carrying cost was unpredictable and would sometimes be very high. Other times, delivery of orders got delayed-leading to customer dissatisfaction.”
The company acknowledged that being able to access real-time information had become critical for production planning purposes when managing orders from across the globe at any time of day. It would also be key in improving customer and supplier communication.
A.C. Brothers started looking for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to help them prepare for growth and automate their processes-from production planning to shop floor- with complete inventory management.
The company wanted a solution that was a good fit for furniture manufacturing and would be able to scale through anticipated periods of growth. They needed a technology partner with a good service and support ecosystem that could demonstrate total cost of ownership (TCO) value.
A.C. Brothers evaluated the leading ERP systems and opted for Epicor ERP (now known as Kinetic) because its rich functionalities met their business requirements. They worked with CorporateServe Solutions Pvt. Ltd-an authorized Epicor channel partner in India-for implementation of the ERP solution. CorporateServe's technical knowledge of the product and functional capabilities facilitated a quick turnaround of the project.
A.C. Brothers is able to utilize Epicor ERP across all departments-including merchandising, procurement, production, quality, dispatch, and finance. Having one solution has provided the business with a single source of accurate data for better decision-making.
Since implementation, A.C. Brothers has seen significant improvements in the planning of customer orders and procurement. There has been a four percent reduction in the time taken to ship orders to customers and a five percent reduction in the cost of inventory carrying. The Epicor ERP system flags the optimum time to purchase materials and exactly what quantity is needed. It also rates the supplier according to time to delivery and material quality.
The system has given A.C. Brothers a powerful tool to identify where the company can improve processes and planning, reduce waste, and achieve greater efficiencies without compromising quality.
“Epicor ERP [Kinetic] provides us with an easy-to-use, single dashboard with visibility of various data points in the company. There's so much valuable information that comes back from the machines on the shop floor that used to be wasted. Now, the management team can review it to make better business decisions,” stated Chandra.
The impact Epicor ERP has had on A.C. Brothers' business is significant. Chandra explained, “Everyone is using the same data, which means we have a far better understanding of company performance, and the utilization of resources has improved. Material planning is better now, too. It is far more precise for local procurement enabling the timely delivery of customer orders. Our customers and suppliers are happier, and we are able to make quicker decisions for growth.”
Chandra concluded, “Our experience with Epicor has been very good. It's very effective and easy to use for our employees who regularly access the knowledge base, online forums, and other useful information.
“The system fits all our requirements and has been instrumental in improving the company's performance. The thing I like most about Epicor ERP [Kinetic] is its extendibility to support our business growth, and we believe that Epicor will play a big role in our company's future expansion.”
