Associated Rubber improves financial closing, inventory management with ERP

NEW SOFTWARE CAN SERVE AS A CATALYST IN HELPING BRING about process changes. That was the case at Associated Rubber Co., which sought to improve its inventory control methods as well as to enable a faster monthly financial closing.

"In the past it took several days to do the monthly closing, and as a result, we were totally in the dark for a week or so each month," says Ramey Thompson, president of the Tallapoosa, Ga.-based company. Associated Rubber processes raw materials for rubber parts manufacturers. The manufacturer recently installed an ERP system from IFS North America Inc., Milwaukee, to manage its three locations.

"We also had an inventory control system that was not good," Thompson says. Because the system was paperbased and depended on workers filling out paper forms for data entry, "We were running 12 to 24 hours behind at best on our inventory disposition."

The shift to IFS enabled the company to change the inventory management process. Now changes in inventory are reflected within minutes by the company's ERP system, so that a worker taking an order can immediately see if the necessary raw materials are in stock. "We are now operating less than an hour from real time," Thompson adds.