When the company reviewed their IT systems in order to take advantage of current technology advances, they decided the most appropriate strategy would be to find a suitable platform and forward-thinking partners to help achieve Timbmet's ambitions. They chose LumberTrack.
LumberTrack selected for knowledge of timber trade
"LumberTrack comes from a much bigger, more professional organization than we could ever find in the UK, with specialist bent on the timber industry," says Fineman.
"There's not a better product on the market in the UK."
John Dobson, Financial Director
John Dobson, Timbmet's Financial Director, recalls, "We looked at products like SAP and JD Edwards, and they weren't up to the timber trade." Fineman adds, "We looked at five different software providers based in North America. It was not a difficult decision to opt for LumberTrack, which comes with in-built functions that saved us a lot of headaches."
Accurate timber stock information improves customer service, saves costs
Timbmet uses bar code technology extensively to achieve accurate information on stock holdings and the status of an order. They use handheld RF bar code readers in their yard operation to track movement of stock and send that information back to LumberTrack. Orders can be tracked through picking, loading, marshalling, and dispatch.
One of the greatest benefits Timbmet has achieved is better customer service. "We deal with a lot of people who have manufacturing outlets-machine shops, joiner shops, fitters. They are very specific in what timber they want, so that they can minimize their waste. It used to be very difficult to tell them what we had; we had to go out to the yard and look. Now, with accurate knowledge of our stock, we can immediately find them suitable timber and close the order more quickly."
In addition, better stock control helped Timbmet reduce stock levels and costs. "We had an inventory in excess of £20 million in five sites," says Dobson. "We found we were actually carrying a lot of stock because we didn't know how much stock we had. One of the big benefits of LumberTrack is that we have probably two-thirds of the stock that we used to carry. We are now at a much healthier stock level."
Suitable for all timber and panel trade in the UK
Other benefits cited by Timbmet include: improved business process engineering, better product costing that reflects the value of individual boards, and a direct link of trading and timber yard transactions to their accounting system.
When asked about the suitability of LumberTrack to the UK timber industry, Timbmet replied, "We do just about everything that's related to timber. We do softwoods, hardwoods, flooring, machining, manufacturing, door sets. Because of the work put into LumberTrack on our behalf, their software will work for just about any company in the UK." Dobson sums up: "There's not a better product on the market in the UK."