Tilton Group

At the forefront of eco-responsible packaging for food and medical applications, Tilton Group has earned the trust of customers seeking to get thermoform products (like sandwich trays and containers for ready-made foods) quickly and efficiently. A family business founded in 1985, the company continues to create innovative manufacturing products made of 100% recycled or recyclable materials.

Yet product seasonality, combined with market fluctuations, created challenges in forecasting sales and inventory, leading to questions surrounding how much stock to carry and when. The company wanted to anticipate and meet demand with precision and believed the answer came down to leveraging data and AI. They used that insight to feed ongoing improvement loops across the business.

David Paquet, CPA, Director of Technological Innovation and Procurement at Tilton Group, joined the company nine years ago at the start of their journey toward ERP solutions deployed in the cloud. Discover why Tilton integrated Epicor Inventory Planning & Optimization (IP&O) with Epicor Kinetic to improve forecasting and make calculated business moves with confidence.

Bogged down by paper processes

Tilton Group was largely paper-based behind the scenes, using a standard accounting system and manual inventory, with users inputting items and issue materials into a system while running isolated production reports. As a result, inventory visibility was far from real-time, requiring the company to increase manual inventory efforts to maintain accuracy.

"We did inventory checks every month in an effort to stay on top of our stock, which was far from ideal," Paquet explains. "Plus, we wanted data at our fingertips to know where we stood at any given moment."

Out-of-the-box versus customized

Tilton Group decided to deploy an ERP solution seriously, planning to invest in a platform vendor for the long term. The business considered multiple solutions, including Epicor, SAP, and Infor. The combination of glowing customer references for Epicor Kinetic and a strong relationship with Epicor partner Concerti (a leading Kinetic integrator in Montreal) made a real impact. Plus, Kinetic had the capabilities they needed already built in, such as PCID shipment tracking that displayed full traceability from raw materials to the end user.

"While we had existing manual processes, our production was incredibly automated, using mobile robots for certain tasks," explains Paquet. "Our ERP system needed out-of-the-box functionality to support our current strengths and help us modernize where needed—and fast."

Epicor Kinetic as data springboard

Tilton Group made the switch to Epicor Kinetic in 2022 to modernize operations, benefiting from a smooth and efficient implementation. "Epicor Kinetic changed our business for the better, helping us automate and streamline design and manufacturing processes," add Paquet. "We were freed from manual processes, able to really evaluate our supply chain execution."

Epicor IP&O addressed 80% of our business scenarios out of the box, including insights to better forecast demand and product seasonality. And the integration with Epicor Kinetic made total sense for our business.

The process and visibility gains within Kinetic were vast, such as the ability to easily pull data on the consumption of materials to produce an invoice. But Tilton Group wanted to do more with information and AI, using Kinetic as a springboard to aggregate and use additional data for operational improvements. This led the company back to another solution evaluation, debating about whether to purchase an AI-driven forecasting solution or build one in-house.

Putting data to the test

Tilton Group saw Epicor IP&O at an Epicor Insights event and was impressed with the customer testimonials and use cases. But they weren't quite ready to commit, and took some time to weigh the advantages of using a team of AI scientists to build something from scratch.

The company eventually decided to put both options to the test, giving customer and product data to the team of scientists as well as to Epicor IP&O. Paquet explains how Epicor demonstrated immediate value.

"Epicor IP&O addressed 80% of our business scenarios out of the box, including insights to better forecast demand and product seasonality. And the ability to integrate with Kinetic made total sense for our business, eliminating the need for APIs and custom code if we built ourselves."

Unbelievable inventory accuracy

The combination of Kinetic and Epicor IP&O gives Tilton Group the ability to use reports and dashboards in new ways, providing them with instant snapshots of the business. The scanner integration with Kinetic created paperless shipping processes, enabling the company to conduct inventory just once per year for finished goods.

"We manage a high volume of shipments and inventory daily," explains Paquet. "Our latest internal review showed an exceptionally low rate of discrepancies, which speaks to the accuracy and reliability of our system."

Comprehensive forecasting for sales seasonality

Traditionally, Tilton Group used sales data for the prior three months to determine future sales volumes. This approach proved challenging during the pandemic when orders were in flux, resulting in data that wasn't necessarily reflective of future demand.

We make business decisions based on the sales forecast in Epicor IP&O, helping us flatten production all year long, accurately adjusting to peak and low demands.

"If it's slow in January and February and we're only looking at volume from that period, it's hard to accurately forecast spikes during the summer months for seasonal products," Paquet explains. "We wanted to use information within Kinetic and Epicor IP&O to understand true demand and lead times to optimize financial returns."

Epicor IP&O provides various demand planning models based on Tilton Group's preferences. For example, a comprehensive forecast predicts the probability of demand, highlighting a range of possible item demand levels, while also attaching odds to help further assess demand and replenishment numbers.

Cloud migration for improved user experience

Tilton Group initially deployed Kinetic in a hybrid environment, but decided to move to the cloud to take advantage of anywhere access and an improved, browser-based experience. The move took approximately eight months and was fairly straightforward, with the company easily maintaining critical API connections like its in-house reporting software. Tilton Group also used the Epicor ERP Analyzer tool to pare down its customization lists, retaining only those capabilities that supported increased productivity across the business.

"With our cloud migration, we had an opportunity to look in the rearview mirror and assess what we'd done with Kinetic on-premises and fine-tune our deployment," Paquet says. "With the move, employees benefit from greater speed and performance, allowing us to drive even more efficiency from our ERP tool."

Smart data that keeps getting smarter

During times of economic uncertainty, Tilton Group's customers may opt to keep inventories low in order to maintain higher cash levels. With always-connected, up-to-date data in Epicor IP&O, sales teams can instantly see which customers may need a quick check-in when their forecasts are off.

"With tariffs and market volatility, these are uncertain times, making it all the more important for us to stay closely engaged with customers. With Epicor IP&O, we identify shifts in customer purchasing trends and then our sales reps add insight from their conversations to the system, and the data keeps getting smarter."

Tight resource allocation and financial control

Tilton Group leverages forecast data from Epicor IP&O to guide strategic decisions around equipment capacity and workforce planning. This data-driven approach helps align production with demand fluctuations throughout the year, ensuring operational efficiency and financial discipline.

"Having reliable data allows us to make confident decisions and maintain tight financial control," says Paquet. "Our recent budgeting exercise showed an impressive alignment between forecasted and actual performance."

Maintaining service levels of 99.5%

As a result of integrating Epicor IP&O with Kinetic, Tilton Group has virtually no stockouts, ensuring customers won't miss out on critical materials. And for smaller customers with last-minute purchase orders, sales reps can anticipate order needs and encourage POs to be sent in advance to improve production floor management. The company has plans to do more, using Epicor IP&O to optimize materials requirements planning (MRP) to further reduce costs and drive efficiency.

"Thanks to data we can trust on forecasting and inventory in Epicor IP&O, we've maintained service levels of 99.5% and can take calculated risks based on actual business insight," Paquet confirms.