Carlisle FoodService makes work easier with LANSA ERP
Carlisle FoodService Products, in Oklahoma, USA, is a leading manufacturer of professional grade tools and tableware for the foodservice industry. Carlisle sells over 50,000 products via a network of over 10,000 distributors to restaurants, hotels and hospitals worldwide. Since 1995, Carlisle has used LANSA to streamline procedures and increase ROI in virtually every area of its business. Manufacturing plants and distribution centers use LANSA ERP Frameworks and Carlisle's distributors have Web access using a LANSA site.
Ken Zaleski, MIS director at Carlisle FoodService, says, "We were the first in our industry to offer our customers a functional and user friendly Web site. Being the first certainly provided us with a competitive advantage. The efficiency the site brings remains a major selling point today. With a small team, we can maintain a system used by internal users, remote sales representative offices and distributors worldwide."
"Being the first certainly provided us with a competitive advantage. The efficiency the site brings remains a major selling point today"
The Challenge
Carlisle FoodService Products' LANSA
developers: Left to right: Ken Zaleski,
Michelle Dzurik, Debbie Fice, Jim Rohler,
Kent Welch and Dennis Wallis
The Carlisle FoodService Products story started in 1955, when Continental
Plastics, a small custom molding shop in Oklahoma, created the world's first plastic Bains Marie. This was followed a few years later by the world's first commercial plastic beverage pitcher. Both innovations dramatically changed food storage and beverage transport.
In 1978, Continental Plastics joined the Carlisle Group of companies. In 1991, Continental Carlisle merged with SiLite Incorporated – a manufacturer of plastic foodservice products, giftware and decorative accessories.
Several other acquisitions and one more name change followed, but Carlisle's IT history took shape with the SiLite merger. Zaleski, who originally worked at SiLite, explains that after the merger in 1991, the AS/400, with a hybrid of MAPICS and a custom order entry system, became the corporate standard.
"However, MAPICS didn't fit the way we wanted to run our business," says Zaleski. "MAPICS was strong enough on the process side, but it didn't meet our requirements on the distribution side. We were modifying MAPICS so much that it made no sense to continue. Moreover, neither system was Year 2000 compliant, so we were looking for another solution."
"We have used LANSA since 1995. Initially for MAPICS modifications and extensions. We bought LANSA because it was far more productive than RPG and a lot easier to use than Synon."
"We didn't want to go back to RPG or COBOL ever. So we started to look around for a ERP solution that was written in LANSA."
"In 1997, we saw a LANSA-based ERP solution, at the time called Garnet, which is now the LANSA ERP Frameworks. It was a very good match and met our main requirements right out of the box. Because the framework was LANSA-based, it was very easy to modify and extend," says Zaleski.
Implementation started in 1998 and the ERP Frameworks is now used company wide at Carlisle's manufacturing and distribution centers in the USA and Mexico, where it integrates with LogPRO warehouse management software.
"The LANSA ERP Frameworks was a very good match and met our main requirements right out of the box"
The Solution
Carlisle sells almost exclusively to foodservice distributors, but also deals directly with very large restaurant chains such as Yum Brands, Pizza Hut and Wendy's.
In 2000, less than a year after implementing the LANSA ERP Frameworks, Carlisle gave its distributors and sales representatives real-time Web access to its ERP system. "The driving force was the vision of our president, Dave Shannon, who wanted us to have a Web presence that went beyond the static Web sites our competitors offered," explains Zaleski.
"The initial version of the Web site took less than four months to develop and implement with the help of consultants. Since then we have extensively enhanced the Web site with our own IT team."
Distributors and sales representatives worldwide can place orders, view inventory, switch from default to an alternate warehouse and trace shipping details, with a direct link to UPS and other carriers for package tracking.
Distributors can set up a cross-reference file that lets them link their own internal product numbers to Carlisle's product numbers, then work with either product number throughout the Web site. The solution also offers customer specific pricing, up to two years order history and a feature called 'My Favorites', where distributors can monitor inventory to maintain a minimum volume of inventory.
Distributors can search orders by their purchase order number, Carlisle's order number, date range, product number (either Carlisle's or their own), invoice number and order status.
Distributors are given one high-level user-id, which allows them to set up additional users with varying authorities. For example, some user types may view order and shipping information, but without the pricing.
"The initial version of the Web site took less than four months to develop and implement"
The Benefits
"We were the first in our industry to offer our customers a functional and user-friendly Web site," says Zaleski. "Being the first certainly provided us with a competitive advantage. And the efficiency the site brings remains a major selling point today."
"We hear from our distributors that 'It is so easy to do business with you, why would I want to struggle on the phone and buy from someone else?' Even today, very few of our competitors, if any at all, offer an enhanced or interactive Web site to their distributors."
"We don't expect distributors to key in their large orders on our site, that's not what the site is about. What we are offering is an efficient way to trace orders, look at inventory and view account details. They don't have to make a customer service call to find out what's going on."
"However, distributors do use the site to place small emergency orders that we drop-ship directly to their customers, that way boosting their customer service. Small Web orders that are drop-shipped can also save our distributors a few days on cash flow. They can check in real time which orders have shipped and invoice their customers the same day. They can also get advance shipping notices by email, so they don't even have to go online to check."
"Since it keeps track of all their order, shipment and invoice history, some of our smaller distributors even use our Web site as their purchase system. We also have several distributors who provide links on their Web site to our catalog. Their customers can see the products but don't see prices or inventory, because the ordering goes via the distributor."
"The Web site also allows our representatives to better and more easily prepare for a business call to a customer. For example, if it has taken more than a week to fulfill a specific order, the representative now has the opportunity to find out before the meeting why there was a delay. And if needed he can make a call to the responsible manufacturing plant or supplier to speed things up. It is all about customer service," says Zaleski.
"It is so easy to do business with you, why would I want to buy from someone else?"
Conclusion
"Our plan with the LANSA ERP Frameworks has always been to buy it and then take ownership of it, because we knew we were going to modify it ourselves, so there is no need for vendor maintenance," says Zaleski.
"LANSA doesn't lock us into any specific platform, even though we love the iSeries. We never had to reboot our system because of problems. The box is very robust and so is LANSA. We have a planned reboot of the system once or twice a year, just to check our procedures and to restart some files."
"We get about 600 orders per day, but a lot of them are still coming in by fax. Next year we will have a look at offering our customers XML transacting with LANSA Integrator. We already offer EDI and several formats of file transfers."
"We tell our reps that if any customer wants to do any form of electronic data transfer with us, we are willing to do that. We have also offered our customers that if they enter orders on our Web site, we will send them a flat file back with the order information, so they can import that information into their purchase system, without a need for additional data entry."
"The LANSA ERP Frameworks and the Web extension are completely integrated. They run the same programs and use the same database. Any changes we make to the ERP system are instantly available in the Web extension," concludes Zaleski.
Dennis Wallis, iSeries development manager at Carlisle FoodService Products, adds, "We now use LANSA for our PC applications that access a Microsoft SQL Server database, as well as for iSeries and Web development. We find LANSA easier to use than any other tool for the Windows, Web and iSeries development."
"As we expand our environment to include Web, Windows and client/server, it is critical that we can re-use the same programs, file definitions and business rules."
"We have only four developers, including myself. With this small team we maintain and enhance a system that is used by 250 internal users in our offices, plants and distribution centers, 50 remote sales representatives and 5,000 distributors worldwide. That in itself testifies to LANSA's productivity and scalability," concludes Wallis.
"With a small team, we maintain and enhance a system that is used by 250 internal users, 50 remote sales representatives and 5,000 distributors worldwide"
Company and System Information
- Carlisle FoodService Products is part of Carlisle Companies Incorporated, a diversified global manufacturing company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, that serves the construction material, commercial roofing, specialty tire and wheel, power transmission, heavy-duty brake and friction, foodservice, data transmission and process systems industries.
- Carlisle FoodService Products has U.S. distribution centers at Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, Charlotte in North Carolina, Reno in Nevada and a distribution center in the Netherlands to serve Europe. It has manufacturing plants at Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, Atlanta in Georgia and Sparta in Wisconsin, as well as Chihuahua in Mexico.
- For more information visit: www.carlislefsp.com
- The LANSA-based systems integrate with LogPRO warehouse management system software.
- Carlisle FoodService Products uses a single iSeries model 810 for all its operational system, the Web site and for development. Carlisle's ERP system has 250 internal users, while 50 sales representative companies and 5,000 distributors use the Web site regularly.