From being able to check a distributor’s inventory for products and automated order entry, to a system that finds the best logistical solution to filling an order, today’s tech­nology can help reduce errors and save time and money, according to Mitch Dancik, chairman of the board for Dancik International. Using technology, a distributor can have 99 percent accuracy,” Dancik stated. “Below 95 percent accuracy may put a distributor below profitability.”

“By the nature of their businesses, distributors need more technology than either retailers or manufacturers,” Dancik stressed. “They are a critical link and need to be able to look upstream and downstream. At the distributor level, the top 59 distributors have to be automated to exist.”

“The Floor Covering Business to Business Association (fcB2B) offers a series of automated transactions -purchase orders and invoices -that work seamlessly between manu­facturers, distributors, and flooring retailers and contractors,” Dancik said. “Distributors are tied into manufacturing on the back end and retailers on the front end; he Said.

“The cost to get started for a retailer is the total of an Internet connection, a computer and a flooring industry program -an expenditure of about $5,000 to $10,000,” according to Dancik.

“The next frontier will be to share data that exists in one place.” Dancik said, “A product catalog could exist at the manufacturer level. Rather than sending it to distributors and retailers, it could be part of a program that everyone could access (online) rather than have to download. Changes could be made to the master and when anyone accessed it, they would see the most current version.”

Mike Parsons, director of information for Adleta Corp., offered, “We have communication technology available for the dealers that want to use it. To source its products, usu­ally Adleta will send a purchase order to a supplier (via the Internet) that is in a format that the computer at the other end accepts and puts into the flow of orders,” he said.

“We have given our customers our 24/7 online application to access our inventory in teal time online so they can see what’s available and order what they need,” Parsons continued. “The retailer can view his order history and track it at any time of day or night. It is much more accu­rate and has greatly reduced returns, which saves everyone time and money.”

Parsons said that there is also significant savings through a warehouse management system that has helped the company reduced errors, as well as make it more efficient, reducing costs. “We use a system from Dancik International that gives us a ‘directed put away’, a place determined by the system. When the person places it in that spot, there is a code for the area that is recorded into the system, so now we know where everything is,’” Parsons said.

Orders come to Adleta by phone, fax or a 24/7 online program. Parsons explained, “The system generates a ‘pick’ and someone goes out with an RF gun (radio frequency) to scan each item as he finds it. That creates an automatic update in the system. We have created bills of lading that list everything being delivered so that, rather than having to sign separate sheets for each item, the dealer only signs one sheet. When the signed sheet comes back in, it is scanned into the system and provides a history of the delivery and receipt of the order,” he said.

by Janet Herlihy

Reprinted from Floor Covering Weekly, October 17-31, 2011 (Vol. 60, No.20) -http://www.floorcoveringweekly.com