April 2023- Changing deep-seated business practices can seem insurmountable at first, but taking the leap into connected technology revitalizes processes.

Metal service centers contemplating upgrades to their ERP systems should take the opportunity to reconsider out-of-date business practices and determine if there’s a more effective way to operate, evaluating “where the inefficiencies are in their business and what that is costing them on a daily basis,” says Mike Voran, regional sales manager for Enmark Systems Inc.

“It is important to understand how to eliminate the possibility of double entry and automate processes, take a hard look at accounting practices, confirm profitability of sales, and be open to the possibility that there could be a better way of doing things,” he says.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based software company’s flagship product, Eniteo, is engineered especially for the needs of the connected service center.

For over three decades, Terra Nova Steel & Iron, with facilities in Mississauga, Ontario, and Edmonton, Alberta, has been providing warehousing, sales and processing of cast iron, bronze and brass bar for the manufacturing and natural resource sectors across Canada. The company was looking to move on from its DOS-based ERP software to a Windows-based option.

“We had chosen years ago not to embark on tagged inventory and identified that a new potential software system needed to not only have barcode/tagging capabilities but also an in-depth viewing platform of all material within the company at any moment from anywhere in the world,” says Adrian Zitella, the service center’s director of finance and human resources.

Terra Nova began working with Voran and Enmark in November 2021, and Enmark’s Eniteo platform made it possible for the company to move past an internally created, manual inventory management process and “allow the software to simply do it for us,” Zitella says. “Being a Canadian user, we were also looking for software that could handle the complex criteria we require to operate in a dual-currency environment. Eniteo handles that extremely well.”

WORK SMARTER

Voran says there were three primary areas that defined Terra Nova’s unique needs. “First, speed and efficiency in updating pricing, standard cost and inventory. They were doing a lot of manual maintenance updates, which are time consuming and open to human error. Eniteo allows them to update in batches, instead of one by one.” Before adopting Eniteo, the company didn’t have a technology system on the shop floor. “They now have terminals, barcode scanners and barcode label printers on the floor, which allows real-time inventory control and eliminates the need for paperwork to travel from the office to the shop floor,” Voran says.

All these upgrades can seem complex. Companies often ask if the project is going to be difficult and how they will train staff, he continues. “Enmark has a professional services team comprising industry veterans who have onboarded hundreds of customers from legacy software and other systems on the market. Data conversion is well understood by the Enmark team, and we provide as much or as little support as our customers need, handling the configuration, setup, data migration and functional training of the staff.”

In Terra Nova’s case, the Enmark team worked with the service center to develop a plan that addressed any needs and concerns. “We provided them with the customized training they needed to be successful starting day one with Eniteo.”

“We attempted to take the basic functionality of Eniteo’s software and try to push it further toward a tailored platform to service both our generic and specialized distribution services,” says Zitella. “We are particularly happy with the production module that we have effectively integrated in the plant, allowing us to go completely paperless in our warehouse.” These upgrades have allowed Terra Nova to improve its production times and effortlessly manage upticks in business, he says. “We have adjusted every department’s function from our old ERP system, which has allowed us to pick up many additional efficiencies,” Zitella continues. “The main thing for our company as a whole is that the software does the ‘heavy lift ing’ when it comes to manual work,” allowing employee time to be directed elsewhere. Eniteo is managing administrative functions more efficiently, allowing staff to spend less time on manual tasks and, instead, help other teams achieve better results, department by department, he adds.

IN COMMAND

Eniteo has a command center function that Zitella says is the brains for all the other modules, from production to billing. “This allows our sales team to ensure that all the important information they require for a specific sales order will be followed through in the production, shipping and beyond. In our view, command center is a truly powerful module that, if used to its fullest, can benefit a company immensely.”

Voran says other notable features include Value Add, which has typically been used by larger companies but is increasingly being adopted by smaller service centers for its accounting benefits. It is used when customers produce items and want to incur the expense, due to the specific inventory not selling right away. Eniteo also has an enhanced Android mobile scanning application with a modern, user-friendly interface and flexible, affordable devices.

“At the onset of our go-live preparation, we wanted the software [to] meet our needs, but we with a change in ERP, we realized we would also have to adapt and change our organizational flows to meet Eniteo’s functionality,” Zitella says. “This resulted in major changes within all of our departmental tasks. At first, we found that everyone was apprehensive about the change but, through strong communication, our entire team in all departments became excited and intrigued about the change.”

One of the keys to achieving buy-in was Terra Nova’s hands-on approach, which helped ensure that employees felt confident in their ability to not only accomplish basic tasks but also learn the new parts of their roles and carry out adjustments without incident.

“Six months after our go-live, we are still showing employees new tricks and features they can use. From the beginning of this journey, we stayed very transparent with our employees and openminded to their suggestions because we found that consulting with them gives us great insights on how everyone can better use the software so it works for us and not against us.”

MOVING BEYOND MANUAL

Zitella says that throughout the process, Terra Nova’s team has felt free to express its wants, needs and visions to Enmark. “We are happy with how flexible and customizable Eniteo’s abilities are to achieve our organizational goals. We have always felt that professionalism, support and guidance from those who work at Enmark has been amazing.” “Today, metal service centers are able to systematize processes that were manual,” adds Voran. “They no longer must depend on the information that lives in people’s heads and rely on a particular individual being at work that day. There is a system and process for everything, and automation is king.”

Enmark Systems Inc., 800/594-9025, http://eniteo.enmark.com/

Terra Nova Steel & Iron, 800/668-2227, http://terranovasteel.ca/