Hoffman Beverage's 4 Key Successes After ERP Installation

This distributor set 4 lofty goals for it's ERP software implementation and easily achieved all of them with Encompass

November 26, 2018

Hoffman Beverage in Chesapeake, Virginia selected Encompass Technologies in February of 2018 as a partner to improve their business operations. Before Hoffman's install began, Brandon Smith, Vice President of Operations, stated four goals they wanted to accomplish within the first six months of implementation:

  • Improve report accuracy

  • Reduce employee work time and improve employee efficiency

  • Increase company productivity

  • Trust system entirely

In an interview 8 months after go-live, Smith explained all four goals were easily achieved within the first couple of weeks.

Accurate Reporting

Before Encompass, one of Hoffman's main challenges was inaccurate reporting. On their previous solution, different numbers would result when running the same report twice because their RAS and WMS were on separate systems. Also, sales staff were unable to see accurate inventory counts.

After the install, Hoffman immediately saw reporting improvements. Because of the increased accuracy, upper-level management has a solid grasp on operational efficiency from the ground up and is able to take action based on those insights. In addition, Smith can do a lot of his work on the Encompass Mobile app on his phone, which provides access to reports anywhere, anytime.

Savings and Productivity

Since switching to the Encompass system, Hoffman is seeing clear warehouse efficiency improvements. From better inventory visibility to shortening truck closeout time from 2 or 3 hours to 15 minutes, the operation is streamlined and more organized.

Hoffman has experienced key savings in these areas:

  • A reduction in finished product loss between 50% and 70%, and the ability to identify the source

  • The ability to easily identify and address customer refusals with reason codes

  • An increase in picks per hour

  • Transparent visibility by department/bin

  • Real-time account-level reporting for salesmen

  • Increased  delivery route efficiency with routing tools, including a reduction of 2 routes since the install

  • Overall productivity boost

After the first week, Hoffman experienced greater productivity in the warehouse, with immediate time and money savings.

Trust

Smith could not speak higher of the fact that Hoffman has full trust in the Encompass system. From pickers to drivers to executives, adopting the new technology was quick and every employee adapted to the system well. Smith explained that once the Encompass install team left Hoffman a week after go-live, they could see the benefits and trusted the whole process.

In Smith's eyes, management trusts the numbers in the system, without a doubt. From actionable reports to real-time information, Smith is confident the system will meet the current and future needs of Hoffman Beverage.

Overall, Hoffman and Encompass continue to work together to drive Hoffman's operational efficiency and effectiveness.  Encompass is dedicated to the success of every customer. Hoffman's success is Encompass' success, simple as that.

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