“I was thrilled when I heard about it,” says Mark Halbach, ERP Analyst at Lou-Rich. “We were immediately impressed by the flexibility and cost efficiency. And, above all, we felt that this was so much better than an off-the-shelf product – with Novacura Flow we got the possibility to customize everything according to our needs.”

Lou-Rich is a contract engineering and manufacturing company in Minnesota with approximately 375 employees. The company was the first in North America to choose Novacura Flow; Mark Halbach calls it ”taking a leap of faith”, but went with his instincts once the solution was presented to him. And he soon realized that it was perfect for Lou-Rich. The company is known for its just-in-time-deliveries and does not want products shelved, waiting for delivery. The same goes for inward deliveries: the products and parts are supposed to be put into use/manufactured as soon as possible, and any system that can make the handling faster and more efficient is welcome.

Today, Flow is used for inventory, inward deliveries, order creation and shipping, but more functions are being added all the time.

Approximately 20 people work with handheld terminals, and Lou-Rich also has a number of scanners attached to computers and PC applications.

“The time saving is almost hard to grasp” continues Mark Halbach. “In receiving, the employees wrote the labels by hand. One of the employees immediately said that he saves up to an hour a day. That adds up to quite a lot of hours saved for that department per week.”

Another advantage is the employees’ new-found mobility. “Before, when someone was doing a cycle count for example, they would first write all the information down on a notepad, and then walk over to the terminal to carry out an IFS transaction. Now, everything takes place on the shop floor.”

Mark urges employees to constantly think about their workflow in order to identify possible improvements. “Our processes are very labour-intense, and with Novacura Flow we´ve realised that there is a lot of time to save and operations to make more efficient. Every time someone asks, -Can we… we try to create a better workflow.”

Now, Lou-Rich is looking to improve even more processes. “We want to streamline our shipping department and are currently looking for new solutions for employee transactions like time reporting. I am convinced that Novacura Flow will make it happen where IFS Applications have felt a bit constrained. The way I see it, the sky’s the limit.”