Valley Container Aims to Gain Access to More Data for Unparalleled Visibility Into Operations
Since 1969, Valley Container has been dedicated to serving the needs of its customers in the packaging industry. Expanding upon their success, Valley Container created Fluted Partition, Cell Pak, New Corr, and Honey Cell. From design to completed packages, corrugated of all variations, honeycomb, partitions, displays, shipping containers, and more, there is almost no product they cannot supply.
With a mission to always put their customers first, Valley Container provides a level of customization and flexibility that embodies that mission. Serving a variety of industries from big box stores to industrial outfits, a flexible and holistic system allows them to manage their five companies in three locations located in Connecticut and Ohio.
The shift to digital has created a new standard for the industry. Manual, time-consuming processes and outdated technology have historically prevented businesses from taking the next steps to adapt to these modern times. However, the adoption of new systems holds significant promise for organizations and signals a shift toward a future that works for everyone. That is why when the team brought on a new manager at their Ohio location to help grow their business and optimize operations, they made sure the manager was adept at using modern technologies. The manager soon needed more manufacturing data than the current system provided to visualize production holistically and get a better sense of productivity. However, using a legacy system that is not ODBC or SQL compliant, they realized getting access to the data they needed was not efficient, nor could they mine more data from their system needed to operate the business. Valley Container knew an incredibly emotional and difficult decision needed to be made.
Valley Container set off on a search for a single solution that could be easily implemented, had the support and flexibility they required, and was intuitive enough to make the transition to a new system seamless for all employees at multiple locations, each with a different set of needs based on the work produced.
Finding Everything They Need With a Flexible And Holistic ERP System
The adoption of Advantzware’s flexible and comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system helped Valley Container, Fluted Partition, Cell Pak, and Honey Cell unlock more data than ever before. By reducing manual touchpoints with an automated process, they were able to optimize operational efficiency, while gaining the flexibility needed: “We switched to stay as flexible as the times are and Advantzware allows us to do that,” said Valley Container General Manager Robert Niedermeier.
From robust reporting, to streamlined order processing, to comprehensive cost tracking and analysis, to real-time reporting, the new system gave much better visibility into their operations – whatever was desired to measure, could be measured. “Information isn’t overwhelming. It’s available as necessary. We haven’t even begun to scratch the amount of information that we have at our fingertips. There are parts of the system that I know and functionality that we haven’t even tapped into yet,” added Niedermeier.
More Information at Their Fingertips Than Ever Before With Advantzware
Valley Container’s Project Manager Cary Peterson and Niedermeier became experts on the system and built their team out with experts in scheduling, estimating, and production. They then created manuals for every position – estimating, billing, shipping, and more – to make the transition smooth. By having experts in the driver’s seat, their employee’s fear of the unfamiliarity of a new system was quickly quieted, and go-lives were perfectly uneventful. Even employees who were adverse to change learned the system quickly. For instance, the sales team learned how to create quotes within a week because the new Advantzware system made quoting simple. To be efficient and scalable, a quote of a standard product should be created in under 60 seconds. Their old system required numerous inputs before a quote could be generated. Now, thanks to the implementation of Advantzware, quotes are generated within 20 seconds because the process is intuitive, fast, and accurate – saving time and money.
Following their adoption of Advantzware, Valley Container has been armed with a wealth of information and actionable insights about operations. The move to Advantzware provided much better data at their fingertips and financial statements that kept them in line. When Valley Container or their companies had questions, their system allowed them to find the data they needed to answer it quickly. “In this information age, more information than ever before is available to our business,” said Peterson.