Poulin Lumber, Inc.

Epicor Success Story
Poulin Lumber, Inc.
Company Facts
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Location: Derby, Vermont
Industry: Lumber
Number of Stores: 4
Web site: www.poulinlumber.com
Founded: 1936
Celebrating its 75th anniversary in business, Poulin Lumber is a regional leader in
the building and remodeling supplies industry. With four locations throughout
Vermont, Poulin sets the standard in its area for efficient on-time deliveries. Eighty
percent of Poulin’s sales are through deliveries to builders.
Transforming Chaotic Dispatch Operations by
Automating Manual Processes
Success Quote
“DDMS makes our dispatch
and delivery processes
more efficient by getting
the right information to
the right people when
they need it. We’re cutting
costs while improving
customer service. It’s well
worth the investment.”
The motto on the side of Poulin Lumber’s delivery trucks reads: “We Deliver
What Others Promise.” Poulin has worked hard to earn its status as the most
dependable building supplies seller and delivery business in Vermont. To preserve
this reputation, Poulin leverages Epicor® Dispatch and Delivery Management System
(DDMS). For Poulin, it’s more than just a promise. Thanks to Epicor, Poulin delivers.
For many years, Poulin used manual, paper-based dispatch and delivery processes.
But, as its volume of delivery sales grew, it became clear that this outdated
approach could no longer support the quality of customer service the company
strove to uphold.
“Our dispatch area had become a paperwork and logistics nightmare,” says Scott
Flynn, General Manager at Poulin Lumber.
“We had piles of handwritten notes, clipboards for each day of the week,
disorganized instructions on a dry-erase board, cluttered file drawers stuffed full
of maps, and various people printing orders to be delivered. It was becoming
impossible to keep it all organized and efficient.”
Solution
Poulin also struggled with information visibility. Dispatchers at each of the
company’s three delivery yards could not see into each other’s systems, so they had
no effective way to collaborate on overlapping territories. And, because counter
personnel lacked an efficient way to access information about delivery processes,
they could not readily answer customer inquiries about order status.
• Epicor Dispatch and Delivery
Management System (DDMS)
“Epicor Dispatch and Delivery Management System has changed all of that,”
Scott continues. “It has totally transformed our operations. All those cumbersome
Scott Flynn, General Manager
Poulin Lumber, Inc.
Success Story – Poulin Lumber, Inc.
manual processes have been automated, making everyone more
productive and shaving hours off our order fulfillment and delivery
activities. Our dispatchers in our three delivery locations now have
complete visibility into each other’s systems so they can work
together as a team. And, if a customer calls to ask about an
order, anyone at our company can access DDMS to provide a
concise answer.”
based on the most efficient route. So once a truck is loaded and
dispatched, anyone on the system can see where an order is going.
An Easy Transition to a Major Change
Effective Navigation Gets Drivers There On Time
Scott and other leaders at Poulin determined that Epicor DDMS
could easily pay for itself by making dispatch and delivery processes
more efficient. Epicor helped deploy the new system, and after a
brief changeover period, the dispatchers were up and running on it.
The critical final step in the order fulfillment process is delivery.
Poulin is using efficient navigation tools that integrate with DDMS
to help drivers reach their destinations on time. The company’s
previous course-plotting methods needed an upgrade. Paper maps
covered with messy handwritten notes were difficult to read and
were often misfiled after each use.
“For such a major change in business processes, it was a remarkably
quick and easy transition,” Scott says. “It has been one of the
easiest learning curves for any software implementation I’ve seen.
Our dispatchers like the user-friendly interface and the way the
system keeps them organized so they’re always working on what’s
important at any given moment.”
Every order in the system has a status automatically assigned to
it. The status of an order in Poulin’s DDMS system is either: New
Order, Pulling, Built, Loaded, Dispatched, or Delivered. “It was easy
to customize the steps in DDMS to suit our business workflow,”
Scott explains.
When a customer calls with an order, a salesperson adds the items
to Poulin’s Epicor Falcon™ system, along with the ship-to address.
The salesperson then assigns a delivery date and load type, such as
sheetrock or lumber.
The information appears on the dispatcher’s screen as a new order.
The dispatcher simply uses his mouse to drop orders onto icons of
trucks to assign those orders to loads. Yard personnel scan printed
orders and pull the stock, which changes the status to built. DDMS
determines the sequence of the various stops on a delivery run,
“It’s a very slick system,” Scott says. “It makes us more efficient by
getting the right information to the right people when they need it.
We’re cutting costs while improving customer service. DDMS is well
worth the investment.”
“We were experiencing a huge loss of productivity,” Scott says.
“Drivers were waiting around for maps and directions when they
should have left the facility a half hour earlier. During delivery runs,
they were getting lost or pulling over to study confusing directions.”
Now Poulin uses Garmin® navigation devices that interface
seamlessly with the Map-It functionality of DDMS. When the
dispatcher is ready to send a driver out on a run, he plugs a Garmin
device into the DDMS system. A simple mouse click downloads all
the necessary mapping and navigation directions for that run to
the Garmin device, which the driver takes with him. “Modernizing
our navigation methods with DDMS has cut 45 minutes to an hour
off of each five-to-six hour delivery run,” Scott explains. “That
translates into substantial cost savings for us.”
With an integrated GPS service, anyone at Poulin can access the
exact location of any of the trucks in the fleet. If a customer calls to
ask where their order is, staff members can confidently provide a
precise answer such as, “Your order is on a flatbed truck that is now
twelve blocks from your location, moving 40 miles per hour. You’re
his next stop. It should be there within the next few minutes.”
“For such a major change in business processes,
it was a remarkably quick and easy transition.
It has been one of the easiest learning curves for
any software implementation I’ve seen.”
Scott Flynn, General Manager
Success Story – Poulin Lumber, Inc.
Using Technology to Stay Competitive
About Epicor
“At Poulin, we think it’s important to use leading-edge technology
to help us gain a competitive edge and provide the best possible
customer service,” Scott summarizes. “Epicor Dispatch and Delivery
Management System is by far one of the best enhancements we
have made to our company in a long time.”
Epicor Software Corporation is a global leader delivering business
software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, and
services industries. With 40 years of experience, Epicor has more
than 20,000 customers in over 150 countries. Epicor solutions
enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve
profitability. With a history of innovation, industry expertise,
and passion for excellence, Epicor inspires customers to build
lasting competitive advantage. Epicor provides the single point of
accountability that local, regional, and global businesses demand.
For more information, visit www.epicor.com.
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