As they say, that is the question. For all you Packers Supply fans out there just dying to hear about our internal operations, this post is for you.
It has now been just over two years since we transitioned ownership of this company. During that time, there have been two major aspects of our business that have not changed one bit:
- A relentless pursuit to carry high quality products for our customers. Those are the table stakes.
- A deep respect for personal relationships at both the corporate and packing plant levels.
I would love, love, love to sit here and tell you we never run into product quality issues. We do, just like every other company out there (both aftermarket and, ahem, OEMs have quality issues). However, when they arise we try to swarm on the issue to do one of the following: replace it, fix it, or kill the product. We have had to do all three in various scenarios, but ultimately we are in this for the long haul and do not want to carry subpar products.
And that is the tie-in with relationships, because products come and products go, but people are people and relationships are what really matter. We work well with those who are passionate about helping their plant be successful.
Moving along. Aside from those two major aspects that have not changed, just about every other element of our business has changed in the meantime. Here is a brief laundry list, which makes me pretty excited typing it out:
- More than doubled our team size
- Moved our business from Louisville to Waverly, NE – this provided us with over 3x the office space and 3x the warehouse space
- Added several hundred new products across a wide array of machinery commonly used in food packaging facilities
- Defined our core values along with 10, 3, and 1 year roadmaps
- Implemented(ing) EOS as our business management framework
- Integrated our first CRM this year – looking back, we moved our opportunity pipeline from a whiteboard with single digit opps to an Excel spreadsheet with double digit opps and now to a formal pipeline with triple digit opportunities across an array of customers and products
- Moved from an on-prem server to a full cloud architecture so we can operate from anywhere (except packaging of course)
- Deliberately spent a great deal of time on the road to meet our customers in person – and we are now amping up these efforts
- Added a variety of in-office snacks, coffees, and other amazing beverages ?
- Data. It has become a major part of our daily discussions and major driver for our growth
- Expanded our product categories into new areas such as belting, injection molding, and more
- Added over a dozen new vendors to our arsenal – as a wholesaler, our vendors are our life blood so we are working to develop many strategic relationships
- Defined an SOP documentation and approval process so we can continue to scale effectively and efficiently
- Incorporating AI in both fun and impactful ways (one must admit the bandwagon on this topic is rather large these days…kinda hard to miss)
- Launched this slick website (and will soon have more than a table for our parts listing, as we integrate an ecommerce platform)
- And oh so much more!
Which all brings me to the point of this article. To ERP or not to ERP? As we have grown, we are starting to experience more pains related to our manual processes in two very specific areas: order fulfillment and inventory management. We are getting by with a combination of QuickBooks, Access (yes, Access), and Excel. However, our team loses a great deal of time dealing with inefficient process flows as a result, and we are not exactly using modern day technology for inventory stocking level management.
Therefore, we are now evaluating several ERP companies to see which will be our best long-term partner. Our goal right now is to select a platform and a timeframe for implementation by the end of Q3. It will not be cheap and it certainly won’t be easy, but I am becoming more convinced that waiting longer only delays the inevitable, and slows us down while doing so.
Wish us luck as we evaluate our options!
Have a blessed day.
Derek