Hall's Flooring
Hall's Floorings is a UK distributor of floor coverings.
Formed in 1948, it is still owned by the Hall family. Hall's
Floorings is headquartered in Edmonton, North London. oday, it's a
91-employee firm with a turnover approaching £15million per
annum.
Expanding business
Financial Director John Wade began the search for new software
to support the central business processes of sales order
processing, purchase orders and stock control. He explains why,
"Our existing system had been in place for 20 years. It ran on a
Unix platform and was originally written for a carpet wholesaler,
so it was highly bespoke.
The system's authors were approaching retirement age, and this
meant that the software's shelf life was limited." So John took the
opportunity to look at other packages. There were several key
criteria that any new system would need to meet, not least of which
was the fact that Hall's had plans to implement a specialist
warehouse system in the near future, so the ability to integrate
would be vital.
"Our warehouse was entirely paper based. We'd seen a warehouse
system at another similar firm, which enabled the paper element to
be removed entirely. The orders were being fed through directly
from order processing to the cutting tables," says John.
"Ultimately, we knew that would be our goal, but it was
impossible with the platform we had, plus we knew it wasn't worth
investing in our existing software to make it compatible, given the
uncertainty attached to its lifespan. But this meant that we had to
find a solid sales order processing system
with enough flexibility to enable this future integration."
A total system solution
Hall's Floorings evaluated several systems and narrowed it down
to two. "Access won the day because we could see they had the
all-round capability to be a good service provider. We knew that
this was going to be a huge upheaval for us - we were kicking out
our hardware and our software, both of which had been well
established for many years. The Access software was the right
choice in terms of functionality and, importantly, we were
confident that it could integrate easily with our accounts package
and with the proposed specialist warehousing software."
The modular nature of the Access software was vital for Hall's
Floorings in terms of maximising the system's flexibility. It sells
packs of laminate flooring in a typical unit cost way and so,
combined with the roll stock products, it was vital that the
solution could accommodate different sizing methods.
Access was also able to customise the software to meet the
precise needs of the roll stock operation. "The key thing for us is
that we buy and sell in square metres," says John. "It's this roll
stock issue that was the hardest thing to solve; it's something
that most other systems just cannot deal with. It's not very
complex but you do need flexible software to allow you to work with
all those elements."
Access enhanced the software. "This enabled us to do multi-cut
entry on a single order, which would then allocate that order to
the appropriate roll. That in itself was quite a complex
modification - few companies could have done this for us and Access
managed it within the timeframe."
He explains, "If you're ordering two or three cuts - say, for
hall, stairs and landing areas - you need some sort of batch
control. Unless instructed differently, our system now selects all
the multi-cuts from the same roll, so maintaining the batch
integrity.
Previously, those cuts would have had to be entered individually
and manually allocated to a roll - now, the Access system does this
automatically."
The implementation took almost a year to complete. John says it
was difficult for Hall's - not because of the software, but because
of the scale of change the business was undergoing at the time.
"Without doubt, it was the hardest thing we've ever done here,"
says John.
"The system, in fact, is incredibly easy to use, but at the time
we were changing everything - the software, the hardware - so it
was always going to be a tough exercise. What's important, though,
is how easy Access has been to use. A good way to gauge this is how
quickly new sales staff take to it: they are always up to speed
within a couple of weeks or so."
Seamless integration
The long-awaited specialist warehouse system has now been
implemented and, as John anticipated, it integrates seamlessly with
the Access software. The warehouse is 60,000sq ft and extends to
11.5m-high racking in one area. At goods-in, each roll is given a
card, with a unique number, and is then put into the racking at the
appropriate aisle and height.
"Now, as soon as an order is taken, the details appear on pick
screens on the forklift trucks and they pick the product and take
the roll to the cutting table area." The roll card is scanned and
the number of cuts to be taken from that roll is displayed on a PC,
sited on the cutting machine. "All the operator has to do is press
a button and the dimensions are transferred to the cutting table
measurement machine. The cuts are taken and a packing note produced
for each."
The warehouse system may be third-party but John is convinced
that the Access software underpins the success of this operation.
"The beauty of this is in the integration. We could see Access had
the capability to allow us to link sales orders to the cutting
table controls. This meant, in effect, we could have a tried and
tested flooring-specific warehouse system."
John adds, "Our order accuracy now is fantastic - the credit
note ratio halved immediately. Without Access, we wouldn't have
been able to install this warehouse system. With the sales office
and stock control functionality
running smoothly, we can really offer a proactive service to our
customers."
In the space of four years, the business has progressed beyond
recognition. "You wouldn't even recognise this operation now," says
John. "Our business has been totally transformed."
Future plans
Hall's is now in the process of implementing Access's electronic
data interface (EDI) module - something that would have been
impossible before. And new products are on the horizon, including
the launch of a chalk-composite tile, with a non-slip surface,
which can be cut with a knife. What's more, although the retailers
order by phone, John says that Hall's may look to establish an
online ordering facility in future - with flexible software
supporting the business, the possibilities are there for new
products, services and processes.
Access has played a crucial part in helping Hall's Floorings to
transform itself into a successful 21st century distributor. And
with sophisticated technology backing up its quality product and
service offering, Hall's is definitely on a roll.
This handy guide covers the end-to-end evaluation, selection and implementation process, raising all the key questions you need to answer before meeting with vendors. This guide also covers the key elements of any good ERP solution.
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