Consumer Products Manufacturer Streamlines Project ...



Overview

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Durable Consumer Goods

Customer Profile

Brass Key designs, manufactures, and distributes branded collectible keepsakes under exclusive licenses. Based in Federal Way, Washington, the company employs 39 people and reported 2004 sales of U.S.$18 million.

Business Situation

With a largely manual production process, the company could not keep up with business growth, and inefficient systems made it hard to view the up-to-date fiscal picture.

Solution

Brass Key automated its enterprise resource management with Microsoft® Business Solutions–Solomon and improved reporting with Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–FRx® Professional.

Benefits

■ Boosted productivity by up to 50 percent

■ Reduced time spent updating monthly financial data by 60 percent

■ Gained better visibility into business health

■ Improved cost estimates

| | |“Microsoft Solomon brings sophistication and accuracy to job costing. We now know six months in advance whether a particular product is going to be profitable.”

Douglas Farnell, Chief Financial Officer, Brass Key

| |

| | | |Recently named Disney Vendor of the Year, Brass Key creates branded collectibles such as dolls and |

| | | |ornaments. The company, which employs 39 people in the United States, Hong Kong SAR, and China, |

| | | |relied heavily on manual data entry to manage projects, wasting valuable time. Because employees |

| | | |could barely keep up with the work that they had, the company was unable to reach its goal of growing|

| | | |its business. Brass Key worked with Grayson Consulting to customize Microsoft® Business |

| | | |Solutions–Solomon, which now automates many of the company’s project management processes. In |

| | | |addition, Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–FRx® Professional provides detailed reports for |

| | | |improved business planning. As a result, the company has eliminated manual data entry, reduced the |

| | | |time to update financial records at the end of the month by 60 percent, and improved its business |

| | | |intelligence reporting. |

| | | | |

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| | | | |

Situation

Brass Key is a classic example of a cottage industry that has grown into a thriving business. The company is owned by two sisters who started designing and importing custom furniture and collectibles in 1981. Today, Brass Key designs, manufactures, and distributes dolls and other collectible consumer products under license from companies such as Disney, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. Brass Key sells the products to mass-market retailers and warehouse clubs, including Costco, Sam’s Club, Target, and Wal-Mart. Brass Key employs 39 people, with offices in the United States, Hong Kong SAR, and China, where goods are manufactured.

The best way to understand how Brass Key operates is to follow the creation and distribution of a product. For example, let us say that Brass Key wants to design a doll based on a cartoon character for a particular company. Designers will create four or five different designs of the same doll, each of which must be analyzed to determine the doll’s potential profitability and market acceptance. These designs then are submitted to the licenser for approval in specific markets.

After approval, Brass Key offers the designs to its retailers, usually as an exclusive offer. The retailer places an order, specifying quantity and time of delivery. The order is sent to contract manufacturers in China, where the doll is produced. Brass Key’s wholly owned subsidiary in Hong Kong manages the order and quality control process with vendors. The completed products then are shipped to retailers directly from China. Brass Key also remains involved in the full sales life cycle of the project. For example, if the doll does not sell as expected, the company will remain engaged to determine how much the doll should be discounted.

Because the company is involved in every step of the process from design to sale, each product line has a very long life cycle—up to two years from inception to completion. And because the company manufactures hundreds of products per year, managing projects and financial data can be daunting.

Several years ago, a vendor created a basic solution to help Brass Key manage the lengthy manufacturing process. First, it created a custom application to manage the company’s detailed purchasing, manufacturing, and shipping procedures. Then it implemented an early version of Microsoft® Business Solutions-Solomon software running on Microsoft SQL ServerTM version 7.0 as an accounting solution. Unfortunately, the functions of the custom application, which included production costing and order management, were not integrated with Microsoft Solomon, even though the two solutions were used in tandem.

Over time, Brass Key developed turnkey relationships with vendors for many of the product costing and management tasks, meaning that vendors are responsible for managing and supplying Brass Key with the data. Yet employees still had to enter data into both the custom management application and Microsoft Solomon for accurate accounting, which duplicated data entry and wasted time. These excessive administrative tasks hindered the company’s ability to compete in the marketplace. For example, financial records took up to three weeks to update each month. It was hard to see exactly how the business was doing at any given point.

“We were at a difficult point,” recalls Douglas Farnell, Chief Financial Officer for Brass Key. “We wanted to increase our product line, but we couldn’t handle the work unless we hired more employees or overhauled our technical systems.”

Solution

Brass Key contacted Microsoft partner Grayson Consulting to improve the manufacturer’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes. After studying the business and its future goals, Grayson Consulting recommended that Brass Key keep the Microsoft Solomon software but abandon the customized management system because many of its components were no longer needed. “Microsoft Solomon is an excellent tool for make-to-order manufacturers like Brass Key,” says Diane Grayson, President of Grayson Consulting. “The solution was just not configured to the company’s particular needs.”

Recognizing that Brass Key needed a fully functional sales order and purchase order (PO) management system, Grayson Consulting deployed the Inventory and Order Management modules of Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon version 5.0. This project accounting system complemented the company’s existing Solomon accounting modules.

Grayson Consulting also developed a custom application called Product Cost Analyzer (PCA) to handle product development processes. PCA allows multiple iterations of costing scenarios for each Brass Key job. The ability to generate different scenarios has proven extremely useful for the company because it must continually estimate job costs that hit specific company and customer margin targets.

Grayson Consulting then created a program to connect PCA and Microsoft Solomon so that Microsoft Solomon can automatically import estimates, generate job numbers, and merge the data with sales order information.

After the jobs are generated, Brass Key assigns inventory to each job using the Inventory module of Microsoft Solomon. Each job is also assigned a separate stock-keeping unit (SKU) so that its costs can be tracked. The Purchasing module automatically generates a PO, which is sent to the Hong Kong office so that production can be assigned to the appropriate vendor. After the jobs have been produced and shipped, Brass Key employees use Microsoft Solomon to create detailed invoices and update monthly and yearly financial records quickly and easily.

Finally, Brass Key uses business intelligence tools to generate detailed reports. The company relies on Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–FRx® Professional to provide income statements, balance sheets, and expense reports.

Benefits

By having Grayson Consulting deploy a full ERP solution, Brass Key succeeded in automating its manual project management processes. As a result, the company has enjoyed several benefits, including increasing the productivity of employees, reducing the time that it takes to manage accounts, and gaining accurate data for business intelligence reporting.

Boosted Productivity by Up to 50 Percent

With its comprehensive project management solution, Brass Key has boosted its productivity. Using the previous custom manufacturing system, Brass Key employees sometimes had to enter data up to 15 times for a single job. With the new solution, employees no longer have to manually reenter the same data into different systems because PCA and Microsoft Solomon are connected. “With Microsoft Solomon, we’ve vastly reduced the need to reenter data into the systems manually,” says Farnell. “We’ve easily boosted productivity by up to 50 percent in order processing and job costing functions alone.”

Reduced Time for Monthly Closing by 60 Percent

Another key benefit of automating the project management process and eliminating duplicate data entry has been the reduction of time that it takes to update accounting and job-related financial records at the end of the month. Previously, it would take employees up to three weeks to enter all the new data. With the new solution, the end-of-the-month process for closing financial statements and job costing takes only a week. “By using Microsoft Solomon, we’ve achieved a 60 percent reduction in the amount of time that it takes for employees to update financial records and produce financial statements,” says Farnell.

Gained Better Visibility into the Health of the Business

One of the main problems under the old system was that Brass Key didn’t have a good idea of how the company was doing at any given moment. It was difficult to remain current with financial records, and the company didn’t have the right tools to provide detailed reports. But now the company is able to see how it is doing fiscally. “We now use forecasting data to make business decisions rather than use the previous month’s financial data,” Farnell says. “As a result, we can see much further into the future, and we’re more competitive.”

Furthermore, now that information is fed directly from PCA into Microsoft Solomon, the company can easily compare projected numbers found in the sales orders against actual numbers in the purchase orders. “Because the sales order and the PO are linked within Microsoft Solomon, we have the ability to view comparative numbers instantly,” says Farnell.

Improved Cost Estimates

Brass Key has found that effective forecasting has changed how it conducts business, specifically when it comes to determining whether a job is worth completing. “Microsoft Solomon brings sophistication and accuracy to job costing. We now know six months in advance whether a particular product is going to be profitable,” says Farnell. “Our cost estimates and actual costs are within a percentage point of each other 90 percent of the time.”

Improved Communication Between Offices

In implementing a new solution, one of Farnell’s goals was to be able to share information between the United States and Hong Kong more effectively. Because all information now is stored within Microsoft Solomon, each office can update data and get real-time information.

Gained a Customizable, Cost-Effective Solution

Brass Key is particularly pleased with Microsoft Solomon because the company now has a robust solution in place that can be customized quickly and cost-effectively. One example of how the company is customizing its processes can be found in invoicing.

Invoicing can be a laborious process; each retailer has invoicing fields and conventions that must be followed. For example, one retailer might require that each shipping container have a separate PO number, while another might not need separate POs but requires that orders be sent to multiple addresses.

Grayson Consulting is creating a module for Microsoft Solomon that will automate the shipping and invoicing process. “The structure of Microsoft Solomon architecture lends itself to easy customization,” says Grayson.

Adds Farnell, “I was expecting a much higher cost for this customization. It’s going to be a big efficiency improvement for a very modest expense.”

Implemented a Solution That Can Scale

Moving forward, Brass Key plans to upgrade to Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon 6.0 and SQL Server 2000, which is part of Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM integrated server software. One of the company’s chief goals over the coming years is to increase its product lines—a goal that could not be attained without an effective technical solution in place. According to Farnell, Brass Key has found that solution. “With Microsoft Solomon, I am confident that we could easily handle five times the amount of business that we do now,” he says.

Microsoft Business Solutions

Microsoft Business Solutions offer integrated business applications and services that allow small and midsize organizations and divisions of large enterprises to connect employees, customers, and suppliers for improved efficiency. The financial management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and analytics applications work with other Microsoft software, including the Microsoft Office System and the Windows® operating system, to streamline processes across an entire organization. This gives businesses insight to respond rapidly, plan strategically, and execute quickly. Microsoft Business Solutions are delivered through a worldwide network of channel partners that provide specialized services and local support tailored to a company’s needs.

For more information about Microsoft Business Solutions, go to:

businesssolutions

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“Microsoft Solomon is an excellent tool for make-to-order manufacturers like Brass Key.”

Diane Grayson, President, Grayson Consulting | |

| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Business Solutions

− Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon

− Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–FRx Professional |Microsoft Windows Server System

− Microsoft SQL Server 7.0

Hardware

■ Compaq server computers | |

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Microsoft, FRx, Windows, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Business Solutions ApS, or FRx Software Corporation or their affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Business Solutions ApS and FRx Software Corporation are subsidiaries of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published March 2005 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:



For more information about Grayson Consulting products and services, call (425) 990-1526 or visit the Web site at:



For more information about Brass Key products and services, call (253) 874-6488 or visit the Web site at:

brass-

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