Rowe Pottery Works

Integrated ERP system provides insight into more profitable product decisions

Overview

Jim and Tina Rowe, founders of Rowe Pottery Works, have built a reputation based on quality craftsmanship. Their attention to detail and quality carries over into their approach for managing the business. Established in 1975, Rowe Pottery Works produces high quality, hand-made, salt-glaze pottery and tiles for commercial and residential use.

The Challenge

The Cambridge, Wisconsin company has grown from a two-person pottery studio to a major commercial operation with more than 130 employees and several retail outlets. As the company grew, the accounting and manufacturing systems they had in place could not support their needs.

“We knew that if we were going to survive as a company, we needed to upgrade our business systems,” said company president Jim Rowe.

The Solution

It was up to Mark Nordeen, Information Systems Manager, to find a solution. After mapping out company objectives and analyzing several ERP solutions, Nordeen selected Intuitive ERP from Intuitive Manufacturing Systems.

The main criteria for selecting Intuitive ERP included integrated accounting and manufacturing functionality, product costing capabilities, strong shop floor control features and the ability to easily make modifications.

Rowe Pottery Work’s Results

Prior to implementation of Intuitive ERP, the management team at Rowe found it difficult to get the information they needed to make good business decisions. There was no real integration of manufacturing data and accounting information. With Intuitive ERP, integration of accounting and manufacturing information provided Rowe with new insights into product line profitability. Company managers were able to see that one of their product lines was not pulling its weight and they made a decision to outsource that line so they could expand in other areas.

“Intuitive ERP enabled us to identify issues and make better product decisions,” said Nordeen. “As a direct result we will now outsource some of our old products and focus our efforts on launching a new and more profitable product line.”

Manufacturing pottery and tiles is a delicate balance of materials, labor and curing time. The right kind of clay, the perfect glaze, experienced craftsmanship and the appropriate time in the kiln contribute to the end product—and the end cost. Determining accurate costing had been a serious problem for Rowe prior to Intuitive ERP.

“Product costing was a nightmare and data was scattered everywhere,” said Nordeen. “We had a homegrown system that was extremely inaccurate and we knew we were not getting a good picture of true product costs.”

Previous efforts at cost allocation overstated costs on some products while understating costs on others. Intuitive ERP product costing capabilities have allowed Rowe to distribute costs more accurately across different products.

“The system is very straightforward and the data is now very accurate,” Nordeen continued. “This not only allows us to do a better job of product costing, but also a much better job of setting prices.”

The cumulative impact of Intuitive ERP has been significant. Work instructions are more clearly communicated, scheduling is more accurate and more importantly, rescheduling can be done without completely disrupting the whole factory.

Intuitive ERP material planning and Shop Floor Control capabilities have also had a major impact on quality and productivity at Rowe. Intuitive’s work order process, multi-level bills of material, and detailed routings have provided structure and discipline while adding flexibility at the same time. The result is two-fold. Rowe’s old process for manufacturing frequently required that data be entered two or three times. Now, information is entered once and it is available throughout the system. This allowed Rowe to free up a full-time employee for other duties. A second benefit is that fewer errors are made in the production of pottery and tiles and custom projects are handled with ease.

“We have information on the shop floor that we never had before,” said Nordeen. “And there has been a noticeable reduction in scrap and shrinkage.”

Rowe Pottery Work’s Reaction

One of the reasons Rowe selected Intuitive ERP is the underlying technology. Even more important for Rowe is the ability to make minor modifications without outside resources. Developed solely with 100 percent Microsoft technology, Intuitive ERP is easy to implement and requires very little system administration.

“I have made several modifications myself,” said Nordeen. “I can reformat reports and create new reports, without having to make any changes to the product code. One report provided information on production efficiency that gave our managers greater insight into daily operations and helped identify opportunities for improvement.”