CompressorWorks, Inc. Case Study:
Gulfstream Computer Services’s Barcode Gateway for Microsoft Dynamic SL’s
About the Company
of Microsoft Dynamic SL’s third-party barcode technology
providers. After much research, we determined
Gulfstream to be the best choice,” Davis said.
CompressorWorks, Inc. is an OEM of automotive
and truck air conditioning compressors located in
Dallas, Texas. The company produces new
replacement compressors and is a leading
aftermarket distributor of original equipment
replacement fan clutches as well as other
aftermarket climate control and engine-cooling
products for many vehicle makes.
The Solution
Over the years the company has realized significant
growth from the dozen or so orders it processed
each day when it first opened its doors in 1999. In
April of 2001 CompressorWorks implemented
Microsoft Business Solutions’ Microsoft Dynamic SL
application to better assist with the management of
its accounting and order management functions.
In 2002, CompressorWorks’ business began to
grow rapidly when its largest customer initiated a
new supply chain replenishment initiative. In
addition to the weekly stocking orders
CompressorWorks was already processing for the
customer’s nine regional distribution centers, the
customer called on CompressorWorks to fill a
number of small orders and then drop-ship those
orders to the customer’s 3,200 retail locations
across the US. And as the business grew, so did
the retail giant’s fill rate and product compliance
requirements.
“We realized this significant increase in orders was
going to place new and difficult demands on the
way we ran our business, as well as our ability to
meet the needs of this important customer,”
explains Scott Davis, CompressorWorks’ director
of purchasing. “Basically, we bumped up against a
ceiling, we needed real-time inventory information
as we were pulling the orders and receiving
inbound material. Without that, we were not going
to be able to handle the drop-ship orders to the
stores.”
CompressorWork’s Goal
The automotive air conditioning business, as one
would expect, is a seasonal one with most of the
company’s eight-figure sales coming in a brief fivemonth period. “Being a seasonal business, fast
turnaround is critical for us. We have to get the
product out to our customers quickly, and that just
was not happening. We realized we needed to
quickly move to some sort of barcode technology,
we just were not sure which one. We looked at all
Gulfstream has developed a product called The
Barcode Gateway for Microsoft Dynamic SL. It provides the
interface between the warehouse floor and a
company’s order management, receiving and
accounting systems. The product has been
developed specifically for Microsoft Dynamic SL
using Microsoft Dynamic SL’s VBTools, so it has the look and
feel of Microsoft Dynamic SL on the desktop.
The Gateway is designed to provide the efficient
and reliable flow of real-time information from a
business’s warehouse environment into Microsoft Dynamic SL’s
distribution modules. The Gulfstream system is
completely paperless. It uses wireless handheld
devices, coupled with barcode technology, to
optimize warehouse resources so tasks are
completed more efficiently.
After making the decision to go with the Gulfstream
product, Davis and his co-workers had a few
reservations when it came to the implementation of
this new element of their warehouse management
system. “Based on past experience, we were
expecting this implementation to be very difficult.
But to the contrary, we actually had the Barcode
Gateway system up and running the same day we
wired the warehouse with the radio-frequency
equipment. We started to immediately realize
gains from dealing with our customer and
inventory transactions in real-time, and that
was a big plus for us,” said Davis.
Davis and his CompressorWorks’ co-workers were
also pleased with Gulfstream’s ability to quickly
customize the Barcode Gateway to the company’s
specific needs. “At our request, the Gulfstream
team built a “Container Builder” feature that allows
us to fulfill another important customer
requirement. That feature enables us to report to
our customers exactly what products are contained
in which box, or on what pallet, with each box or
pallet receiving its own unique license tag number.
It did not take long for Gulfstream to get the
Container Builder feature up and running for us. It
is our understanding the feature is now standard in
the Barcode Gateway product,” Davis added.
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CompressorWorks, Inc. Case Study:
Gulfstream Computer Services’s Barcode Gateway for Microsoft Dynamic SL
Customization
Gulfstream also helped the company link
Gulfstream’s new WMS with CompressorWorks’
Microsoft Dynamic SL EDI module. “All of the
information we receive from our customers in an
inbound EDI purchase order must be transmitted
back to the customer in an outbound advanced
shipping notice and/or invoice document.
CompressorWorks’ largest customer transmits
inbound purchase orders 24/7. Per our vendor
agreement with the customer, CompressorWorks
is required to pull, pack and ship the order the same
day it arrives, as long as the order is received by
4:00 PM,” said Davis.
According to Davis, the new system has
significantly streamlined CompressorWorks’ entire
materials handling process, thereby allowing the
company to meet these tight deadlines. “With the
Gulfstream system, at 3:50 PM, we can now
receive an EDI order for 40 compressors going to
20 different ship-to addresses and have the license
tag and waybill numbers recorded with 100 percent
accuracy and have the product loaded on the
courier’s truck by 4:30 PM.”
“Being able to do it right on the spot using this
new wireless handheld technology has
substantially increased our inventory
accuracy,” stated Davis.
“Using the new system all of our transactions,
including our parts inventory, now occur in realtime, so transactions are not piling up for someone
else to enter into the system later in the day,” Davis
stated. Not only has the new system eliminated
redundant data entry, but it has also helped
increase overall warehouse productivity and
accuracy, which in turn has increased customer
service and the company’s profitability.
There is no doubt at CompressorWorks many of
the company’s newly acquired competitive
advantages would not have been possible prior to
the installation of Gulfstream’s wireless bar-coding
solution. The company has gone from processing a
dozen orders a day to processing hundreds of
orders a day and sees no limits in sight for its new
WMS.
About Gulfstream
CompressorWorks now routinely ships 200-300
orders per day, with possibly 200-300 different shipto addresses. Davis claims the company could not
have possibly achieved that feat without the use of
Gulfstream’s warehouse management technology.
Furthermore, CompressorWorks would not have
been able to make the commitment to its largest
customer if CompressorWorks was not confident in
the capabilities of the Gulfstream product. By using
the Barcode Gateway, the company is now
positioned to ensure the prompt delivery of all of
their goods to all of their customers around the
world.
Shipping accurate, on-time orders is only one area
in which the Barcode Gateway has played an
important role. Another area is inventory
management. With several thousand raw material
and finished goods parts, managing that inventory
had become a challenge using the limited native
functionality in Microsoft Dynamic SL.
“Previously, we used paper tags to record and track
inventory. The tags were not always accurate, and
sometimes were lost or misplaced, or maybe they
were just not keyed into Microsoft Dynamic SL. In
addition, we had a person stuck for hours in front o
a computer entering the data from these tags.
Gulfstream Computer Services has been a reseller
of Microsoft Dynamic SL since 1984. Development on the
Barcode Gateway began in 1999 when the
distribution modules for Microsoft Dynamic SL
software became a dynamic offering in the Supply
Chain/Distribution software market.
Gulfstream’s commitment is to provide a software
package that is seamlessly integrated with
Microsoft Dynamic SL’s Inventory, Purchasing and Order
Management modules. Since it’s inception, the
Barcode Gateway has been integrated to the Work
Order and Service Series modules as well. To
enhance the product further, integration to Sandler
Kahne’s Project Work Order and Shop Floor
Control have become a standard part of the
Barcode Gateway software offering.
Gulfstream works closely with the Microsoft Dynamic SL
resellers to ensure smooth setup, implementation
and training for the client. We are happy to provide
customization quotes for specific requests. Please
contact us for further information.
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Gulfstream Computer Services Ltd.
Toll Free: 877.377.6604
sales@gulfstream.ca