- [Jessica] Hi and thanks for joining us
for another Q&A Friday, a regular series
where we chat about issues facing manufacturing companies
in the new world of Industry 4.0.
I'm Jessica Vodden, a team member here at Mountain Point
and I'm joined by Tony Vagnerini,
our principal ERP consultant.
Hey, Tony.
- [Tony] Hi.
How are you?
- [Jessica] I'm doing great.
Hey, I'm really excited to see the demo
that you put together for us today.
Tony is gonna show a application, a mobile application
that Mountain Point built
that interfaces with the Rootstock ERP system,
which is a cloud ERP system built entirely
on the Salesforce platform.
And he is gonna show us some examples
of how you guys can use this
to really streamline your operations.
So, Tony, I'll stop talking
and let you take it from here.
- [Tony] Excellent.
Thank you, Jessica.
So, this mobile application is a fully managed application
on the Salesforce platform
that interacts with the Rootstock cloud ERP platform
that is within Salesforce.
And we have three main categories
that this application covers: inventory transactions,
every type of inventory transactions
to leveraging a custom cycle count functionality
that this application adheres to as well,
work order operations, work order processes
that entail work order operations,
everything from quantity to labor booking within Rootstock
to inventory receipt for items,
all functionalities on the shop floor for every shop floor,
and sales order, which is focused
around the fulfillment process within Rootstock
allows this process to be in sync.
So, you have the ability to manage your inventory,
manage how to get inventory,
and manage how you handle inventory
and get the inventory to the customer,
all of which native on the application
managed by Mountain Point
that allows us to tailor the solution to the client
or whatever the client's need is.
- [Jessica] And Tony, you can scan with this, right?
I think you were telling me that there is like a scanner
you could attach to make inventory quick.
- [Tony] That is correct.
This barcode on the top right-hand corner
allows the user to click
and then brings up a camera in place.
Now this app also works with an infrared sled.
So, it allows users to slide the sled in,
has an infrared scanner, 1D, 2D ready
allows the user to scan a 2D barcode or 1D barcode
to get input, output from either an item, a work order,
barcode or QR code, a sales order, barcode or QR code.
All of those entry points are living within Salesforce
and all respond with the application.
- [Jessica] So, I imagine that can really speed up
like cycle paths.
- [Tony] Yes.
This specific client actually leveraged
the cycle count functionality.
That is the reason for the sled
because the speed needed to be there,
the response time needed to be there,
and that user interface, which is also on this application,
from a permission perspective, allows certain users
at this specific periods of time
to execute cycle counts using that sled.
So, all inventory transactions can be leveraged
with the sled.
This specific client actually uses all of their devices
with the sled.
So, all transactions are quick and timely
as opposed to the phase one that leverage the camera itself.
But you can take the sled off.
You can use the camera.
You can keep the sled on and use the sled.
It's dynamic in that and has intuitive processes
within the applications and not have any overhead
for the client as far as the hardware is concerned.
- [Jessica] That's awesome.
I think you told me that using this technology,
when this client in particular was doing their inventory,
you said that it saved them a day and a half
across their entire staff--
- [Tony] Yes.
- [Jessica] Their end-of-year reporting.
- [Tony] Yes.
With a 60,000 item inventory count, right?
So, they have 60,000 different pieces of products.
It was extensive.
And this application handled all of it
and all handled native processes
within Salesforce and Rootstock.
- [Jessica] Great.
Yeah, I love the on-the-fly capabilities of this
so that, you know, you're just walking
through your warehouse, if you need to update accounts
or transfer from one branch to another,
you can do that quickly.
- [Tony] Exactly.
- [Jessica] Are there permissions in place
so that only certain users like maybe an inventory manager
can do that?
- [Tony] Yes, we handle all those permissions
within the Rootstock or with custom field sets
and custom identifications for certain users
to behave accordingly with the application.
So, we have our own little application permission set per se
that is in place that allows admins within the companies
to manage who does what.
- [Jessica] That's awesome.
All right.
Tell me about work orders.
- [Tony] Sure.
So, from a work order perspective,
again the point of work orders is to move items
through the shop floor effectively and efficiently, right?
Same as within Rootstock.
The processes within Rootstock require users
within the native UI
to progress work order operations fairly manually.
That's just how the nature of a platform works.
There's an application that Rootstock provides
that makes this effective.
And then we essentially created a process within our own
that kinda streamlines the process for the user.
What I mean by that is, it allows the user
to essentially just click the operation
and all types of users, right?
There's a lot of users that have a different level
of technical aptitude.
And what this does is it essentially moves items
from operation to operation while backflushing labor,
all of which are characteristics within Rootstock.
But what this essentially does is it allows the cost
and the progression of items to move fluently
from operation to operation and at the end of the day
allows the shop floor item to be received into inventory
with zero lead time outside of the application.
So, what this is extremely important for obviously
is it allows realtime data to be in place.
The realtime data is gonna be living within Rootstock.
So, from a capacity perspective,
you have a real depiction
of exactly what work center quantities they're living in.
And in order to do that effectively in realtime,
the application needs to be quick and effective.
- [Jessica] Great.
Yeah and I imagine that would also give people
a lot of insight into their work pipeline too, right?
- [Tony] Absolutely.
Yep.
And users can collaborate within each other
on this application towards this specific work order,
get a summary of the operations.
Once the operations go down to receiving,
they'll be able to receive it into inventory
and then also close the work order out,
closing all cost transactions for the work order
and getting the stock item flowing into the shipping center
and take it out the door, also get a summary of the header
of the work order itself.
- [Jessica] Tony, could this be customized
for maybe like a service application?
Maybe I'm a manufacturing who also does service on products.
If I brought it in and I had a series of steps
that the product needs to move through
to be maintained or serviced, would this fit as well or no?
- [Tony] Yes, it will.
It would take some configuration and some modifications
within the UI to make it adhere to those processes,
but at the end of the day, the pliability is there
on the backend 'cause all of the code
lives within Salesforce.
We're able to manipulate how it transacts with the system
and then obviously we would have to mimic the UI
to react to where the user would want to react
with the application.
But yes, all of it is there for us to work with.
- [Jessica] Great.
So, if I'm like servicing a motor,
I could know if it's in breakdown
or if it's being put back together,
if it's getting ready to ship at a glance.
Very cool.
Okay.
Sales orders?
- [Tony] Yep.
The last process this application provides
is sales order fulfillment.
So, there is a vetting process as well.
Again, as you can see,
the barcode scanner is live and active as well.
So, what this allows users to do is,
allows the picking of inventory to be realtime as well.
Not all inventory is dependent
on a shop floor receipt, right?
There's a lot of stock inventory
and stock inventory locations that allow users
to react quickly to demand and identify what items
need to be picked and shipped out the door immediately.
What this does is it allows users
to go into their inventory locations,
fully vet the items that are in place.
And we actually have intuitive logic within this application
that identifies whether or not that item is A,
on the sales order itself, validated on a sales order line,
B, hasn't already been fully issues on the sales order line
and interacts with the user in that fashion
to allow the user to intuitively make the correct pick
and issue on the sales order
without making an incorrect pick with the incorrect item.
And the validation is strictly on the UPC level.
So, the UPC is a system of record
for all of these transactions.
And the UPC is the full vetting process
from the sales order line
to the sales order fulfillment process.
And all the user has to do is keep the barcode active,
make sure they're scanning the correct item.
These items, as far as the fulfillment is concerned,
one of two, two of two, four of four.
These are gonna give them a quick depiction
of exactly what's in place.
When they scan a specific item,
they're getting a popup that says
how many do you want to pick.
They can't overpick but they can underpick of course, right?
But the validation of the product is tricky
especially with a SKU inventory
of around 60,000 different types of SKUs.
You want to make sure that no matter what the user is doing
in the fulfillment center,
they're able to make the correct pick
so that the customer gets the correct product
that they order on the sales order.
- [Jessica] Absolutely.
That's awesome.
And just to follow up, I know you kinda mentioned
this earlier, but this one is built for Rootstock,
which is an awesome product
and a solution we often recommend,
but we could build something similar
for other ERP systems too, right?
- [Tony] Correct.
This is definitely meant to work
within the Salesforce platform though.
I mean without a doubt, other ERPs have that type
of open API in some cases, but the true liberty
of what we have here as far as the solution is concerned
is we have the pliability of the open API platform
on force.com with an ERP
that is on the force.com platform.
It really enables us to use every skill that we have
and every type of design that we have
to give the user exactly what they want
with the process that they want,
so essentially save the user time
to essentially be more efficient
and to decrease lead times of the shop floor,
not only from the shop floor but to the customer
to get the product, the finished good.
Whether it needs to be manufactured custom
or to stock item that needs to be issued,
this application cuts all the corners
to allow the users to do exactly what they need to do
to get the customer the product as quick as possible.
- [Jessica] That's awesome.
And have that overarching insight
into their entire operations with everything on a platform.
- [Tony] Exactly.
With realtime data, there's no lead time,
there's no backlog of one user that has to do
all of these transactions
in order to get the system up to speed.
Rootstock is a full control system.
So, it has dependencies of processes
that require you to progress.
What this application does is it does those progressions
within the application mobilely.
That way, there's no gaps as far as getting something
to an invoicing stage.
There's no gaps as to getting a work order
to a receipt stage.
Everything is realtime and enables the user
to have full visibility from a manager level
and the full functionality and pliability
from the user level to do their job effectively and quick.
- [Jessica] That's awesome.
All right.
Tony, thank you so much for talking with me today.
This is a great overview.
For those of you out here listening,
if you have any questions that you'd like us to answer,
please let us know.
You can hit us up in the comments,
on our social media channels, you can email us.
We'd always love to hear from you.
Thanks again and happy Friday.
- [Tony] Awesome.
Thank you, Jessica.
Bye now.