Moeller Door & Window Tracks Production Costs and Profitability with Ponderosa
Smithfield, Rhode Island — CAI Software, LLC , a leading provider mission-critical, production-oriented enterprise resource planning (ERP) to the lumber, building materials and millwork industry, today announced that Moeller Door & Window of Saint Henry, Ohio has selected CAI Software’s Ponderosa enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to track profitability in its production facilities.
Over time, as the company continued to expand with new products, services and customers, it became clear that the company’s business management software needed to be upgraded. “Our old software was not very user friendly,” said Frank Moeller, treasurer for Moeller Door & Window. “To become an efficient user of the software you had to be pretty tech savvy, making the hiring process of new employees even more difficult. In addition, the accounting side of the software was so bad we had to use a separate accounting system.”
Even worse, Moeller points out that the legacy software was not able to accurately account for every cost associated with each job. “It sounds crazy, but we were honestly blind on the profitability of jobs,” he said.
Moeller Door & Window turned to CAI Software. Out of the box, the Ponderosa software’s integrated, production-oriented tools simplified the company’s production ordering and provided tools to easily measure bottom-line profitability on every project. “The software was so easy to learn and navigate, like it was designed specifically for our operation,” Moeller said.
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With the customer on the phone, Moeller Door & Windows’s reps and counter personnel can quickly configure, cost and price exterior doors, window units, and other products. Ponderosa’s convenient Product Configurator utilizes rules-based decision trees to only show, based on the previous selections, logical choices for subcomponents. By eliminating the possibility of selecting incorrect components and errors caused by re-keying, Ponderosa streamlines production ordering and reduces shipment errors, costly returns, and re-builds.
“Ponderosa just makes everything so much easier,” Moeller said. “We can build out and price even the most complex products, allocate materials from the warehouse or yard, schedule and track labor and installation time and quickly see the exact margin on every order. Detailed invoice history and sales analysis tools help the company confirm profitability and review budgeted vs actual costs in the general ledger. “It’s great to be able to identify, down to the nickel, the exact costs and profitability of everything we build and install,” Moeller added.
Ponderosa has also helped to increase on-time and complete shipments by letting staff quickly view the real-time status of every production order (i.e., on hold, production OK to proceed, etc.) as it moves throughout the assembly and pre-finishing process. “Ponderosa makes it easy for our employees to access the information they need to control costs and work at full capacity.”
“The success of our migration to Ponderosa can be attributed to the extreme care that was taken to understand our business and day-to-day operations and identify specific areas where we could significantly improve efficiency and accuracy,” Moeller said.
“Just as impressive has been CAI’s commitment to working with us to make sure we were deriving the most from the system,” Moeller added. “With our legacy business software, there was no customization whatsoever, other than reports. Since our go-live with Ponderosa in April, they’ve done a fantastic job configuring the software to meet our needs. In the end, what they present to us is exactly what we are looking for. Their support is phenomenal.”
About Moeller Door & Window
Moeller Door & Window is a family-owned business that has proudly provided West Central Ohio contractors and homeowners with all their residential and commercial door and window needs since 1987. The company distributes and installs a wide range of custom entry door systems, overhead doors, rolling steel doors, fire doors, storm doors, replacement, and construction windows along with garage door opener installation, weather sealing and repair services. From the company’s large showroom, customers can also choose from a variety of high-quality closet organizer systems, custom glass shower doors and mirrors. In addition to its retail business, Moeller Door & Windows operates a full-service, commercial business providing warehouses, manufacturing plants and other businesses with a full line of energy efficient overhead doors, security and access control solutions, loading dock levers and other dock-related solutions, truck restraints and more.
About Ponderosa ERP
Ponderosa Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software is a mission-critical, end-to-end solution that helps lumber and building materials manufacturers, dealers and distributors run their businesses more efficiently and profitably by utilizing information from all areas of the business and giving them the ability to track production costs, ensure that the right stock is available at the right time and meet promised delivery dates for production orders utilizing the latest technology and industry-best practices.
About CAI
CAI Software, LLC is a recognized leader in the delivery of mission-critical, production-oriented enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), warehouse management software (WMS), electronic data interchange (EDI), and process automation software and services to leading companies in select vertical markets, including building materials, food processing, precious metals, manufacturing, and distribution. We are headquartered in Rhode Island, USA.