Networking, Education Opportunities Abundant At PTDA 2014 Canadian Conference

More than 200 people gathered June 5-7, 2014, at the historic Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, in Québec City, Québec for PTDA’s 13th annual Canadian Conference. Networking between channel partners and peers was the top priority, and there were numerous opportunities to meet with fellow industry executives.
The Canadian Conference kicked off with the Industry Showcase and Welcome Reception, a combination of business (with tabletop displays by 28 PTDA manufacturer members) and informal conversations. A highlight of the event was a reception and dinner at the Parliament Building, home of the Assemblée nationale du Québec.

Canadian Conference Co-Chairs Gerry Prezeau of Rotator Products Limited and Bruno Mylchreest of Timken Canada LP alternated as the conference’s emcees, presenting PTDA President Ken Miko of BDI speaking on PTDA’s strategic plan and PTDA Foundation President Barbara Ross of Garlock Sealing Technologies addressing recent successes of the Industrial Careers Pathway^® program.

Prezeau and Mylchreest, and an industry committee of volunteers, developed a program of keynotes and educational sessions including:

• Lifting the Loonie with BNN’s Andrew Bell: Andrew Bell, reporter and news anchor on Business News Network, entertained and informed attendees.  Bell interspersed his rather bleak outlook for manufacturing in Canada with clips of bloopers from various news media outlets.
• Take Back Manufacturing with Nigel Southway: Nigel Southway, president of Nexus Consulting and chair of the Toronto chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), informed attendees about the need for and the goals of SME’s “Take Back Manufacturing” initiative.  More information is available at www.sme-tbm.org.
• Market Briefing: Aerospace Industry with Dale Gordon: A briefing on the aerospace market was presented by Dale Gordon, director of supplier quality assurance for Aerojet Rocketdyne.  Speaking on behalf of the International Aerospace Quality Group (www.iaqg.org), Gordon discussed the organization’s efforts in product and supply chain improvements.
• Panel Discussion:  How Technology is Affecting the Distributor/Manufacturer Relationship: In response to recommendations for industry-relevant content, the Canadian Conference called up a panel made up of a quartet of industry executives to discuss how technology is affecting distributor/manufacturer relationships.  Distributors Ali Moghadam of Canadian Bearings and Mitch Bouchard of General Bearing Service joined manufacturers Jean-Sebastien (JS) Lavigne of Baldor Electric Company and Dave Strutt of C&U Bearings to share their perceptions.  The panel discussion was facilitated by Peter Helston of Annex Business Media.
• Striving for Excellence with Stephan Maighan: Canadian Conference attendees were entertained, motivated and engaged by Stephan Maighan’s closing keynote.  Interspersing his six lessons for achieving excellence with activities involving combination locks and dancing, Maighan used his own experience to demonstrate how a positive attitude can produce a positive result.

A conference recap and a link to photographs from the event are available at ptda.org/CanadianConference. PTDA members also gain exclusive access to presentations from three of the speakers.

The Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) is the leading global association for the industrial power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) distribution channel. Headquartered in Chicago, PTDA represents power transmission/motion control distribution firms that generate more than $16 billion in sales and span over 3,400 locations. PTDA members also include manufacturers that supply the PT/MC industry.PTDA is dedicated to providing exceptional networking, targeted education, relevant information and leading-edge business tools to help distributors and manufacturers meet marketplace demands competitively and profitably. For more information, visit ptda.org or follow @PTDAorg.

DDI System Releases Newest Inform Software Upgrade

Adds user-defined screens, more functions and a fresh new look.

DDI System continues its commitment towards innovation and industry-specific tools with its latest release - Inform Version 21.0.10.32.

This new version provides an even greater feature set - fully integrated as part of DDI’s inform solution. DDI System expands its offerings and adds user defined screens with updated new looks, making inform one of the most advanced and user-friendly ERP solutions available today.

Additional print screen and email notification options provide greater flexibility in providing information to all applicable employees.

Enhanced warranty returns handling allows distributors to define vendor requirements for warranty returns complete with pop up notification and more.

Improved back-order release handling tools and so much more have been added with this latest release.

Thousands of DDI System users nationwide are achieving a higher level of efficiency and increased profitability with inform’s advanced capabilities. DDI continues its tradition of innovation and exceptional values with this free upgrade for DDI System inform subscribers.

Distributors can see the many benefits of the inform software at www.ddisys.com or by calling DDI for a demonstration at 877-599-4334.

Seacore Seafood Relies on VAI S2K Software to Drive Unmatched Growth and Improved Economies of Scale

Leading Seafood Supplier and Distributor Hastens Route Management, Order Entry and Delivery while Improving Account Receivables Management and Inventory Accuracy

 

Seacore Seafood, Canada’s leading importer, distributor and custom processor of fresh and frozen fish, seafood and live lobsters, has achieved and sustained remarkable growth in the most efficient way possible, due in part to the installation of S2K ERP software from VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.). Recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies, Seacore capitalized on its inward and outbound logistics to make its consumer brand, OceanPrime, widely available across North America while managing more than 5,000 fresh and frozen items in inventory.  

From its state-of-the-art 75,000 square foot facility in the Toronto suburb of Vaughan, Ontario, Seacore houses its three distinct divisions – OceanPrime, Fisherman’s Depot and Seafood Depot – which serve thousands of consumer, retail and wholesale customers. Its extensive network of inward and outward logistics allows Seacore to buy seafood directly from the source – whether it’s trailer trucks picking up seafood in New England or Florida, flights arriving from the Philippines and Europe or shipments from Asia and South America. This allows Seacore to provide a wide variety of fresh, high-quality seafood ranging from crab legs from Alaska to barrmundi from Australia and salmon from Ireland.

To keep up with the growing demand for its products, Seacore automated many of its core business functions, including inventory management, accounting, route management, order entry, logistics and retail point-of-sale by installing VAI’s S2K software five years ago. Since then, Seacore has realized tremendous business benefits from this installation including:

• Improved Accounts Receivables Management
• 85% of Seacore’s account receivables are current which is almost unheard of in the food industry.
• Faster Customer Delivery Rates and Reduced Order Picking Time
• Seacore has hastened its truck routing process by 50%, ensuring extremely high levels of prompt customer delivery. Through the S2K Route Manager, Seacore was able to see all of its orders as well as the number of orders per route and then make the business decision on how to set up the deliveries most efficiently. And through the bulk and Wave picking, Seacore reduced its order picking time by 40%, which further increased its already impressive on-time delivery rates.
• Streamlined Fish Cutting Process
• By automating fish cutting, Seacore took three or four steps out of the process and made it 80% more efficient than it was previously. This allowed Seacore to save time and service more customers, thereby growing its business exponentially.
• Up-to-the-Minute Consolidated Financials
• Seacore can now view its consolidated financials at the push of one button – so they can see instantly how retail sales are faring hour-to-hour or minute-by-minute each day. This is especially important during busy seasonal periods like the Christmas holidays when the retail division realizes a 1000% sales increase.
• Greater Inventory Accuracy
• With three distinct divisions sharing a master inventory, Seacore wanted to do automatic transfers within each company in real-time. VAI customized the S2K installation so that if one Seacore division used an item that was purchased by another company, an automatic transfer would be made and the inventory along with the ledger accounts would be auto-adjusted to keep everything in balance. The S2K installation also introduced BIN locations to the Seacore warehouse, allowing the Seacore staff to know the exact location of an item especially when there are multiple pallets.
• Faster Order Entry
• Seacore was able to hasten order entry as well as meet specific customer requirements. For example, a customer may want only certain items sold to their locations and their own item numbers would have to appear on invoices. With S2K, Seacore can not only create order guides from their past history or from a custom list, but they can also restrict a customer to only buy those items.
• Automatic Real-Time Traceability
• Seacore can now do full traceability on where their seafood is coming from and how it was caught – information which has become increasingly important to retailers such as Whole Foods as well as its consumers.  With S2K, Seacore can now provide this information to customers in real-time.
• Integrated Point-of-Sale
• VAI customized the S2K implementation so that Point-of-Sale was completely integrated in real-time. This allowed Seacore to instantly see the inventory moving to Seacore’s retail store division from their warehouse.  Seacore was also able to add seafood industry-specific items to the POS implementation such as Catch Weights and a wide variety of unit measures that would normally have to be scanned.

 

“VAI’s S2K software allowed us to reach phenomenal economies of scale that could not have been attained by generic ERP software solutions,” said Sal Battaglia, director of operations, Seacore Seafood. “The S2K installation dramatically improved nearly every part of our business – from accounting and logistics to inventory and warehouse management.  By automating many of these key functions, our team can focus on critical aspects of our business such as sales and customer service.  And we feel confident that we can continue our impressive growth trajectory knowing that our business is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.”

 

On Tuesday, September 25^th at 2:00pm ET, VAI will host a webinar, “S2K for Food: A Complete Solution for the Food Industry,” that will examine the unique challenges and requirements of the food industry. Attendees will learn how S2K Enterprise for Food helps distributors meet the challenges of today’s economic environment by automating and integrating business processes across the organization. To register for the webinar, please visit here.  

 

About VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.)

VAI is a leading independent mid-market ERP software developer renowned for its customized solutions and ability to automate critical business functions for the distribution, manufacturing, specialty retail and service sectors. An IBM Premier Business Partner, VAI is the 2012 IBM Beacon Award Winner for Outstanding Solutions for Midsize Businesses. VAI continues to innovate with new solutions that leverage analytics, business intelligence, mobility and cloud technology to help customers make more informed business decisions in real-time and empower their mobile workforces.  VAI is headquartered in Ronkonkoma, NY with branch offices in Florida, Illinois and California. For more information, visit www.vai.net, follow @VAISoftware on Twitter or “like us” on facebook.com/VAISoftware.