With such an impressive portfolio and three specialized practices, the leadership at Miller Zell decided their enterprise solutions should be equally impressive.
A long-time JD Edwards World customer, Miller Zell was a paper-intensive operation with heavy customizations to World. Attempting to update an outdated ERP via third party applications led to high maintenance costs and did not provide any mobile efficiencies. What’s more, an RPG-based system is
not practical in today’s standards of coding language.
Upgrade Decision Path
With Miller Zell’s leadership focusing on digital innovation and streamlined processes, Chief Process and Innovation Officer Gina Strickland and her team searched for an ERP platform that was a sound financial decision and had a proven track record. After comparing several top-tier solutions, Miller Zell made the decision to move from World to EnterpriseOne.
“We preferred the screens of E1 compared to the other solutions we evaluated,” said Gina. “By choosing E1, our employees would not have to learn new fields and files as they are almost the same between E1 and World.”
JD Edwards E1 + RF-SMART
Gina knew that part of their upgrade path would need to include RF-SMART. It was important to keep their warehouse free of disruptions during the upgrade process, as their rest of their organization would be undergoing a major change to move from an iSeries to a cloud-based ERP. “Continuing our use of RF-SMART made this process almost seamless for our warehouse staff,” said Project Manager Cindy Vaughn.
“RF-SMART for World and RF-SMART for E1 have such similar screen set-up and fl ow on the devices that it was an easy transition for our warehouse.” Their warehouse staff is using the same transactions – picking, receiving, transfers, and cycle counting, to name a few – but moving to E1 allowed them to do away with many modifications. However, the move to E1 meant that they would also be able to add new RF-SMART functionality.
“We want to run our warehouse like a modern logistics center,” said Gina. To facilitate this, Miller Zell will start using RF-SMART’s Labor Management Reporting to allow them to track metrics such as how long it takes to pick an order, who the most efficient workers are, how many errors are made, and even the cost of a mispick for their operation. Aside from analyzing the costs associated, they also plan to use the data to determine why some pickers perform better than others do. “Our Vice President of Logistics is excited
for this new level of reporting,” said Gina.
A Beneficial Upgrade
Having been live on E1 now for over a year, Miller Zell is already seeing many added benefits. Real-time inventory has continued to allow their customer service department to provide excellent service. Accuracy and productivity have also continued to increase leveraging RF-SMART in their operations. Their users are happy with the change as many functions are easier in E1 compared to World.
An added bonus – the response they have gotten from many of their clients. Purchasing innovative products from a company that uses a top-tier ERP gives clients a favorable impression – especially when many of their clients are also using E1. “We didn’t expect that benefit,” said Gina.
Working with the RF-SMART team through this process was a positive experience. “RF-SMART is a great company to work with. They really took the time to understand what we wanted,” said Gina. By aligning RF-SMART functionality with Miller Zell goals, the team at RF-SMART helped ensure a smooth go-live.