Columbus Cello-Poly, a flex-pack printing organization located in Columbus, OH, specializes in 8-color process printing, laminating and conversion of bags and pouches. The converter has over 40 years of experience helping its customers achieve business success through package branding and identity. Their continued success relies on a commitment to developing client partnerships to package new products in response to consumer needs.

That success, however, led Columbus Cello-Poly's managers to conclude that the company's older business system was incapable of handling future needs. With manual shop-floor data collection and an aging system that was no longer supported, Columbus Cello-Poly began to look at what newer systems might be available. They needed a business solution offering them better electronic business tools without having to custom-develop it to fit their specialized needs.

Enter Concord Business Systems, a supplier of business software exclusively for the flex-pack converting marketplace. Concord's system appeared to have the built-in functionality to handle Columbus' unique requirements. This would allow Columbus Cello-Poly to focus more on successful system implementation than performing numerous customizations.

"There are so many specifics to our industry that a generic package cannot handle, so it was a real plus when we initially found that Concord really did understand our industry and our special needs in flexible packaging," says Jeff Obrecht, general manager at Columbus Cello-Poly. "Obviously the sales staff and consultants were very familiar with our industry, and that was a real asset."

Managers were also sold on Concord at the demonstration stage, when they saw the system in actual use. Obrecht continues, "We were very impressed with the Concord demonstration. We could have renamed the work centers in the demo information with ours. It was apparent the system was tailor-made for what we do."

Columbus Cello-Poly selected a solution from Concord and has been live on the system for over six months. "The system is meeting our expectations well," Obrecht says. "The implementation has gone well—our people worked hard because they see how the system can help them. We're now using the data from the system and working to get the right information from the system to help us manage."

Inventory accuracy is among the improvements Obrecht details. "It's been an incredible advantage to have serialized inventory where we can identify a specific roll from a vendor with a potential problem and immediately trace what final product—by roll—that film went into," he says. "By the same token, if there was a problem with a specific roll at a customer, rather than possibly bringing the whole shipment back to evaluate, we can immediately identify the sister roll to it, or any roll around it. It's part of the inventory process we were missing."

Columbus Cello-Poly employees now record all inventory transactions by using a Palm Pilot® integrated with the system. As employees on the shop floor move film from one area to another, it's scanned and tracked in the system at the same time.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits Obrecht sees from the system is in inventory counts. "We used to conduct a monthly inventory count—even daily for some specific items. We're now down to quarterly and plan to reduce that. Doing an entire physical inventory used to be a process that took six to eight people 10-12 hours on a Saturday—it now takes one person four hours."

Data collection has improved too. "Our data-collection percentage improvements are astronomical," Obrecht adds. Columbus Cello-Poly used to collect shop-floor data from operators handing in a packet of information at the end of their shift. That packet would contain such items as roll tags and one to two pages written, highlighting all transactions and downtime. Now the transaction takes place in real-time in the system as it happens on the floor.

"I like the system because I can sit in my house at 10 o'clock at night, log into the system and see where we are on any given press at any time: how much has been produced, what rolls have gone on, to the minute, what time we started any roll, and when we finished it," Obrecht says.

If a press goes down, it's as simple as pushing a button for the operator to note why the problem is occurring, making it easy for Columbus Cello-Poly to gather accurate information from the shop floor. By offering consistent cost and pricing information, the new system also allows Columbus Cello-Poly to focus on the jobs that offer them the best contribution opportunities, as well as items not in their best interest to process.

Columbus Cello-Poly's customers are also seeing the benefits of the new system, with quicker order entry, particularly on reorders, where details are stored in the item master, reducing the time it takes to input a reorder from half an hour to just minutes.

Obrecht concludes, "The consultants at Concord were very knowledgeable about the system and, more importantly, our business—and helping us marry the two together. The initial implementation came in on budget, and we finished it ahead of the original recommended schedule."

What would he advise a fellow converter faced with the decision to buy a tailored or modified system? "Advice here is easy to give," he concludes. "We like our people to be knowledgeable about our business and focused on producing product. We want our resources to go into improving our company. To have someone knowledgeable to customize software on our staff is not where we want to be.

"We would much rather invest our time and efforts in our business instead of software," he says. "I would recommend others in our industry to select a system designed for them."