Anchor Danly Integrates Varsity to Support Shipping Automation and Company Growth
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Ferdiand Hinkle founded Lamina Components in the midst of the great depression of the early 1930s. Getting its start as a progressive die manufacturer, the company has consistently grown over the years and evolved into Anchor Danly—a leading international manufacturer and distributor of high quality die sets, die components, steel plates, and metal fabrications.
The company has a clear mission—to be truly customer focused and provide innovative value-added products and services that enable their customers to effectively compete in the global marketplace.
The company manages roughly 20,000 SKUs and ships 300 to 500 parcels and five to 15 less-than-truckload shipments per day out of their two warehouse locations in Michigan and Wisconsin. As well as having a transaction intensive environment, many of these shipments can be complex-such as a cam or die setter-and demand significant packaging or special handling at the shipping station.
To process these shipments, the company was running a PC-based shipping system. The software worked well for some time, but as the company grew, so did the demands on the software. With processing taking 30 to 45 second per shipment and the pain of transferring shipment data to and from their iSeries-based ERP (Infor/GEAC System 21), Anchor Danly realized that moving from their PC-based software to a more sophisticated, extensible, and fast shipping solution was an absolute necessity.
The selection process started when Jack Delzotto, Manager of Information Technology at Anchor Danly, attended a presentation given by Varsity at the GEAC Annual Users' Conference in 2003. During the Q&A session, Jack asked any Varsity customers at the session to confirm that Varsity actually did what they said it did—and several customers readily confirmed on Varsity's behalf. With interest piqued, the Anchor Danly IT team began to collect white papers, ask joint Varsity/System 21 users about Varsity's solutions, and collecting other research on available shipping solutions.
"This is when I was able to develop a clear picture of how easy it was going to be to integrate Varsity and System 21," said Jack. "The tipping point came when I visited and met with two separate Varsity clients who had shipping environments similar to ours. I saw Varsity in action—easily handling what were big issues with our PC-based shipping software." Jack continued, "Varsity's features and functionality, the 'invisible' interface into System 21, and the fact that it was a native iSeries solution, made Varsity the clear choice." Anchor Danly purchased Varsity ShipSoft-Parcel, ShipSoft-Freight, ShipTalk, SpeedWeigh, and the Varsity/System 21 standard interface.
Anchor Danly IT staff and Varsity Professional Services worked together to ensure a smooth and timely installation. "Varsity Professional Services was excellent," stated Jack. "They took a look at our processes and ensured that the software did exactly what we needed it to." Anchor Danly supports several distinct brands so, before Varsity, it was necessary for shipping staff to print off separate brand logos stickers, choose the right sticker for the brand, and manually apply it to each shipment. "Varsity's Field Engineer programmed the system so that all shipping labels also contained the right brand logo as part of the label layout. This was a big time saver and an important part of automating our process so we could get product out the door quickly and accurately." Jack continued, "and when we had an unplanned scope change in the middle of the installation project, Varsity's engineer was there to advise us and execute so that we were up and running on schedule."
What once took Anchor Danly 30 to 45 seconds for a simple shipment with their PC-based shipping system, now only takes a few seconds with Varsity. "We eliminated our manual shipping processes completely and we have month after month of error-free transmissions." Since Varsity runs in "invisible" mode, the software is easy to learn and use, which has reduced Anchor Danly's training curve considerably. Additionally, by using Varsity's track & trace module, the company can track packages significantly better and faster than with their old system—a critical component of servicing their customers. Varsity is also seamlessly integrated into Anchor Danly's inventory and accounts receivable systems so that Operations can better track inventory as well as bill faster—and get payment faster. Concluded Jack, "Better, faster shipping processes, total shipping automation, ease of use and integration, and system stability and extensibility-we're confident that Varsity was the right choice and will support the business over time as we continue to forge our leadership in the global marketplace."
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