Primaflow

Primaflow, part of Mueller Industries, is a leading multi-branch distributor of plumbing and heating products. The Birmingham-based company, which has 8 branches across the UK, supplies plumbing and heating merchants, builders merchants, wholesalers and other specialist trade distributors.

Primaflow installed K8 in 2006, and has since implemented the K8 Warehouse Management (WM) application..”

We talked to IT Manager Iain Paston, about the system, “K8 is very solid, and in my view a ‘de facto standard’ for our industry. There is no question that our K8 system, which is hosted by Kerridge Commercial Systems, is an integral part of our 24/7 operation. If the system stops, the business stops.

Iain gave a clear perspective of the top level benefit of K8, “In a nutshell, it gives every department complete and accurate visibility of business operations, from customer order right through to payment.” From that position of confidence, Primaflow is able to use K8 to help run the business and the information available to every user, can be relied upon 100%. Operationally, Birmingham acts as a central warehouse – supplying branches twice a week, and is a branch operation in its own right.
The whole business operates as a single stocking entity with inter-branch transfers used as necessary. Unlike some companies, Primaflow do not find it necessary to run perpetual stock-checking routines and instead carry out just one full stock check per year.

“In many ways, the warehouse operation is the hub of the business, both centrally and across the branches. We make full use of K8 WM in Birmingham and have a very good understanding of its capabilities. We use barcodes on bins and outer wrappers to make things easier and quicker. In parallel with barcodes, K8-integrated wireless hand-held devices are used for the put-away and picking processes. This portability saves our warehouse staff a great deal of time and effort and reduces the need to use conventional terminals.”

Primaflow offer their customers the widest choice in trading process – orders can be placed by phone, fax or via the K8 web interface. Larger customers in particular, make full use of the company’s EDI facilities to send orders, receive advice notes and invoices. The company is very progressive in the technologies it uses and it’s clear that there is a strong IT ‘ethos’ throughout the management team led by MD, Mark Millerchip. Iain commented that everyone has a ‘can do attitude’ and is self-reliant on using the system for what they need, e.g. function- specific KPI information, and only call in the IT team for the more demanding or technical requirements.

“Alongside the objective of being able to satisfy every customer order from stock ‘first pick’, we have the complication that a lot of our suppliers are based outside the UK. Brass fittings for example, come from China, arrive by the container load, and are typically on a 3 month lead time. The K8 demand forecasting tools are particularly useful to help us plan our purchasing. It is also worth mentioning that we used system data to help us reorganise the warehouse to improve picking logic.”

Clearly, systems are not allowed to stand still for long at Primaflow. In addition to providing day to day first line ‘help desk’ support, Iain’s three strong IT team continue to look for ways to get more from K8 and to improve both on and off-system processes. ”With all the major components working well, it’s currently more a question of tweaking the functionality rather than introducing anything major to the system. It’s great that we are able to take on board and develop suggestions and ideas that come into us, especially from branch management.”

As an example of what’s in the pipeline, Primaflow are looking to introduce screen ‘dashboard presentations’ which will make it easier for staff to process the high volume of telephone orders. “Matching up the customer’s description to the actual part is not always easy and anything we can do to support this is going to be worthwhile. Another important development that we want to expand is the use of the web portal which was launched in 2010. There is a growing trend among our customers to use the internet and we would like to encourage the process.”

Unquestionably, Primaflow are enthusiastic users of K8 who strive to get the best from the system. By working K8 hard, they not only help to make their organisation operate efficiently and deliver a high standard of customer service, but the company is striving to secure the maximum financial payback from their system investment.