Farrow & Ball Paint the Perfect Picture of International Shipping.
Farrow & Ball has been producing handcrafted, richly pigmented paints and unique wallpapers from its manufacturing facility in Dorset, UK since 1946. Dedicated to using only the finest ingredients, the company has 57 showrooms across the UK, US, Canada and Europe, as well as a global network of stocklists carrying both paint and wallpaper.
It is a business with an enviable brand that suppliers want to work with. Underpinning its operations is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from IFS, as well as other sophisticated warehousing and distribution technologies.
Sabi Andreotti, Business Design Analyst at Farrow & Ball explains, “We do everything in the supply chain. From our own procurement, to planning, and manufacturing. As we have our own network of retail showrooms that sell direct to consumers, as well as other indirect channels, we run our own distribution too.”
Farrow & Ball has worked with Cooper Software on a variety of technology programmes since 2015 - from a support contract to the technical implementation of IFS Apps 9 in 2017. Now running on IFS Cloud, the heritage paint and wallpaper maker is further improving its export capabilities by optimising its warehouse pick and pack, and international export processes.
The company turned to Cooper Software’s ACQUIRE™, a barcoding mobile data and radio frequency (RF) system designed specifically for IFS users. An off the shelf end-to-end product, it can be integrated to any ERP picking process within the automated supply chain. Specified to improve the accuracy of Farrow & Ball’s shipments and minimise shipping costs, ACQUIRE plays a fundamental role in reducing the double handling of its products in the dispatch process. Farrow & Ball uses ACQUIRE in its warehouse as a data collection tool, linked to its IFS Cloud ERP system.
The Dorset-based warehouse team use around 40 handsets to scan the several thousand products being shipped by Farrow & Ball every day. From colour cards and sample swatches to large tins of paint, every item is scanned through the ACQUIRE system, which is also used to receive purchase orders.
“Our omni-channel environment means we don’t only dispatch to high street DIY stores. A large percentage of our business comes directly from consumers,” continues Andreotti. “So, we are satisfying the demands of many types of customers. Having ACQUIRE gives us the flexibility to understand which customer or group of customers we are dealing with at any given time. For example, creating specific package lists. Importantly, the combination of ACQUIRE with IFS Cloud assures accurate output from all our warehouses.”
With such similar-looking packaging and containers across the Farrow & Ball product range, the automation of product picking and dispatch in its busy warehouse helps to reduce human error. In addition to underscoring the company’s reputation for speed and accuracy, the systems interface with Farrow & Ball’s international export facility and global carriers, automating whole selections and packaging of products. The seamless interface with carriers, generates carrier labels for the boxes being loaded onto pallets. The resulting speed for creating delivery notes not only benefits its business but enhances Farrow & Ball’s relationship with carriers around the world, improving the end user experience at customer level.
“ACQUIRE is a success story,” claims Andreotti. “We don't measure the responsiveness of the scanners, we measure the level of satisfaction of our operators. We have got the right solution in place to support our overarching business goals of creating more efficiencies and being commercially progressive.”
“Cooper Software helped us to deliver a successful project because they know what they are doing,” continues Andreotti. “They have very strong consultants with a high level of technical competence in place that have helped us with past customisations. They are capable, prepared, accommodating and very easy to work with.”
About Cooper Software:
Cooper Software, founded in the UK in 2005, is a software company committed to helping its customers maximise business efficiency through the use of technology. As both an IFS Gold Channel Partner and an IFS Gold Services Partner. Cooper Software is often involved from project evaluation and inception, through to post go-live support services and the delivery of continuous improvement programs and has worked with over 130 IFS customers in the last 3 years alone.
Customers choose Cooper Software when they are looking for a full-service IFS partner focussed on helping them drive value from their ERP investment; our services include consulting, application support, hosting & managed services as well as a selection of tailor-made complementary products.
