Hubbardton Forge (Epicor)
How the artisan light maker reduced their buyers’ clerical work by 25%.
“In the past with partial orders, we had to manually find each PO and close or change them individually. Now, if we order 20 and the supplier ships 18, we just click accept in SourceDay.”
-Elsie Norton, Buyer at Hubbardton Forge
The Customer
Allow us to introduce Hubbardton Forge.
They’ve been a customer of ours for a couple of years, and they’ve seen some pretty incredible results using the SourceDay solution. Their company was founded in 1974 in a barn in Hubbardton, VT by a couple of college friends. Fast forward to 2023, and they’re one of the US’s oldest and largest continuously operating commercial forges. The company has about 230 employees, all working under one roof. Their artisans craft made- to-order lighting one at a time, taking inspiration from everything they encounter. As a domestic manufacturer, Hubbardton Forge is known for their excellent customer responsiveness, as well as reliable lead times and deliveries, and this vision drives the company’s values every day.
The Situation
Hubbardton Forge’s supply chain team consists of three buyers, a team leader, a logistics manager, and a general manager using Epicor ERP. They have about 1,000 open purchase orders at any given time, and they saw over 20% growth since 2020. Their PO management was mostly manual: they sent manual price updates and used email for confirmations and late PO reminders. This was slow and time- consuming, and left plenty of room for error.
The team saw this as wasted time that could have been spent adding value. They knew they would rather their buyers spend time on tasks like improving vendor relationships, identifying opportunities for cost savings, and sourcing new materials. They wanted to get their buyers out of administrative touchpoints and into a workflow that drives improvements and can scale with the company’s growth without the need for new salaries.
They needed to reduce manual data entry and errors, get more accurate forecasts, improve inventory predictability, and have the time to focus on strategic initiatives rather than only transactional tasks. To achieve these goals, they knew they had to reduce the amount of labor they spent on PO management and back-and-forth communication with suppliers. They also knew they needed better quality communication for all purchasing data to and from suppliers.
Working with the Epicor team, they reviewed their approach and identified opportunities to use other functions and features. Going on Epicor’s suggestion, they adopted SourceDay to improve efficiencies, enhance communication with suppliers, and navigate the growing complexity they’re experiencing.
“We had automation in terms of issuing POs, but managing after that was all manual. Did the vendor check back via email? Is the shipment on time? When we looked at all the touchpoints between Epicor, Outlook, and talking with vendors (sometimes by phone!), it was a lot of time. We started looking for a solution for that.”
- Elsie Norton, Buyer at Hubbardton Forge
The Change
How’d they do? In short: the manual workload has been drastically decreased. The company’s SourceDay users report a 25% reduction in PO Management tasks every week. Buyers spend much less time directly communicating with vendors about open purchase orders. They can now mass-update the volume of PO lines (acknowledgement, price update, due date auto reminders), rather than searching line-by-line through each individual order.
Before, buyers forwarded open order reports to the vendor, then followed up with a phone call to make sure they were seeing the same information. This process was a huge waste of time and resources. Now, they have what they call, “clarity of information,” or clear visibility into every PO line change, acknowledgment, and status update. Every detail is visible to every stakeholder on both sides of the equation.
“In the past with partial orders, we had to manually find each PO and close or change them individually. Now, if we order 20 and the supplier ships 18, we just click accept in SourceDay.”
- Elsie Norton, Buyer at Hubbardton Forge
The SourceDay Solution
With SourceDay, Hubbardton Forge is seeing better data integrity for planners and schedulers, increased inventory turns by addressing safety stock, and increased visibility into delivery times and supplier delays.
The implementation process was smooth, and SourceDay worked with Hubbardton to send personalized introduction letters to their 20 top-tiered suppliers. Then the company developed their own custom onboarding process with the help of SourceDay’s LiveSupport team, who was always available when needed. For the weeks following implementation, SourceDay’s Customer Success team conducted weekly meetings to answer questions and make sure the buyers and suppliers were getting the most out of the solution.
The Conclusion
Hubbardton Forge’s year-over-year growth has been steady, and the waste they were experiencing under their old systems was simply not going to cut it as they continue to scale. Steve and Elsie’s team desperately needed better efficiency. They found it by automating their purchase order processes and bringing their suppliers into the SourceDay fold to collaborate with their buying team. They have a solution that allows their buyers to think and work strategically on improving performance as their business scales.
Who We Are
SourceDay
SourceDay provides PO Collaboration solutions to manufacturers, distributors, retailers and supply chains all over the world. We do more than save time and money; we transform procurement’s value proposition within the company.
Hubbardton Forge (Epicor)
With approximately 240 employees, all under one roof in Castleton, Vermont, Hubbardton Forge is one of America’s oldest and largest continuously-operating commercial forges, where a talented team of artisans handcraft products to order. Manufacturing in the USA facilitates an exceptional level of responsiveness to our customers, and keeps well-paying jobs at home, strengthening our local economy. It has allowed us, even during challenging times, to maintain our short lead times, thanks to our many local and regional suppliers. And, while others have struggled with global supply chain issues, our customers have been able to continue to rely on Hubbardton Forge to deliver.
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