Wausau Container Corporation Expects to Revolutionize Its Business & Production Management

Wausau Container Corporation Expects to Revolutionize Its Business & Production Management with Implementation of HiFlow Solutions MIS

The company is moving from a homegrown, highly manual management system not well integrated across different business applications; access to real-time data will enable proactive decision-making, more efficiency, and better customer service.

Wausau Container produces paperboard packaging for a wide range of goods. The company helped to pioneer the application of flexographic printing to the manufacture of high-quality consumer oriented folding cartons. Its efforts to seek out and employ the latest in technological innovations continue, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of HiFlow’s MIS solution.

“My role is in the financial world,” Plier says “and I was tasked with researching and implementing a new MIS system for us, along with a team of people. After doing our due diligence, we selected HiFlow and began our implementation in January of this year. We anticipate going live in July, have finished our data migration, and are in the process of training our people on the new system.”

Plier notes that when the company was founded, they were careful with their cash reserves and engaged her brother, a computer programmer, to create a manufacturing order entry solution that would also generate packing lists and invoices. “Over the last 30 years,” she explains, “we have worked with another individual to continue development of the system, and we have added shop floor data collection, bar coding, inventory reporting and more. However, the system was based on FoxPro, which was purchased by Microsoft and then discontinued. In addition, the system development and maintenance is basically a side project for the programmer. So that’s what drove the decision to look for a packaged software solution.”

Plier points out that the company needed a solution that was easy to integrate with other systems it was using, including Great Plains accounting, which was not integrated with FoxPro, resulting in the need to enter data twice. The company also had a manual scheduling board and was using Excel for estimating. Plus, she adds, “The programmer felt we were getting too large for him to support. The inefficiencies of these manual processes, the lack of integration, and the concern we might lose our programmer were key drivers in the decision process to search for a packaged solution. We needed to increase both the integration of our software infrastructure and the automation in our workflow. HiFlow is enabling achievement of both those goals and more.”

Another important factor in the decision process was the level of pre-sales support HiFlow provided. “Jack Lafler, HiFlow’s Vice President of Sales & Technical Services, was very diligent in answering my questions, and I had a lot of them,” Plier explains. “He took a deep dive with us even before securing the business, which I really appreciated; and he continues to provide us with an exceptional level of support. The fact that they are a global company with dozens of successful installations was also important to us.”

Once the system goes live, Plier expects to be able to better manage the business with access to real-time data. “With our previous system,” she says, “we really couldn’t see how we performed on a job until we saw the job costing report at the end. And by then, it’s too late to do anything about any issues that may arise during production. If we can immediately see issues, such as machine downtime or other job problems, we can be proactive in resolving them. Time is money! And being able to proactively see what is going on and solve problems quickly will be a game changer for us. Plus, integration with our accounting and prepress software will also be a key advantage.”

Plier also likes the customizable dashboards that HiFlow offers, citing that as another game changer for the company. “We collect a lot of data right now,” she says, “but being able to mine that data in a way that is meaningful for running our business and making decisions has proven to be a bit difficult. So being able to write our own reports and access data in real time and in a meaningful way will give us the ability to quickly make informed decisions. We will also be able to implement better purchasing controls, tying purchasing into accounting. That’s really important with the volatility in paperboard and other commodity pricing right now.”

She also appreciates the fact that HiFlow will aggregate all of the assets associated with a particular job, including the ability to attach PDFs of CAD drawings, which will make estimating much more efficient. “Currently,” she notes, “estimates are created in Excel and then need to be reentered into Word for the customer quotes. Estimators often have to go searching for necessary assets, such as the CAD drawings. Not only is this time-consuming, but there is significant opportunity for error. And we also expect to be able to get better data on actual versus estimates, so we can continuously improve our estimating process. In addition, our customer service reps can be much more efficient, accessing everything from their desks instead of wandering around looking for information. The system will be a game changer for them as well!”

Other efficiencies Plier expects to benefit from include the ability to leverage die cutting templates across several customers; for example, she explains, the company produces a lot of butter cartons that are the same size and shape across multiple customers. “Segmenting the business this way will also help us better understand what our butter business is netting us margin-wise,” she adds. “That’s the kind of detail we would like to see and that we will be able to access more easily once HiFlow goes live.”

Plier concludes, “Another thing that really stood out to me with HiFlow that I didn’t see in other packages is their Packing Wizard and palletizing optimization tools (Palletizing Wizard). We were doing that manually, and that tool will help us be much more efficient in the packing and shipping department. Putting all this together, implementation of HiFlow will really revolutionize our business and position us to grow further as we move into the future. I am really looking forward to getting in there and digging in.”

About HiFlow Solutions

HiFlow Solutions provides flexible MIS/MES systems that help packaging manufacturers operate more efficiently and profitably. Its MIS/MES streamlines business and plant operations for flexible packaging, folding carton, label, and corrugated business with advanced features to help packaging manufacturers automate workflow and gain total visibility and control of their business processes.

HiFlow Solutions has been providing MIS and MES solutions for over 23 years to 100+ clients. Its international headquarters is in Miami, Florida, with additional offices in Warsaw, Poland, and Mexico City.