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    and Platinum for Windows

Sierra Paints a More Profitable Picture with Sage PFW ERP and Platinum for Windows

CUSTOMER:Sierra Corporation
www.tkproduct.com

CORPORATE PROFILE
Headquarters:Minnetonka, Minnesota
Type of Business:Paint and coatings manufacturer
Number of Locations:One
Number of Employees:70

SYSTEM PROFILE
Operating System:Microsoft Windows 95 and 98
on Microsoft NT network
Users on System: 26
Sage PFW ERP Modules in Operation
. Costing
. Formulas
. Laboratory
. Materials/Inventory
. MSDS/Compliance
. Order Entry
. Production
. Purchasing
Platinum for Windows by Best
Modules in Operation
. Accounts Payable
. Accounts Receivable
. Bankbook
. Crystal Reports
. Customization Workbench
. FRx
. General Ledger

Under the sea, beneath beefy semi trucks, and baking out in the desert sun, you'll find Sierra Corporation's paints and coatings doing their work. Sierra manufactures custom paints, coatings and sealants for architectural and maintenance applications. One day its chemists might design a protective coating for marine bolts for an aluminum
substrate firm. The next day they could be developing a non-fade ultraviolet-resistant paint for lawn furniture.

Sierra Corporation's special-purpose formulations and speedy turnaround for customers have resulted in amazing growth. Today the company is more than four times its size a mere ten years ago. Industrial paints from its subsidiary, TK Products, are increasingly requested by customers nationwide.

THE CHALLENGE
More than 5,000 different raw material items jamming Sierra's inventory shelves are required by the chemists to formulate
10,000-plus finished products. For ten years the materials have been managed by BatchMaster, a comprehensive process manufacturing solution, and the company's business systems have been handled by Platinum for DOS. A year ago, Sierra decided to upgrade to Sage PFW ERP and Platinum for Windows for tighter integration between applications, a better user interface, Windows-based reporting features and access to multiple data input screens at once.

Nothing can compare with the capabilities of PFW and Sage PFW ERP teamed up together. Without them, our processes would be downright archaic - and our entire business would come to a standstill."
Adrianne Olson
Controller
Sierra Corporation

THE SOLUTION
"Sage PFW ERP is the workhorse for our daily operations," says Mike
Grivna, senior chemist. "All of our formulations are now done on computer, where we store data on raw materials and information on physical properties and characteristics. The system tells us
recommended pigment-to-binder ratios or volume concentrations, and then
calculates formulation parameters. This saves an enormous amount of time, and provides a more accurate product for customers."

Once a formula is created, Sage PFW ERP is used to check available inventory, size the batch for the ticket, issue a production ticket, and commit raw materials. It creates a batch ticket with instructions for mixing, filling and labeling. Then Sage PFW ERP automatically prepares material safety data sheets (MSDS) for each product shipped to a customer as required by law. The system updates the MSDS whenever a formula changes, a crucial timesaver given that Sierra has nearly 20,000 formulas. The SARA reporting module within Sage PFW ERP calculates SARA Tier II and III reports for compliance with federal OSHA mandates.

Sierra's chemists use Sage PFW ERP all day long to tweak individual formula ingredients and improve profitability. "Each paint represents a compromise between performance and cost," Grivna explains. "Our system lets us make adjustments to get every last dime out of our product without sacrificing quality."

After production is closed on a paint run, data flows directly into Inventory and is made available for Order Entry, which is the key to inventory management. Once the invoices are printed and posted, data is then moved into PFW for complete integration between Sage PFW ERP and PFW. "Before we had to hand-enter information from one system to another," says Adrianne Olson, Sierra's controller. "System integration has eliminated this task and cut our total order processing time
by about half. What we have now is a 100 percent improvement."

She says customer service is better now, too, because any information that representatives need is available at the touch of a button. "All of our data is tied together in one place," she notes. "We know which items are in stock, and can give customers accurate lead times, which helps secure ownership of our niche in the marketplace."

Olson and Grivna agree that the integrated system is central to the
company's continued success. "Nothing can compare with the capabilities of PFW and Sage PFW ERP teamed up together," Olson explains. "Without them, our processes would be downright archaic - and our entire business would come to a standstill."