TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES

Headquartered near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit, self-supporting alternative trading organization (ATO) that provides sustainable, fair income to Third World artisans by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Since 1946, Ten Thousand Villages has dedicated itself to improving the economic conditions for artisans in third-world countries, and the revenue it generates helps pay for food, education, health care and housing.

With more than 70 retail stores across the United States and hundreds of active wholesale accounts, Ten Thousand Villages has realized significant growth. The organization found that it could not adequately manage its inventory of approximately 3,600 different items in one warehouse, and recognized the need for a fully automated warehouse management application
to bring its operations up to date.

Manual System Strains Inventory Control Processes

Burdened by a manual, paper-intensive system without the capability to access real-time data, Ten Thousand Villages found tracking inventory within its warehouse difficult and time-consuming. According to Chad Warfel, the organization’s inventory control accountant, “All receiving was performed manually, which slowed down the receiving process and subsequently caused many items to be placed into our warehouse without ever having been received. Without going through stacks of old purchase orders, it was impossible to tell if items had been received correctly.” Compounding the situation was the organization’s imminent plans to move overstock inventory to a large offsite location.

Domain Technology Group Implements Automated, Integrated System

In order to better manage its fast-growing inventory, Ten Thousand Villages chose to upgrade and expand its business systems to a virtually paperless and wireless environment. After evaluating several warehouse management software products, Ten Thousand Villages selected ACCPAC WMS, which provides advanced capabilities and easy integration to the organization’s existing ACCPAC Pro Series accounting system.

Limited by a manual, paper-intensive system without access to real-time data, Ten Thousand Villages® endured severe inefficiencies and inaccuracies in its inventory management. Plans to move overstock inventory to an offsite warehouse triggered the need for a fully automated, integrated system.

Domain Technology Group administered a highly complex, multi-phase implementation for Ten Thousand Villages with ACCPAC® at the core. ACCPAC Warehouse Management System™ (WMS), which integrates with the organization’s existing ACCPAC Pro Series™ accounting application, provides a virtually paperless and wireless system that is robust enough to effectively manage Ten Thousand Villages’ fast-growing inventory demands.

With ACCPAC WMS™, Ten Thousand Villages is benefiting from fully automated inventory management processes in its warehouses, along with instant access to real-time data, paperless item tracking and timely order fulfillment. Domain Technology Group’s professional project management skills throughout the system implementation have given Ten Thousand Villages significant control over its growing inventory.

ACCPAC Solution Provider Domain Technology Group, Inc. implemented the new system and devised a complete system infrastructure plan, including all hardware components. The requirements included cabling the building to ensure adequate access points for the wireless handheld devices; configuring the wireless devices for remote communications; installing an Intermec wireless RF system to support the handheld devices on the warehouse floor; developing a labeling scheme for the warehouse bin-numbering system; and printing labels for the entire warehouse.

With the new system in place, data moves smoothly throughout the modules and the organization has been able to shorten the physical inventory process from days to hours. “We have enjoyed a dramatic improvement in inventory tracking and accuracy and have become increasingly efficient, even as our inventory has grown significantly,” says Warfel. “ACCPAC WMS has required very little attention from our IT staff since it was installed. In fact, 99% of the time, it flat-out works without any IT intervention or massaging,” says Leonard Wolf, information technology manager at Ten Thousand Villages. “It’s great to have a reliable system in place that doesn’t need to be babied.

“Domain Technology Group successfully project-managed every phase of this complex implementation and met every target date in the project, often under severe time constraints. One of the reasons we chose to work with Domain Technology Group was the respect we had for their ACCPAC Pro Series knowledge and their understanding of our organization. Domain Technologies Group ensured that our implementation of ACCPAC WMS was a success.”

• Strategic IT plan
• Entire network installation
• Installation of warehouse management software
• Configuration of wireless and handheld applications