Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software helps businesses manage processes. Integrated applications enable them to manage the business and automate many back office functions. ERP software may integrate everything from product planning, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing — in a single database, application and user interface.
Two companies specialize in offering ERP software specifically for the pallet industry: Automated Machine Systems and Innovative Data Systems.
Both companies now offer web-based versions of their products. A web-based application essentially is a website that functions as a computer program. The user simply visits or logs onto a website to use it. An example of the difference would be Microsoft Word and Google Docs; Microsoft Word is a software program that is loaded onto a computer, while Google Docs is one of the Google suite of platforms that has the same type of tools to create and produce documents. One major difference is that computer programs store information and data on the user’s computer or a server; web-based platforms store information and data in the ‘cloud,’ on servers that are accessed via the Internet.
The article that follows includes information about the products offered by both companies as well as comments from some of their customers.
PalMate
PalMate ERP is the flagship offering of The PalMate Group, a part of Automated Machine Systems (AMS), which specializes in equipment for recycling and handling pallets and containers as well as software solutions for the pallet industry. It is being used on five continents and continues to evolve with the changing needs of businesses.
PalMate ERP has a number of features. Beginning with a sales order, it can create production and shipping schedules. Among other things, it tracks production costs, inventory, employee time and production. It can be used to issue purchase orders and it integrates with various accounting programs, like QuickBooks, and others, as well as programs for drawing or designing pallets.
PalDraw, the company’s first software offering, remains an easy-to-use pallet drawing program. Plant Floor puts recording of plant production closer to where the production occurs, freeing office staff to do administrative functions.
PalMate Portal is a simplified method for driver pick-ups and deliveries, reducing driver paperwork; drivers use the Internet for their routine processes.
PalQuote is the latest offering in the PalMate suite of software. It creates quotes for current prospective customers that can be readily tracked and updated to reflect changes in lumber prices or other costs. It integrates with PalMate ERP to efficiently create new customer accounts and sales orders.
The PalMate suite of products all are integrated, noted Kevan Grinwis, vice president of AMS. To put it another way, the individual programs “talk to each other and speak the same language,” he said.
“We are making constant improvements to all our products and roll out a major release three or four times a year,” said Kevan, with other updated versions in between. “We’re constantly adding new features to them. It’s a continuous process.”
AMS is increasingly making its PalMate suite of products available as web-based platforms, not software to be loaded on computers. Its flagship program, PalMate ERP, remains a Windows-based software program.
“Web-based applications are where the software market seems to be headed,” noted Grinwis, and the company’s new products going forward — including PalQuote, introduced just recently — will be web-based. “It’s a sales tool,” said Grinwis, referring to PalQuote, “and a lot of sales people are mobile.”
AMS first began developing custom software that led to PalDraw, then later introduced PalMate in 2005. PalMate ERP remains the company’s leading seller.
“PalMate is the ‘mother ship,’ “ said Grinwis. “It really becomes a hub to run your business.”
AMS also supplies some hardware, such as printers and scanners, although not “off the shelf” devices like tablets or computers.
More customers are making use of electronic tablets in their operations, noted Grinwis. The devices can run both web-based applications as well as desktop computer programs. “They can mount them easily to a forklift or put them in a production environment,” said Grinwis. “They can mount to forklifts attached with scanners and collect data that way…It’s super efficient if it loads the data to the PalMate ERP package in their office.”
Mitch Martin, owner of Northland Pallet in Hugo, Minnesota, has used PalMate for four years. “We bought it for placing orders and scheduling production,” said Mitch.
“Before we got PalMate, the whole system was done with spreadsheets, and it was a much more difficult process to put that together,” said Martin. “This puts everything together, and it’s worked real well for us.”
Northland has one facility and employs 65 people. It is mainly a pallet recycler, offering used pallets, remanufactured pallets, and ‘combo’ or combination pallets made of both used lumber and new lumber; new pallets account for only about 10% of production. The company also serves as a depot for PECO. It receives about 10 loads of PECO pallets per day and another 15-20 loads of other used pallets.
Northland Pallet produces a lot of remanufactured pallets and specialty pallets, and PalMate has helped with scheduling the production of these kinds of pallets and other custom or odd-size pallets. “In terms of the overall picture, the production manager…will know what loads are going out, what he needs to put into production,” and so forth.
That process “would take quite a bit longer” under the system using spreadsheets because it was more time-consuming.
Under the old method of dealing with customers, information from a phone call or email would be entered into a spreadsheet, but the information wasn’t in ‘real time.’ When the information is entered into PalMate, the dispatcher sees it right away and can respond.
“Our ability to service the customer has increased because of that,” he added.
The company expanded the use of PalMate for helping to schedule and manage dispatching for deliveries and pick-ups of loads of used pallets. “We didn’t plan on using it for trucking,” he said, but that was a benefit we were able to utilize, and that’s worked quite well for us.”
Pallets Inc., based in Fort Edward, New York, and with about 35 employees, implemented PalMate ERP in the spring of 2018. The company is using it for scheduling and tracking production and tracking costs. About 80% of production is new pallets.
“We had a lot of one-off type spreadsheets we were doing ourselves that were not integrated like PalMate is, and we wanted to get to that level,” said president and CEO Clint Binley.
PalMate “gives immediate feedback on jobs that we run or processes that we do, which obviously is important,” said Binley. The program breaks out costs for labor, management, how those costs relate to the company’s targets or expectations. “It tells different people different things depending on their level within the business.”
One benefit of using PalMate has been “lumping jobs together” and easier scheduling. “We’ll have longer runs of items than we’ve had in the past,” said Binley, which he acknowledged is more efficient. Another benefit has been improving evaluations of suppliers.
The transition to and integration of the new system was “a big learning curve,” Binley recalled. One reason, he noted, is because the program — like any similar software — relies on the data you input. “You need to get your hands dirty and your feet wet,” he explained, and enter the data so the program can compile it and analyze it. The program gives a picture of costs, for example, and part of the process of using the program is responding to those analytics and making adjustments in the business. “When you make mistakes, you have to realize those mistakes are sometimes embedded in data,” added Binley. “You have to understand that.”
“Overall,” he said, “it’s getting us on the track that we need to be on.”
Customer service from AMS “has been phenomenal,” added Binley.
He had this advice for a business thinking of investing in specialty software. “If it’s something that someone is considering, they definitely need it…It gives a new perspective on how to run your business, I will say that.
For more information or to set up a web-based software demonstration of PalMate and its suite of software applications, contact The PalMate Group by calling (866) 468-6382, by emailing solutions@ThePalMateGroup.com, or by visiting www.thepalmategroup.com.
Pallet-Track®
Innovative Data Systems offers a suite of programs under the Pallet-Track® name brand as well as certain hardware components used in information technology systems. The company offers a specialty program for pallet recyclers that tracks employee production as well as pallet repairs for a load of used pallets; it provides ‘real time’ tracking and employee accountability plus the capability to automatically transfer pallets into the correct stacker at the end of a pallet repair line.
The company’s wireless Pallet Mill and wireless Sawmill programs track costs, production, and employees in pallet assembly and recycling operations and mill operations to make pallet components; barcode labels and hand-held scanners are integrated with the programs to capture the data.
The company’s Mill Manager™ software tracks costs, production, purchases, compensation, production yields, efficiencies, waste and much more in pallet assembly, recycling operations, and sawmill operations; barcode labels, hand-held scanners, printers, kiosks and tablets are integrated with the programs to capture the data. Innovative Data Systems also offers Click-Draw, a pallet design program, and Time & Attendance systems.
In addition to providing software, Innovative Data also offers hand-held scanners, touch-screen kiosk systems, punch clocks, tablets, and other devices.
“More companies realize the time they are spending to track any type of data is just a waste,” said Alan Miceli, president of Innovative Data Systems. “Using a tablet, kiosk or even a computer workstation just simplifies the job and is much more accurate.”
Information technology increases accountability of employees, noted Miceli. “When people are not accountable, they don’t produce as much,” said Miceli. “When you have systems that make them accountable, production increases, and employees make fewer mistakes.”
More current and potential customers are moving toward electronic, paperless systems for certain functions, such as documentation for ordering, deliveries, and pick-ups. It streamlines operations, said Miceli, and there is no lost paperwork.
Using multiple spreadsheet files and manually entering data “is just too cumbersome,” said Miceli. “Our systems capture data about production, inventory, sales orders, purchases and so much more in a convenient, economical package that is easy to use, and they enable you to analyze the data to make management decisions to improve efficiency in your business.”
Relatively new products include e-Signature, a program that allows collecting signatures electronically, and tablets. The tablet itself — not counting the software — costs $200. “It’s a really nice solution,” said Miceli. “It brings down the cost and allows you to do more so you become even more efficient.”
All of our electronic products, such as e-Signature, Online Ordering and e-PunchClock, are cloud-based systems that sync to programs that are running locally,” said Miceli. “These are enhancements to our Windows-based programs. It allows for simple, secure operation without any router configurations or worry about outside intrusions.”
The company has developed a native app for iPhone that has all the features of e-Signature plus the capability to take up to three photographs for each delivery or pick-up. If a driver is somewhere without Internet service, the system will sync when a connection is established later and upload the signature, pertinent documents, and the photographs. “We are currently developing the same app for Android devices,” said Miceli.
Tablets can be incorporated with a punch clock program for employees to use when they punch in and out of work. “It’s been a big hit,” said Miceli. “ It’s a low-cost time and attendance system that takes a picture of each person as they clock in or out.” Tablets allow businesses to have several points where their employees can clock in or out, reducing or eliminating lines at a traditional punch clock.
Outfeed tracking of production runs, available on the company’s kiosks and other systems, also is available for tablets. A journal function has been added, allowing employees to document halts in production for breaks, meetings, preventive maintenance, and other issues.
A new program for tablets also is available to scale a truckload based on cords of incoming logs to determine the volume of board feet of lumber it will yield, then track those logs through the mill.
Innovative Data Systems is developing more programs that will be available for use on a tablet “just because it works so well and people like it a lot,” said Miceli.
Greg Bowen, owner of Bo’s Pallets in Adairsville, Georgia, purchased the first program from Innovative Data Systems in 2001 and has been a continuous customer since then. His initial investment was in Pallet-Track and Click-Draw. “It’s all integrated,” noted Bowen.
“We just did a major expansion,” he said. The company added a second pallet repair line, and the information technology with Innovative Data Systems was expanded to accommodate the new line.
Greg’s company has two locations in Georgia about 170 miles apart. The Adairsville plant’s production is about 90 percent recycled pallets and 10 percent new; nearly 100 people work at the plant, which handles about 2 million pallets annually. The other plant, in McIntyre, produces mainly new pallets.
“One of the things Alan did for us…We need to know what we’re getting from each (core) supplier and know it on the floor,” said Bowen. Miceli’s company developed another barcode that identifies what company supplied a given pallet.
The Adairsville plant has 16 repair tables. Bowen could have 16 people working on pallets from 16 different trailers, and Pallet-Track would keep up with each load. The software program tallies the production of the workers so they are paid correctly, and it also tallies pallets from suppliers so they are compensated properly. All it takes is for the forklift driver to put one barcode label on the first stack of pallets that comes off the trailer.
“Nothing is counted by hand,” said Bowen, except for the contents of one trailer each day in order to have a base line.
“If I get into a bidding war for a (core) supplier, I know exactly how far I can go and still make money,” said Bowen. “We know all our costs.” He pays core suppliers for 100 percent of the pallets his company can sell, even if they need refurbishing. “No guesswork. No fudging. It’s all done by computer. They get a print-out. So we know our exact cost.”
“It’s a very user-friendly program,” said Meridy Wright, the company’s chief operating officer. “The computer does all the thinking. I just click and choose.”
The company also uses Innovative Data Systems e-Signature technology, and truck drivers are equipped with the tablets from Innovative Data Systems. “It has made a huge difference in driver hours because they know all the loads for the day with the trailer number, address, and so on,” said Wright. “It also lets us know the customer is getting what they want and when they want it.”
Gary Donadio, owner of Power Pallet in Amsterdam, New York, purchased the Mill Manager program from Innovative Data Systems about three years ago. “We go to Mill Manager so we can track our inbound pallets coming in,” said Donadio, whose core business is recycling pallets. The program helps the company track what it receives from each core supplier as well as employee production.
“The system has been good,” said Donadio. “It’s given us information that’s been very helpful in determining profitability on accounts. It gives us the ability to go back to customers, show them what they’re getting and why there may be a charge on the load — so they fully understand the material they’re sending us. So it’s been a great tool for us.”
Power Pallet, with about 140 employees and located about 30 miles east of Albany, also makes a large volume of custom new, recycled and ‘combo’ pallets.
“Alan’s product has been very good,” said Donadio. “He’s been very supportive for everything we need. He’s very responsible. We’re very happy with the system.”
For more information about Pallet-Track, call (631) 244-0069, email info@pallettrack.com, or visit www.pallettrack.com. Innovative Data Systems can demonstrate its products via a web-based presentation.
