Remanufacturing is a large aspect of California Cascade’s business in their 20+ acre facility in Sacramento. Their state-of-the-art plant is fully equipped with everything needed to complete orders including re-sawing, planing, treating, moulding and kiln drying. As they grew and modernized, California Cascade needed a software system with industry-specific features to take their remanufacturing procedures to the next level and, in 2006, they began investigating their options.
“We looked at three or four lumber-specific inventory management software programs,” Semons explained. “For us, we do a lot of remanufacturing work, and Agility had the best functionality.”
The specific functionality of Agility, with the remanufacturing options, allows California Cascade to manage value added processes with ease. Agility has the resources to track each stage of the remanufacturing process, including expected completion dates and costs.
An Inventory Control Solution
A common issue in remanufacturing is inventory control. Agility solves this challenge by committing materials used in the process so that it is no longer available for sale, resulting in inventory that is true and up to date in real-time.
California Cascade has also seen productivity increase from the remanufacturing processes, especially because information is available in real-time. Detailed work orders contain an array of valuable customer and product information, as well as concise communication to production staff.
“We do a lot of remanufacturing, so we can watch material go through and there’s not a lot of hang ups,” Semons said. “We don’t have to wait for things to update at the end of the day to see what we have done. We know instantly what we must do to keep moving forward. “
According to Semons, running a more efficient operation has ultimately meant better customer service.
If we have customers calling for something,” said Semons, “we can look and instantly see if we have it. That’s been very helpful from a customer service aspect.”