INTERVIEW
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, distributors and manufacturers are facing unprecedented challenges. With experienced workers nearing retirement and labor shortages impacting nearly every sector, the pressure to achieve more with fewer resources is at an all-time high. The question on everyone’s mind is: How can businesses continue to maintain smooth operations and even enhance productivity without overburdening their teams?
This is where augmented intelligence comes into play—a technology that automates labor-intensive, rule-based processes while amplifying human expertise. But what exactly is the difference between artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence? While AI often focuses on fully automating tasks and making decisions independently of human input, augmented intelligence is designed to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. It acknowledges the value of human expertise and collaborates with it, enabling your team to focus on creative, strategic, and high-value work.
For industrial distributors and manufacturers, leveraging augmented intelligence can mean the difference between merely surviving and thriving in this challenging environment. By integrating these new technologies businesses can reduce costs, save time, and minimize errors, all while empowering their workforce to tackle more complex and impactful tasks.
Today, we’re diving into how this technology is revolutionizing the way businesses operate, making it easier to run by reducing costs, saving time, and minimizing errors. We’re joined by Todd Fischer, VP and CIO of Endries International who will share insights on how their organization has successfully integrated Infor RPA into their digital transformation journey, enabling them to thrive in this challenging environment.
Endries International is a premier global distributor specializing in fasteners, screws, nuts, bolts, and related C-class components. Endries has emerged as a key player in the distribution of industrial supplies, serving OEM manufacturers in a wide array of sectors such as industrial and agricultural equipment, commercial and residential refrigeration, and HVAC, and more. What started as a small family-run operation, Endries has scaled to a $500 million company by working with OEMs and manages over 750,000 SKUs for fasteners and related products. What sets Endries apart is their innovative vendor-managed inventory program that utilizes the latest industrial IoT technology to safeguard their customers’ production lines.
Endries International was recently chosen as a finalist in the Constellation Research SuperNova Awards program. This is the 14th year of the program which recognizes organizations, teams, and leaders who have triumphed over challenges to successfully implement disruptive technologies. The category the Endries project was nominated for is the “Future of Work: Employee Experience”. This recognizes organizations that view the workforce as a competitive asset and apply technologies to gain competitive advantage and improve employee effectiveness. VOTE for Endries through August 31, 2024. Go to: https://www.constellationr.com/events/supernova/2024
Todd Fischer | VP & CIO
INTERVIEW: Todd Fischer | VP & CIO | Endries International
Can you provide an overview of how Endries International has leveraged Infor’s Augmented Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technologies to enhance productivity and employee satisfaction?
[Todd Fischer] Endries international is using Infor’s robotic process automation (RPA) and Augmented Intelligence (AI) platforms to help make better decisions with faster response times. Working with Infor’s RPA and AI teams we identified several areas that we could get quick wins to understand what the technology could do for us and to demonstrate the capabilities to the rest of the organization. The goal was to help educate the organization on what the tools could do so they could help identify future projects. The first areas for RPA we targeted were inventory commitment forms (ICF), proof of delivery (POD) and order creation. Endries brings on large customers with a high number of SKU’s as well as several acquisitions per year. One of the big challenges is linking customer or acquired company’s parts back to Endries part numbers. Endries used AI to match parts based on systems history of abbreviations, attributes and description structure to increase hit rates.
How has the implementation of AI for parts matching and RPA for ICF management impacted your overall operational efficiency?
[Todd Fischer] AI part matching is reducing the amount of search time to identify parts from 10 to 50%. By increasing the ability to find a part also decreases the request for new part setup which can cause duplicate parts in the system or waste time of the Item Master Setup team having to look again for the part which in many cases they do find the part already exists. By automating the ICF process, we are able to fill out the form and send to our customers for signature and log it into our Infor document management system automatically. The system auto starts a workflow that will trigger a task to notify the sales teams the ICF is expiring so they can take action on any inventory still not consumed. By using RPA we eliminated the manual entry of the ICF’s completely freeing up time for our team to work on more important projects. The goal is to reduce slow and inactive products sitting on Endries’ shelfs by creating the automated follow-up, so the teams do miss the opportunity to sell the remaining inventory on the contract.
What challenges did you face during the initial stages of integrating AI and RPA into your existing systems, and how were they overcome?
[Todd Fischer] For both RPA and AI we started with projects that were very manageable in size and scope allowing us to move quickly through the process. With the support of Infor’s data scientists, we didn’t run into very many issues.
Could you elaborate on the specific benefits your employees have experienced from the automation of routine tasks?
[Todd Fischer] The biggest benefit is freeing up time to work on things that benefit our customers and Endries.
How has the use of AI in parts matching influenced your customer relationships and win rates for new business?
[Todd Fischer] Increasing the turnaround time on large quotes is extremely important and there are two main areas that slow us down. By reducing the time to match parts by up to 50% and to have the system automatically determine cost with AI algorithms we believe we can import our success rate by 30%.
What role has Infor’s Augmented Intelligence Service played in your AI implementation strategy, and what is your long-term vision with use of the technology?
[Todd Fischer] AI is a very complex and newer technology that can be difficult to incorporate into every day business processes. Endries also did not have a staff of data scientists, that’s where Infor’s offering became very attractive. The AI technology is integrated with their systems, and they also have the data scientists. We are able to have short weekly meetings and Infor builds the models and integrations through a subscription service to specifically meet our needs.
Can you share any success stories or feedback from your team regarding the recent AI and RPA implementations? [Todd Fischer]
Endries has unique relationships with our customers, and we manage products for our customers in many ways. Our accounting team manages orders through spreadsheets that come via email, web pages and from files with different formats. We were able to create an RPA process in hours to automatically format the files and create orders in our ERP which freed up 1 full time employee on the team. Once accounting saw the benefit and understood what the tools could do, the began to identify additional areas where RPA can save time. The same thing occurred with our operations teams. We now have lists of potential improvements for Endries.
About Endries International
Delivering innovative OEM fastener solutions for 50 years. Endries was established as a family-owned fastener distributor based out of Northeastern Wisconsin. For 50 years, Endries has worked with original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) and has built our business around supporting manufacturers.
Today, Endries manages over 500,000 SKU’s, including various fasteners and related production components for operations around the world.
From small privately held shops to multi-site manufacturers, Endries makes it easier for businesses of every size to focus on what they do best. Our sourcing and supply program throughout North America, Europe and Asia, coupled with our fulfillment solutions, allow our customers to succeed, without having to worry about the small but important products that are necessary to their operation. Website: Endries.com
Vote for Endries International Finalist in the 14th Annual Constellation SuperNova Awards.
Deadline for voting is August 31, 2024. Cast Your Vote Here:
Vote For Endries Now
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Endries International Finalist in 14th Annual Constellation SuperNova Awards
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