Fishbowl Inventory > Case Studies > Fishbowl® Helps Prince Michel Flow from Crisis Management to Informed Pricing, Production Planning, and Sales Fulfillment

Fishbowl® Helps Prince Michel Flow from Crisis Management to Informed Pricing, Production Planning, and Sales Fulfillment

Customer Company Size

SME

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Fishbowl Manufacturing

Tech Stack

QuickBooks

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems
Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Food & Beverage

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Procurement

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Prince Michel Vineyard & Winery is one of Virginia’s oldest and largest wine producers. Established in 1982, the company's headquarters contains a manufacturing facility as well as a retail tasting room and gift shop. On average, roughly 300,000 bottles of wine are produced annually. The company was purchased by the present owners in mid-2005. After two years of frustration with the information being presented by QuickBooks, in late 2007 the owners brought in a new chief financial officer (CFO) to address the situation.

The Challenge

Prince Michel Vineyard & Winery, one of Virginia’s oldest and largest wine producers, was facing significant challenges with its existing systems. The company was using QuickBooks, which was inadequate for their needs, particularly in managing multiple warehouses and bill of materials. The company was also facing procedural problems, such as all manufacturing inventories being expensed upon purchase, then looped back to cost of manufacture at a later date. This practice, along with other workarounds and estimates, resulted in meaningful financial statements but only months after the year was over. The company was also struggling with inventory accuracy, stockouts, and the inability to produce timely, accurate cost-to-manufacture information in-house.

The Solution

In early 2008, the company's new CFO issued a request for proposal to approximately 10 commercial software vendors. After reviewing the capabilities of various providers, it was determined that the right solution would be QuickBooks linked to Fishbowl Manufacturing. The bills of materials are constructed with a combination of inventoried items and standard overheads, thereby determining cost to manufacture as soon as the work is complete. The ability to use multiple warehouses, both physical and logical, has been perfect for improving inventory accuracy. Fishbowl was implemented without hiring a consultant and with relatively little training.

Operational Impact

With Fishbowl, through the application of reorder points, as well as the allocation of pending sales to inventory calculations, a reorder report is generated weekly to guide production planning.
With Fishbowl, product and customer margin reports are reviewed routinely and with confidence.
Fishbowl played a key role in moving Prince Michel from crisis management to informed pricing, production planning, and sales fulfillment.

Quantitative Benefit

Improve net income by 17% and cash flow by 40%
Save $25,000 annually by eliminating the need for outside accounting firm cost calculations
Reduce inventory adjustments from 12% to 2%
Save over $10,000 annually by decreasing stockouts from approximately twice monthly to non-existent
Reduce timeframe for cost to manufacture calculations from 6 months AFTER year-end to immediately upon manufacture and increase accuracy by more than 10%