Mono Container (Autobar Group)

Mono Container is a division of Autobar Packaging, a London-based company that manufactures rigid and flexible packaging for industries such as dairy and vending. Mono Container is located in Durham, UK and employs more than 300 people in manufacturing. The division markets its products to more than 800 customers in England and a dozen other western European countries. Its products include cream and yogurt containers.

The Challenge:
Mono averages about 25 truck shipments a day, often with multiple customers' orders on each truck. With packing lists, invoices, order acknowledgements, remittance advices, and other forms, Mono prepares several thousand documents weekly. Managing these numerous documents is a key business challenge.

"With the previous forms-bound system, I was forever sitting in front of the server," says Gilda Dyson, Senior Systems Technician for Mono Container. "It would lose Internet Protocol addresses as well as printer-output addresses. We often had to re-start the processes. At least twice a week we had to take the server down because it lost settings."

The Solution:
Mono recently installed the Output Management (Confirm) solution - which generates trade documents and confirms transactions - to escape from the woes of their troubled form-bound application. Output Management was installed after Autobar decided to make the solution standard for the entire corporation. Dyson says that the installation went "very smoothly". Output Management runs on an NT server and about 50 employees use the system daily - from customer service to the warehouse.

The Benefits:
Since installing Output Management (Confirm), Mono can now follow a transaction through every stage, from order entry to invoicing. "It no longer disappears into a black hole," Dyson says. Another productivity gain-Mono can now put the delivery number on invoices, and place LOT numbers on picking slips. This improves accuracy and tracking capabilities and further enhances customer service for Mono. With Output Management, Mono can automatically generate checks, purchase orders, invoices, picking lists, credit notes, packing lists, order acknowledgements, and more.

A key advantage of the system is the ability to customize forms. Output Management (Confirm) allows Mono to design the format of documents to meet their own unique business requirements. Another benefit is that invoices now can be prepared in the currency of the nation where products are being shipped, further enhancing Mono's customer service, as well as expediting payments. Previously, invoices had to be produced in British Pounds Sterling only.

In addition, Mono no longer has to use pre-printed forms, which is a big cost savings. Changes, for example, can be updated right in the system, ensuring that forms are up-to-date and accurate at the point in time that they have been generated.

"Our previous system was forms-oriented. Now, we have a system that is more user-friendly" Dyson says. "For example, if we needed to reprint an invoice, we had to go through the software application, which was time consuming. Now with Output Management (Confirm), we can go into the server, see the invoice, and click on Re-Print."

"Mono's customer service team is also very comfortable with the flexible system," Dyson says. "When they input an order, an acknowledgement appears instantly - a new feature which saves them time and improves their responsiveness to the customer."

The Bottom Line:
Output Management (Confirm) just sits there and runs. "It's like heaven," says Dyson. She summarizes the overall benefits of Output Management as "...ease of use, excellent audit trails, and simply more sophisticated than our previous system with many more features and added functionality. And those are pretty compelling benefits for any manufacturer."