RICH ART
Batch Manufacturing Software Gives A Fast-Growth Art & Paint Manufacturer Financial Transparency
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Rich Art, which has been a colorful part of people’s lives since 1926, gives artists of all ages the opportunity to express their creativity with paints and art supplies that are made in the U.S.
- 200+ SKUs – paints (acrylic; tempera; washable finger tempera, glitter and metallic), glues, poster and window markers
- 25+ raw materials
- 100+ national retailers (Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Hobby Lobby, Family Dollar, Michaels, Dollar Tree
- 500+ million units shipped annually
- 65,000 sq. ft. plant/warehouse
SOLUTION
Mar-Kov Batch Control & Inventory Management Software
CHALLENGES
- Manage fast growth with retail POS software, Excel
- Manually enter, pull & filter data for spreadsheets & reports
- Non-integrated, decentralized data (inventory, production, orders, shipping)
- Time/labor intensive manual data entry & handling
RESULTS
- 6-month ROI
- Effectively manages rapid growth with existing staff
- Eliminated the need to fill 1 position
- 75% less raw material inventory
- Improved productivity & efficiency
- Manage, track, schedule, plan & forecast (raw materials, finished goods, orders, shipping)
- Instant, effortless standard & custom reports
- Centralized, automated data integrated with financial system
Across the U.S., people of all ages want more color and creativity in their lives and Rich Art gets the financial transparency that supports its rapid growth with Mar-Kov’s batch control and inventory management software.
“We needed Mar-Kov to effectively and successfully manage our growth – Mar-Kov has saved us at least one entire position – company-wide, we’re all saving time and as you know, time is money,” says Marc Jennings, CEO, Rich Art. “Business was good for Rich Art though the pandemic and it’s even better today!”
Marc and COO Charlie Generelli knew it was time to replace their retail POS (orders, sales) and Excel (raw materials, finished goods, production, shipping) with a single, centralized, automated software.
The volume of data created during and after the pandemic was too much for Rich Art employees who had to enter, find, compile and manipulate it. The fact Excel and the retail POS weren’t integrated with Rich Art’s financial system further exacerbated the challenge.
“Mar-Kov had the critical batch control and manufacturing capabilities in its DNA and did almost everything we needed right out-of-the-box,” says Charlie, who like Marc had worked with ERPs like SAP at private and public firms. “Mar-Kov didn’t need that much customization and it was a lot faster and more affordable to buy and customize for Rich Art than any enterprise system.”
Marc Jennings
CEO
Rich Art
Automate Routine, Repetitive Tasks
With Mar-Kov, employees can focus exclusively on managing the business and daily operations because the software handles the routine, repetitive tasks for them, including data entry and reports. Employees have instant, effortless access to Mar-Kov’s automated, centralized database and custom and standard dashboards and reports.
“Mar-Kov delivered a clear, positive ROI,” says Marc. “With Mar-Kov, our financial analysts, production managers and sales team are running Rich Art rather than looking for the data and hammering out huge, very unwieldy Excel spreadsheets.”
On a daily and weekly basis, the executive, sales, marketing, purchasing and production teams use Mar-Kov’s dashboards and reports to run Rich Art’s operations.
With Mar-Kov, the various departments’ data is linked and shared with Rich Art’s financial system. Orders and finished products are assessed and linked to raw material inventory and then production and shipping schedules. With that information, Rich Art can now hold 1 to 2 weeks of raw materials down from 8 weeks. Material costs and finished product prices as well as sales are analyzed to improve purchasing, adjust pricing and finetune the product mix.
Mar-Kov makes it easy to find and update formulations and manage different recipes for each product. If a raw material is unavailable, Rich Art’s technical director uses Mar-Kov to find a recipe that uses a different ingredient to produce the same end product.
Dig Deeper with Data & Dashboards
Rich Art uses the accurate, real-time facts in Mar-Kov dashboards and reports to see the business realities that need to be addressed. For example, employees can monitor and compare the production rate shift to shift to assess efficiency and productivity. For example, if the same crew used the identical equipment to produce more finished product on Monday and less on Friday, managers need to figure out why. Did machine downtime play a role? Does a machine need minor repairs or a quick tune-up? Was there a raw material shortage?
“Mar-Kov dashboards make it easier to see the story the data is telling us, then we have to look at all of the variables to figure out the root cause,” says Marc.
After just two years with Mar-Kov, super users like Rich Art’s production manager rely on it daily and know exactly what it can do for them. Rich Art worked with Mar-Kov to educate employees with group (video) and one-on-one training (virtual). As expected, employees that use Mar-Kov consistently and frequently are more comfortable with it. They know what it can do for them and how to use it efficiently and understand its capabilities.
“I couldn’t imagine life at Rich Art without Mar-Kov and neither could our employees – we run our business even better and more easily with Mar-Kov,” says Marc.
Cost Accounting to Make More $
“The cost accounting capability is the best part of Mar-Kov – we’re all in business to make money and understanding exactly what it costs to make the product helps with pricing,” says Charlie.
Owners, executives, management, sales, marketing and finance see the data that matters to them at a glance. It’s quick and easy to filter by date, time frame, margin and cost of goods sold. Employees at all levels have the information they need to easily plan purchasing, production and shipping, and manage costs, margins and the product mix.
In real time, they can see which raw materials are in stock, how much they have and when it arrived. They know what’s in production, what’s been packaged and whether it’s ready to ship. Once customers are invoiced, the invoices are sent directly to the financial system.
“Mar-Kov’s dashboards have been transformative for everyone at Rich Art,” says Marc. “Mar-Kov gives employees the ability to look at the data through the lens that is relevant to their role and department.”
