ERP Case Study

Yuengling & Son

Location Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Solution Deacom ERP

Industry Food and Beverage

Deacom ERP

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Yuengling & Son USA Case Study by DEACOM ERP

The Company: About Yuengling & Son

Based in Pottsville, PA, D. G. Yuengling & Son, America’s Oldest Brewery, is family-owned and operated since 1829. Yuengling produces about 2.5 million barrels annually, operating two Pennsylvania facilities, and a brewery in Tampa, Florida. Principal beer brands include Traditional Lager, Light Lager, Premium, Light, Black & Tan, Dark Brewed Porter, and Lord Chesterfield Ale.

The Situation: Rapid Growth

Over the past ten years, Yuengling has experienced such rapid growth that they have had to make significant changes to key systems in order to keep up with demand. They recognized that the disparate, outdated Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) systems in place at their facilities in PA and FL were hindering their ability to successfully expand their distribution. These incompatible systems were causing duplication of processes, limitations to data access, and an inability to generate effective and accurate reports. Significant manual data entry was required, resulting in a high risk of human error and a lack of confidence in their data. In addition, the systems were used primarily for accounting, order entry, and invoicing, and did not incorporate the operations side of the business, sales & marketing, point-of-sale, or gift shop sales. Yuengling recognized their need for a centralized system that would integrate all departments across each brewery. Streamlining their processes for greater efficiency across plants and having simple, standardized functions to effectively cross-train employees, were high on their list of priorities.

Additionally, they required cross-facility invoicing functionality to ensure correct financial reporting, and a high level of security to allow all users access to the same system while also restricting their level of visibility.

The Solution: Deacom ERP

An internal team of senior executives, IT professionals, and representation from various departments within Yuengling evaluated the company’s requirements and narrowed their prospective vendor list to Microsoft NAV and DEACOM ERP. After a thorough qualifying process, they determined that Microsoft NAV did not have the process manufacturing functionality they needed without a large degree of customization.

DEACOM, the only ERP on the market to offer all required functionality for process manufacturing companies without third-party bolt-ons and customizations, stood out due to its simplicity and ease of use. As many of the Yuengling users were not accustomed to using ERP regularly, these were important requirements. In addition, Yuengling placed a high value on the working relationship with their ERP provider and felt that Deacom’s business model and commitment to simplicity lent itself to high-quality implementation and ongoing support.

The Results: Deacom ERP Implementation Benefits

Yuengling looked to Deacom to provide an experienced perspective on how to streamline system variances between facilities. Deacom’s decision to stagger the implementations per department helped manage the workload for the client. When deciphering the level of complexity of their cross-facility transactions presented challenges, the Deacom team promptly addressed the issues and worked closely with the users at both facilities to help them through the transition.

From a development point of view, Deacom’s core principle is that all users have the same code base and no customizations. For Yuengling, this meant that they were able to take advantage of enhancements put in place for other companies in different industries to improve their processes and that we worked closely with their team to enhance the base code of DEACOM to fit their unique processes. This is one way Deacom improves the solution without creating bloated, cumbersome software.

“We look at each implementation as a way to increase our customer’s best practices and for us to also improve our best practices for future implementations. I think with Yuengling we did a lot of both.”, said Deacom Implementation Manager, Todd Shilhanek. Wendy Yuengling-Baker, Yuengling’s Administrator said, “Despite the numerous issues a significant overhaul of processes could present, the implementation went very smoothly. We had no major issues during the go-live phase or on Day 1. Deacom implementation specialists were onsite in both our Pennsylvania and Florida locations, which helped tremendously with the transition.”

With DEACOM ERP in place, Yuengling has had significantly better tracking of data required for reporting. The system has the capability to capture information at a level that was previously unattainable. “DEACOM has simplified our business reporting processes, particularly for state reports that we are required to submit on a monthly basis,” said Yuengling-Baker. “Additionally, the EDI import process, used for order services, gift shop web orders, and point of sale web orders, has eliminated the need for manual data entry.”

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