Press Releases

24 April 2001, Hampton, NH (USA) — Hella Inc., one of the largest after-market sales companies for automotive lighting and electrical technology supplies for North America and Canada, has recently purchased VISUAL DCMS^™ , Lilly Software Associates’ comprehensive Warehouse Management System (WMS).

Hella Inc., located in Peachtree City, Georgia, is the main distribution center for Hella in North America, a division of Hella KG Hueck & Co. Hella is one of the world’s largest and oldest suppliers of lighting products and its customers include most of the major automotive manufacturers in the world. Keeping customer satisfaction in mind, the North American distribution center outlined specific system requirements when it decided to purchase a WMS to manage its inventory.

Sallye Stockbridge, Warehouse and Assembly Operations Manager, was directly involved with the search for Hella’s warehouse solution. “I looked at over 200 systems in 14 months. We were using a manual system and we wanted something that would automate shipping and receiving, reducing redundant data entry and human error,” ex­plains Stockbridge. “We needed an application to integrate with our current ERP—a solution that included radio frequency capabilities that could expand with our needs over time. Pricing a­­­nd components were similar among our final product choices, but the deciding factor for selecting Lilly Software as our provider was flexibility. VISUAL DCMS allows us to tailor part number SKUs individually and is flexible enough to meet our specific high volume needs.”

VISUAL DCMS is part of Lilly Software’s VISUAL Distribution^® product line, which helps companies optimize their warehouse operations. It offers execution-based management tools, real-time data collection, and relational database technology that allows companies to manage inventory throughout the entire distribution cycle. VISUAL DCMS integrates with the Enterprise portion of VISUAL Distribution to form a complete end-to-end supply chain solution, or it can be used as a stand alone system in conjunction with other ERP systems.

“Hella selected VISUAL DCMS for several reasons, including its ease of implementation and its ability to manage kitting and value-added services, as well as the system’s detailed transaction history and production reports capabilities,” says Stan Chew, Vice President, Distribution Products Division for Lilly Software Associates. “Hella is a premier supplier for the automotive industry and must meet strict standards for production and delivery. The tools in VISUAL DCMS will help the company automate tasks and allow them to adhere to these standards.”

Automating their distribution center operations with Teklogixâ Radio Frequency (RF) scanners will be one of Hella’s biggest benefits from implementing VISUAL DCMS. Currently, Hella employees must individually count and label hundreds of part numbers for each shipment. With RF scan guns, the time for this task will decrease significantly from days to hours, and the company expects to see improvements in inventory accuracy and employee performance.

Hella began implementing on January 23rd and is pleased with Lilly Software’s current support services. “Our implementation is going very well and we expect to go live by June 1st, if not sooner,” says Stockbridge.

About Lilly Software Associates

Lilly Software Associates, Inc. provides a complete line of enterprise and supply chain solutions for manufacturers and distributors. The VISUAL Enterprise™ suite of products helps companies capture and analyze real-time data about all their business processes using ERP, Project Management, Business Performance Management, Quality Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Warehouse Management System capabilities. From award-winning software to strategies in Lean Manufacturing and TOC, Lilly Software offers companies the tools they need for higher productivity and profitability.

Most VISUAL^® applications run on Windows^® 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, UNIX^®, LINUX, Novell^®, using SQLBase^®, Microsoft SQL Server^®, or ORACLE^® relational databases.

Lilly Software has received many industry awards for its products, service, and financial growth since its inception. Most recently, the company has been voted one of the Top 10 Best of Breed solutions for manufacturing by readers of Consumer Goods Technology, listed in Software Magazine's Top 500, selected as a Top 100 Logistics Information Technology Provider in Inbound Logistics, listed in the Top 100 Application Vendors in Supply Chain e-Business, included in MSI's Top 100 for its eighth year, and ranked as one of Start magazine's Hottest Companies.