Special orders your specialty? Ponderosa Software is the industry’s best software for one-step and two-step distributors, and other LBM businesses that want to increase sales, improve efficiency, and sell manufactured products at the highest margin possible.
From a convenient web portal for configuring and ordering products 24/7, to purpose-built tools that provide an accurate P&L for your manufacturing facilities, Ponderosa is the only software that provides the four ‘must haves’ for millwork sales and production:
- WEB-BASED SALES PORTAL
Give your customers and sales reps a faster, more efficient and more convenient way to order millwork products. Available 24/7 on any mobile device, Ponderosa’s web-based Sales Portal, fully branded to your business, streamlines ordering and customer service and increases sales.
Interested in an entry door system? Customers simply select their desired door style, sidelights, transom, exterior trim and other options, view their costs and unique pricing, and place orders without having to wait for anyone in customer service or the sales department! Elegant visual effects and appealing graphics gets customers excited about the beauty of their selections, making them more likely to spend more on custom design elements they had not considered.
Products are built on the fly utilizing behind-the-scenes, rules-based decision trees. Based on the previous selections, only the logical choices for subcomponents are presented to the customer. By eliminating the possibility of selecting incorrect components and errors caused by re-keying, Ponderosa significantly reduces costly returns and re-builds.
2. MILLWORK PRODUCT CONFIGURATOR
Ponderosa’s intuitive, industry-best Product Configurator simplifies production ordering, minimizes errors and significantly reduces manufacturing time for built-up interior and exterior doors, window units, stair systems, moulding, and any other building material that is manufactured, remanufactured or assembled.
Easily design, cost and price products ‘on the fly’ without having to manage unwieldy kits or bills of material, allocate inventory from the integrated warehouse management system (WMS), schedule assembly time and track labor associated with the order – all with the customer on the phone.
Build up products utilizing background, table-based systems that, like the sales portal, display only the logical choices for subcomponents based on the previous selection. This eliminates the possibility of incorrect components being selected.
Manufacturing companies know that if the cost of a subcomponent changes, it can make substitutions difficult. Do you know, for example, how many of those items were sold at the wrong cost? Ponderosa eliminates the need to re-cost manual components, freeing more time for your sales staff to take more orders. If the new cost is not available when the price is entered, the customer order is automatically updated when the correct cost is added to the PO, and your staff is alerted so it is invoiced at the proper margin.
3. STREAMLINED MILLWORK PLANNING & PRODUCTION
If your production is not tightly integrated with your ERP software, you are potentially leaking money every day.
Ponderosa provides a production schedule for each production department and helps increase on-time and complete shipments with a convenient Production Review screen that displays the real-time status of every production order (i.e., on hold, production OK to proceed, etc.) as it moves throughout the assembly and pre-finishing process. The system also tracks the time for each task, labor costs and component usage to reduce the need to overstock components.
Forecast planned production, schedule assembly time based on available resources and other commitments, and easily consolidate like orders to optimize production line and work center routing with optional bar code scanning for standard vs. actual cost comparisons.
With Ponderosa, you will always know if you have similar units already in stock and where they are — and be able to accurately account for substitutions made during the production process.
Many of our clients have been able to eliminate aspects of their production that were being done for free because there was no easy way to track labor accurately with their legacy software.
4. SEAMLESS INTEGRATION WITH MANUFACTURERS’ ORDERING PORTALS
Ponderosa works seamlessly with 45 of the major manufacturers’ online ordering portals, including Andersen® and Masonite®. These direct interfaces pull data from these systems into Ponderosa’s Sales Order Entry module. Then, with the click of a button, the software creates a Production Order, Purchase Order — for any required products or materials to complete the job — and the final customer invoice. Easy as one, two, three. No more double entry, incomplete shipments, costly errors and unhappy customers.
Get the Level of Manufacturing Control You Need
Ponderosa, from CAI Software, offers the level of production control, manufacturing visibility and customer service capabilities that millwork businesses need, and that traditional LBM software based on legacy point-of-sale and kitting solutions just cannot offer.
Ready to learn more?
Contact Pat Gannon at (800) 422-4782 or [email protected] to schedule a web demo.