"Dentech found itself in the position of substantial growth coupled with new business acquisitions, at a time it had also outgrown its ERP system. After an exhaustive search, Dentech found just the ERP/SCM solution it required in FlexGen 4, to support our long-term business objectives for years into the future."

- Kel Lambright, CFO

Company:

Dentech Corporation designs, engineers and manufactures a complete line of dental chairs, units, stools, lights, factory installed options and Conex cabinetry to meet the total needs of today's dental offices. After more than 30 years of dental manufacturing, Dentech has an installed base of over 65,000 dental units, making it the second largest in the world. Dentech is based in Lynden, Washington with additional manufacturing facilities in Quebec and British Columbia, Canada.

Challenge:

"At a time of growth and increased technical enhancement to our broad product portfolio, Dentech needed to implement a multi-site ERP solution that could bring all of our operations together at a very challenging time," said Kel Lambright, CFO. "Dentech was launching new products, engineering changes and trying to better plan and execute its overall production control environment at a time it had to integrate three uniquely different manufacturing businesses."

Dentech manages a Kan Ban based final production process designed to aggressively drive costs out of production and manage inventory, carrying costs to a minimum level. To achieve business goals, however, Dentech needed to adopt other modes of production, including a pure job shop process, as all of the Dentech divisions came together. Rapid implementation, ease-of-use, flexibility and multiple company configurations were a must for Dentech to adapt to company changes, goals and to maintain its competitive position.

Solution:

Software 21 presented two versions of its ERP/SCM suite of adaptive enterprise software products and focused carefully on the configuration and process controls accompanying the multi-site implementation. FlexGen 4 successfully bridged both US and Canadian operations, including multi-currency reporting, supply chain, order management and demand planning, to bring total visibility, cohesiveness and efficiency to all manufacturing facilities.

In addition, Dentech required extensive engineering and design capabilities tied to production control and planning. Quality Assurance and compliance reporting also generated requirements of FlexGen 4 which were configured and successfully implemented.

Results:

	Achieved an inventory reduction of 78%, including corresponding reduction in warehouse and administration costs.
	Quality and compliance reporting is maintained at above 99%.
	Customer satisfaction and retention is at all time highs exceeding 94%.
	Dentech achieved its corporate consolidation and enterprise reporting and control objectives as required.
	FlexGen 4 allowed Dentech to implement a multi-mode group of diverse manufacturing companies within the implementation plan and budget.
	Dentech is now positioned to grow and expand its leading mix of dental products.