FISHBOWL MANUFACTURING® DELIVERS POWERFUL SOLUTION TO ELECTRONIC DEVICE SUPPLIER ARROWHEAD ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE
Along with other electronic companies such as AMD, Arrowhead has called Austin, Texas their home. Arrowhead became a Fishbowl customer in April of 2006. With Fishbowl, Arrowhead quickly realized how much control they had over their inventory and how easy it would be to track inventory that they’ve already shipped.
Business Challenges & Needs
Arrowhead had problems keeping track of customer shipments with their respective serial numbered merchandise, specifically to where and exactly when it was shipped. They also had problems keeping track of inventory consumed within their own company. Currently, their business model consists of leasing PDA’s to customers with their in-house software on it. At any given time, they need to know who has what part and when it was shipped. Before Fishbowl, they were using homemade excel spreadsheets and a long string of paper trails to keep track of this important information. Subsequently, the process was prone to human error and also cumbersome. Arrowhead needed an inventory management program to solve their inventory crisis.
The Solution
Fishbowl was brought to their attention through QuickBooks. They researched many other software packages and found Fishbowl to be the most intuitive and robust package for their money. They liked the solution of Quickbooks integrated into an effective inventory management program. They now use the Bill of Materials feature to help their kitting process in order to ensure each box is sent to the proper customer with the correct serialized parts. They can easily use the Auto Work Order feature to see what kits they need to put together and when they need to be done. This process has streamlined their work flow and allowed them to cut down on extra costs. Arrowhead is very dependent on various reports to give them the detail they need to track who has been sent what serialized parts – customer and clinic. With Fishbowl, they can now view real time inventory and know, in an instant, which parts are in which locations.
The Results
After implementing Fishbowl and going live with the inventory management program, they quickly noticed how easy it is to see exactly where every part in their inventory is and how long it has been there. They were also able to quickly pull reports to see what serialized parts went into each assembled kit and when. Fishbowl also helps Arrowhead keep unauthorized employees out of QuickBooks. The accountants are happier and, in turn, the whole company has arrived at its next level in growth.
