Safeway Water is a trusted name in water treatment, manufacturing everything from home filtration systems to large-scale commercial units. With a growing demand for customized solutions, they needed a more efficient way to manage inventory, track components, and streamline production.  

By implementing Fishbowl Advanced, Safeway Water enhanced efficiency, improved cost tracking, and positioned itself for continued success in delivering high-quality water treatment solutions to its customers.  

The Challenge

As Safeway Water grew, so did the complexity of managing its inventory and production processes. With a diverse range of water treatment systems and custom build requirements, their existing methods couldn’t keep up.  

Tracking components, estimating costs, and managing inventory efficiently became increasingly difficult, leading to manual workarounds, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities to optimize operations. 

Without a centralized system, pricing adjustments were unmanageable, serial number tracking was disconnected, and forecasting inventory demands was more guesswork than strategy.  

Safeway Water needed a smarter, more integrated solution to scale effectively and bring accuracy, efficiency, and real-time visibility to its operations. 

The Solution

To solve these challenges, Safeway Water turned to Fishbowl, implementing its advanced inventory and manufacturing management tools. As part of this transformation, the company transitioned from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online integrated with Fishbowl, gaining the advanced inventory and manufacturing capabilities needed to scale effectively. Safeway Water also worked closely with VARC Solutions to ensure a seamless selection and implementation process.

Some of those key improvements included: 

  • Better Build Management – Standardized Bill of Materials (BOM) processes to manage custom configurations more effectively. 
  • Improved Serial Number Tracking – Enabled full traceability from production to customer delivery, making returns and warranty management easier. 
  • More Accurate Costing & Quoting – Reduced manual calculations and improved pricing transparency for custom orders. 
  • AI-Driven Forecasting – Opened discussions on using Fishbowl’s AI Insights to improve purchasing decisions and demand planning. 
  • Custom Reporting & Training – Worked with Fishbowl’s team to refine reporting capabilities and maximize system efficiency. 

“We need to know what we have and where it’s going. Fishbowl is helping us move toward that. With better tracking for materials and production, we’re streamlining custom builds and improving operational efficiency.” – John Schank, Operations Manager, Safeway Water 

The Results

Since implementing Fishbowl, Safeway Water has seen measurable improvements in its day-to-day operations: 

  • Stronger Inventory Control – Improved tracking and management of parts, reducing errors and inefficiencies. 
  • More Efficient Custom Builds – Streamlined processes for configuring and adjusting product specifications on the fly. 
  • Better Traceability – Serial number tracking ensures full visibility into product history, helping with quality control and customer support. 
  • Scalability & Future Readiness – The company is now positioned to explore AI-driven forecasting and automation for even greater efficiency. 

“We were spending too much time manually adjusting pricing and tracking inventory changes. Fishbowl is giving us the visibility we need to make smarter cost decisions and scale efficiently as our operations grow.” – Will Dodson, General Manager, Safeway Water 

Safeway Water has transformed its operations, eliminating bottlenecks and improving visibility across production and inventory. By replacing outdated processes with a modern, integrated system, they are now more agile, efficient, and ready for long-term success in the water treatment industry.