Business Challenge
Solus Décor had discovered a niche in fireplace mantels that was being under served, filled the needs of that niche and grew. They evolved from being a custom shop exclusively, to being a manufacturer of products. This evolution was also a transition from a one or two person operation to a larger business – requiring more space more personnel, a dedicated sales team and the infrastructure to support it.
When Solus undertook this transition in 2002, Khai Foo, hired a consultant who developed a basic system for them. It was mostly used for customer relationship management and was sufficient for the time but within two or three years they outgrew it and understood – if they were going to grow their company into what they believed their potential to be – they needed a system that would have the capacity to handle more than just the sales end of their business.
The CRM system they had been using was built entirely from scratch. Gradually they began to realize that to get to the system they really needed, they could take one of two routes. They could either continue building onto what they had, from scratch but they knew that would require a substantial investment. Or, they could look for a system that had a lot of the elements they needed already built-in, and that could be further customized to meet all their needs.
It took most of another year to realize that they really had completely outgrown the system they were using and had an urgent need for a system that would capture their entire business. Khai set out to find a software solution that would provide 85% to 90% of what they’d ultimately need as a foundation on which to build the elements that would be customized to meet their unique needs. They wanted a system that would integrate all parts of their business, especially their production with the myriad of variables that involved.
The Solus Décor business is an almost entirely “made to order” business. Their product is an artisan, handmade product; every order is unique, each one configured differently. Their challenge was to capture the incredible volume of data related to their production in extreme detail, and integrate that process into all other aspects of their business, in order to automate their entire process successfully.
BC Solus Décor
Based in Vancouver, BC Solus Décor is a design and manufacturing studio committed to designing and crafting the world’s finest cast concrete products. In business since 1998, having started in the garage of one founder’s father, their fireplace mantels, fireplace surrounds, fire pits and tiles grace living rooms, lobbies and outdoor rooms across North America. With over a decade of experimentation and refinement, they have coaxed this humble material, hand-cast concrete, to its ultimate expression.
Their business and manufacturing practices reflect their philosophy of responsibility and sustainability. Whether a fireplace mantel, tile, fire pit or custom product, each concrete piece is cast and finished by hand in their Vancouver facility.
Solus began business as a 100% custom shop. Gradually over time they developed their product line. Their cast-to-order collection of contemporary concrete products offers a broad range of style and color options and includes:
• Fireplace mantels, surrounds, hearths
• Tiles for floors, walls and accents
• Fire pits and site furnishings
Their products are offered in 12 different colors. In 2008 Solus Décor completed approximately 500 different projects, ordered by 450 unique clients. Each project contains a combination of custom-built items and items from their product line that includes about 150 different pieces. In 2008, 300 of their 500 orders had some custom element in them.
Successful Solution
To begin, Ki Systems, Inc. worked very closely with Solus on the elements that required customization, beginning with production. Ki Systems took the time needed to completely understand the elements of Solus’s unique multi-step production process and all its requirements, which include: batching ingredients, mix recipes, custom forms, casting, allocation of labor, timing, scheduling, finishing, packing and shipping. There’s also a month of curing time in this process to account for as well. There’s such a large volume of data involved in each project.
Solus has an extreme need to know what stage every piece, of every project, is sitting at any given time during production. The KiBiz System enables Solus to schedule all of the production elements before hand. They can easily go in and access any aspect of any job and know, “where is this thing right now, what stage is it at and how long before it’s ready?”
To get a little deeper into production detail, just the mix recipes include multiple elements and multiple steps to achieve the desired color, texture, size, and finish. When a number of orders are in process, it wouldn’t make sense to make a color change and start a whole new fresh batch of concrete, so the KiBiz System batches jobs by ingredients, no matter what order the piece is from. Orders are assembled later in the process for packing. In this way Solus achieves the most efficient use of their manufacturing process.
Customer Benefits
Every major aspect of the business is integrated, from Contact Management and Sales Management, to Accounting to Production. Khai Foo describes the benefits of the KiBiz System for his company in the following ways. “Being able to pull all the disparate elements (of our business) together in some fashion and capture all our information in one integrated place is definitely a huge benefit and it’s a huge mental shift in terms of being able to not only organize the information but capture the idea of its integration. It’s a huge benefit to have that integration and conceptualize beyond it.”
This integration was made possible by KiBiz running on the sturdy foundation of FileMaker Server and flexibility of FileMaker Pro.
“Allen was really able to understand our process and he helped us to see how we could automate many of our functions. For years we operated our production and everything on a paper system. Through KiBiz we were able move beyond the paper system, I was able to envision how efficiencies could be gained, not only through the collection and organization of the data but I was also able to capture how the automation of various parts of our business was possible.”
“The KiBiz System with its administration of our production process and the ability it gives us to keep track of and not lose any information, with its contact management and sales side of things, not only saves us a huge amount of time, it has certainly improved our ability to do everything that we do. It literally tracks every little piece of information that’s required for us to effectively make this stuff… and make it on time and to specification.”
“With KiBiz we’ve automated our production, we’ve moved from the paper system to integrating our entire business. It allows us to do everything we do, better and in a much shorter time.”
“With KiBiz we’ve automated our production, we’ve moved from the paper system to integrating our entire business. It allows us to do everything we do, better and in a much shorter time.”
Khai Foo, Owner