Stock entered late
New lumber reached Macola only after kiln drying, which takes days to weeks.
Acumatica Manufacturing Case Study
How Sheoga Hardwood Flooring replaced Macola, its system for more than 20 years, with Acumatica Manufacturing Edition.
About Sheoga
Sheoga buys green timber from timber companies within 150 miles, dries it in its own kilns and mills it into custom solid and engineered hardwood flooring. Dealers, distributors and contractors carry its floors, and end customers can buy at the on-site showroom. The 42-year-old company grew out of Hardwood Lumber, and its mill scrap fuels the boilers that heat its buildings and run the kilns.
The Challenge
For more than 20 years Sheoga ran on Macola, hosted on its own servers, with a separate application called YardMaster for incoming green lumber. As the company grew, Macola crashed often, orders were hard to track and inventory was never current.
Material was not consumed until an order was invoiced, so sales worked from outdated stock lists and sometimes sold flooring that was already committed. Production tickets were handwritten and carried to the shop, and the office could not see an order again until the shop said it was done. Reports meant several exports, combined by hand.
Sheoga needed accurate, live inventory and a clear view of where every order stood.
New lumber reached Macola only after kiln drying, which takes days to weeks.
Production orders went to the shop on handwritten tickets, and some got lost.
Setting up each custom item in Macola took a few hours, starting from a template.
Reps around the country had no Macola access and relied on calls from the office.
The Solution
Sheoga evaluated Sage One, Oracle NetSuite, Acumatica and other ERPs. After the demos, its executives chose Acumatica Manufacturing Edition for its ease of use, its flexibility and its inventory management.
Lumber now enters Acumatica as soon as boards are ripped into blanks. Sales sees new stock sooner, without waiting for the inventory lists the office used to send several times a week. Inventory on the shop floor is about 40% lower than two years before.
Wood type, grade, solid or engineered construction, widths from 2¼ to 11¼ inches and finishes are preloaded, so sales picks options from menus and gets the price. Rules block combinations Sheoga does not offer. Sales builds quotes on its own, where each new item once took a few hours to set up.
An approved quote becomes a bill of material automatically, and the items are reserved in inventory for that order. The BOM tells the shop the exact wood, finish and lengths, and its data helps the team forecast material needs and plan purchases. The same inventory can no longer be sold twice.
Sheoga set up a formal shop process in Acumatica, and each production step is reported as it happens. Scheduling and engineering that passed through several people now run through one. Two office staff moved to other duties because workflows replaced their paperwork.
The CFO pulls his own reports, uses prebuilt and custom dashboards, and closes months faster from anywhere. Bills are attached by drag and drop, and invoices go to customers from inside the system. A customer aging takes two clicks instead of a few minutes.
The Result
Sheoga reports production is up from where it was a couple of years earlier, and it is now rolling out Acumatica CRM and improving its shipping processes. Its sister company, Hardwood Lumber, is deploying Acumatica too.
Live stock levels and configured quotes without calling the office.
Bills of material up front and order status reported at each step.
Stock recorded before kiln drying, with 40% less on the shop floor.
Self-serve reports, a faster month-end close and paperless AP and AR.