When Wild Goose Filling decided to adopt a system to run as many aspects of operations as possible, they engaged with RSM to implement NetSuite.
By design, customization is central to Colorado-based beverage packaging company Wild Goose Filling‘s business. It’s what enables the company to make filling machines that craft beverage producers use to bottle and can everything from beer and kombucha to hard seltzers and specialized coffee drinks.
But Wild Goose’s highly customizable canning and bottling machines also made operations difficult years ago, when the company didn’t have a streamlined system for tracking inventory, sales orders, work orders and more.
“It was really tricky to figure out, how do we manage those orders without having an infinite number of part orders and combinations?” says Jordan Edwards, director of operations at Wild Goose Filling. “If you wanted to know how many parts were on the shelf, you’d go and count them on the shelf. It sounds insane for a large international business to have to go check manually.”
The leadership team decided in 2018 that the business needed to adopt a system that could run as many aspects of operations as possible, from customer relationship management to inventory visibility. Wild Goose decided to engage RSM—which the company was already working with on other projects—to implement NetSuite for their business.
Results
The NetSuite implementation enabled a massive transformation for Wild Goose; the company went from what Edwards refers to as the “dark days” before having a system in place to being able to anticipate inventory issues before they arise and harness company data in creative, intelligent ways for a range of applications, including:
Customizing machine work orders
Capturing accurate assembly costs
Enabling phantom assemblies to streamline selection of specific machine options
More precise planning for production of commonly used subassemblies
That agility and greater efficiency is important for a company that has systems around the globe.
“We’re in so many countries with partners all over the world, and I don’t know if we’d be able to have the communication and visibility into our product line without a system like this—the fact that somebody in China can put in a service order and it’s there immediately in our system for the next person to grab it,” Edwards says.
Since the NetSuite implementation in 2018, Wild Goose Filling has grown significantly and more than doubled their clients internationally.
A personal touch and an industry lens
It’s not just having NetSuite that has changed the game for Wild Goose, Edwards says. Just as vital was the way RSM’s team showed up in person, listened to the company’s needs and worked collaboratively with the business to implement solutions.
“I think it was really important that we had boots on the ground, people walking the factory floors, sitting down next to us at a laptop and walking us through it,” he says. “I feel like there was a personal touch. Rather than saying, ‘Well, most companies do this,’ RSM's team was willing to listen and understand what about what we were doing was unique and special and finding a solution."
I feel like there was a personal touch. Rather than saying, ‘Well, most companies do this,’ RSM's team was willing to listen and understand what about what we were doing was unique and special and finding a solution.
Jordan Edwards, Director of Operations, Wild Goose Filling
RSM’s lead team member on the project, Les Jankiewicz, also came with a background in the manufacturing industry, a perspective Edwards says was critical to the success of the implementation. Jankiewicz’s experience enabled him to swiftly navigate how Wild Goose could best use NetSuite to its fullest extent.
“Different microbreweries have different requirements for the size of bottles and cans, so there’s a lot of different features that go with these machines,” Jankiewicz says. “They were worried they were going to run out of part numbers. So we set up ways they can use features and options within NetSuite to help their engineers quote out the jobs for them.”
Instead of having to create an unlimited number of iterations to prepare for any possible customer request, Wild Goose can now access those options through NetSuite as needed without having to make a major investment in a configurator.
A future of possibilities
After working with RSM’s team on the implementation and first couple years of using NetSuite, Wild Goose is taking a holistic view of how else the company may be able to use it. The system’s scalability allows for a lot of possibilities, and as a result Wild Goose approaches the future with a more nimble, adaptable mindset for how they can meet the needs of their specialized sector.
"We can look at how the system can grow with our business," Edwards says. “And there’s a lot of functionality in there that we can tap into.”
Stay up to date on what matters most to your business.
Let us know your personal preferences for topics, industries and services to start receiving RSM updates in your inbox. Get the most from insights, events and offers from our team of first-choice advisors.
