UAE-based manufacturer drawn to manufacturing-centric and multi-region capabilities of market-leading solution.
Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, has announced that Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries LLC has selected Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, Epicor ERP, to improve manufacturing and warehousing operations and streamline information flow across the company.
Epicor partner, Cork Information Technology, will work with Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ stakeholders to bring the full power of the Epicor platform to the company and its employees.
Dubai-based Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries produces aerosols, deodorants, air fresheners and cosmetics for markets all around the world-including its native United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, India, West Africa, Egypt, Oman, the UK, France, and the US.
The company supplies major brands-such as Elegant, Inspire, Pleasure, Hot & Cold, Mehas and The Scent-to distributors, and also offers contract manufacturing to other brands.
Having grown from a handful of employees to a monthly production capacity of more than two million products in just 10 years, Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries realised they would need to replace their existing ERP solution to continue to expand and grow.
“As we grew, our legacy system was not catering to our needs, especially in manufacturing, warehousing and sales,” said Abbas Hamid, Director at Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries.
The company’s warehousing issues stemmed from a lack of real-time accuracy and visibility for on-hand stock levels from the front-end system. The necessity to implement manual workarounds was impacting productivity, and inaccuracies were affecting stock valuation. In addition, stock retrieval was employee-driven, rather than system-driven, leading to further inaccuracies if goods were not correctly stored. Other complications existed based on the absence of a stock-taking module in the legacy ERP, requiring warehouse employees to perform an entirely manual reconciliation.
“In addition, the manufacturing module within the legacy system only captured the cost of materials, so labour costs and direct costs were never captured. These had to be generated through manual calculations and estimations, which affected our financials,” said Hamid.
Reporting was also cumbersome, with pending PO reports and shipment tracking requiring manual preparation, and the system offered no capability for real-time reporting.
Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries decided it needed an ERP system that was tailored to their business operations, was easy to deploy and use, and would be flexible enough to allow the company to grow unimpeded. After considering four major ERP vendors, Hamid and his team selected Epicor ERP due to the manufacturing-centric focus and native functionality of the solution.
“While we obviously needed some level of customisation, we were very clear that we wanted to adapt to a system and be in line with best industry practices, rather than the other way around-where the system has to adapt to us,” said Hamid.
Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ stakeholders were particularly drawn to the real-time reporting functionality of Epicor ERP, as well as its multi-region capabilities, so that future expansion plans would not be hampered and that consolidated reports could be easily compiled.
Implementation is expected to be completed by May 2020, and the company’s project team is currently working with regional Epicor partner, Cork Information Technology, to deploy the new solution to more than 40 users in the UAE. Supply chain, sales, CRM, manufacturing, finance and asset management will all be key areas of functionality that are expected to help enhance Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ operations.
Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ management team is hopeful that, with Epicor ERP in place, its operations will be streamlined, allowing it to expand as needed and implement international best standards in manufacturing. Also, given the ability for Epicor ERP to integrate with multiple third-party solutions, the company plans to work with Epicor to integrate modules for business analytics and intelligent manufacturing.
“All across the Middle East and North Africa region, manufacturing companies are trying to digitally transform, so that operations are optimised continually,” said Amel Gardner, Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and India (MEAI), Epicor.
“Processes that are overly manual impede growth, so digitisation is the key to agility. Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries realised its legacy architecture was holding back the fulfilment of its regional ambitions. When you have the vision to shake off the old and embrace the new, extraordinary things can happen. We are confident that with Epicor ERP in place, the company will march quickly towards a new horizon.”
