Gorilla Glue – Velosio’s Distribution Solution for Long-term Success

About the Company

INDUSTRY: CPG Manufacturing & Distribution

LOCATION: Cincinnati, OH

SYSTEM: Microsoft Dynamics GP

The Gorilla Glue Company is a manufacturer and distributor of “tough, strong” glue and tape products located in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Challenge

The Gorilla Glue Company was growing exponentially and needed to adjust their processes to better manage their data.

The Solution

They worked with Velosio to assess business processes, uncover opportunities to gain efficiencies, and adapted their use of Velosio Distribution Solutions to get better control over their data.

Results

Employees are more efficient and self-sufficient, data is under control and usable for analysis and decision making so that the company can continue to grow.

A Solution to Grow With

When they selected a Velosio Distribution Solution, they recognized that it would be a long-term solution that they could grow with. “It was the best fit for our organization,” said Brent Zellner, Director of Information Technology for The Gorilla Glue Company. “We knew that we could grow into it – it may have been a little large at the beginning, but we felt that we could go for years and years with it.” And they have – The Gorilla Glue Company has been using their Velosio Distribution Solution to manage and automate financial and business processes since 1999.

Over the years, they have adapted the solution to maximize its efficiency for their users. “We really watch what our people are doing, how much movement they are doing,” Zellner said. “We are all about clicks and how many clicks each user is doing. We’ve handled that with some modifications to some key screens that keep people from having to go into interior screens.”

Not only do Gorilla Glue’s users work more efficiently due to the way that the system works, but also thanks to the continuity that it provides. The system not only offers continuity in things like part numbers and customer numbers, but it also provides continuity for the users which results in “increased efficiencies for employees so that they see the same things every day and it doesn’t change for them, even when we are upgrading versions. It’s cut down on our learning curve, enabling us to move ahead.”

Additionally, it addresses some unique inventory issues that Gorilla Glue faces. “We have a combination of kits and BOM that we can handle seamlessly,” Zellner noted. “It’s helped streamline everything from our invoicing process, to our ordering process, to things that we do out in the warehouse,” added Gorilla Glue’s IT Systems Administrator, Aaron Back.

Partnership Turns Systems into Solutions

Part of what has made their solution a success has been their close partnership with Velosio. Since their original implementation, they have looked to Velosio to help guide them technically and strategically.

“Working with Velosio has helped me improve our business,” said Zellner. “The breadth of knowledge that Velosio delivers in multiple areas of the business has been remarkable. It’s helped me say “I want to grow this area and I don’t know it right now and I don’t have anyone to reach out to,” Velosio has been there, found the right subject matter expert, and gotten them involved and helped us move forward.”

Getting Over Growing Pains

Part of that “moving forward” has included adapting to rapid business growth. As their business growth began to accelerate, they found themselves with new data challenges. “We were starting to experience rapid growth, and our data was just growing exponentially,” remarked Zellner. “We needed to get that under control and start getting our inventory and customers under control a little bit better.”

Aaron Back agreed, saying, “We were trying to look for better ways to create good foundation to build off of to grow, and we found that we needed to enhance or improve our Velosio Distribution Solution. It had been working fine up until that point, but now we were experiencing the growing pains.”

They decided to seek outside input – to have someone come in and work with their internal team to help them identify areas for improvement,
areas that were inefficient and those where they could gain more efficiency, and to help them adapt their systems to meet the new demands of the business as well as support its continued growth and evolution. They once again engaged Velosio to provide these services.

Creating Efficiency – Enabling Growth

By working with Velosio to assess their business and adapt their manufacturing and distribution processes, they have uncovered numerous areas of efficiency. “Some of the benefits were that it sparked some internal thought about better ways to do some things,” said Back. “A lot people didn’t know that there were alternative ways to do things, or an easy way for them to go do something for themselves versus having to rely on an IT person or another person, they can find the information themselves. It encouraged people to become more self-sufficient and be able to get through their day quicker, be more efficient.”

These efficiencies will continue to support Gorilla Glue’s growth well into the future. Velosio will also be there, to help them realize their goals. One area that they are currently working with Velosio to improve is their shipping process. Together, they will identify and implement a solution that will enable Gorilla Glue to manage ongoing growth and thrive in the Consumer Packaged Goods Distribution market