Inventory Management and Lasko

Who is Lasko?

Lasko Products, Inc. is the North American market leader in the manufacturing and distribution of electric fans and ceramic heaters. For over 100 years, they’ve been building home comfort products and are owned and operated by the Lasko family. Chances are, you have a Lasko fan in your home and as we are just heading into fall, it’s probably still in use! I know mine is. As a matter of fact, you could say I’m a big ‘fan’ of the company. Due to the unpredictability of the seasons, Lasko depends on their high-quality inventory management system to keep us all cool — and warm, during the right time of the year.

At Mother Nature’s Mercy — The Need for an Inventory Management System

One of the biggest challenges Lasko faces is the unreliability of the seasons and how that can affect their inventory. They manufacture and stockpile their inventory throughout the year. Not really sure what Mother Nature will bring for the coming season, they could end up with a warehouse full of unsold product. This means it’s imperative they have an inventory management system in place.

In a highly competitive market, Lasko is sells to all the major, big-box retailers and these retailers are very price-sensitive. Lasko has to differentiate themselves from their competitors with changes in style and functionality, all while keeping the price low and never sacrificing on quality. Another reason for careful planning, scheduling and a strong inventory management system.

Keeping Up With the Latest Technology Through Upgrades

To remain the leader in their market, Lasko knows that they have to be on top of their technology game. Lasko has been a QAD customer for almost 20 years and in that time, upgraded its ERP system several times.

Lasko took advantage of the long-standing relationship with QAD to start a conversation around the benefits of an upgrade to QAD’s Enterprise Edition (EE). The EE upgrade would provide enhanced inventory management, financial and reporting capabilities — all of which could improve Lasko’s planning and scheduling capabilities.

“We worked with some excellent QAD consultants,” commented Raafat Mikhail, Director, Information Technology for Lasko. “They helped answer our questions and better understand the process. With their collaboration, we were able to develop maps of where we currently were, where we want to be and how to get there.”

With the help of their trusted QAD consultants, Lasko was able to upgrade to EE with no down time and is already seeing great benefits — read the full story here. As a matter of fact, Lasko was recognized as the QAD Enterprise Applications Upgrade Customer of the year at Explore this year.

Continuous Improvement Approach to Stay on Top of the Latest Technology

Once an upgrade is complete, that doesn’t mean that the project is over. Like Lasko, many companies recognize that in order to keep up on the latest technology and features included in QAD’s software, they need to have a continuous improvement strategy. Learn more about how you can take advantage of all that QAD has to offer: www.qad.com/solutions

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