Modus Furniture International

The Company: About Modus Furniture International

Modus Furniture International is a leading designer and distributor of contemporary home furnishings. For over 25 years, Modus Furniture has been recognized by specialty retailers and mass merchandisers for its high levels of service and high-quality products available at competitive prices. 

Modus Furniture was among the first furniture companies to source 100 percent of its products through imports. As such, the company enjoyed a cost advantage that contributed to a growth rate of 30 – 50 percent annually in recent years. Because of this rapid growth, Modus Furniture needed to scale its operations to meet customer needs. 

Improved information visibility and enhanced operational efficiencies were the goals. To accomplish this, the company sought an ERP system to more tightly integrate its operations, including its 250,000 square foot warehouse in Fontana, California. 

The Situation: Visibility & Access

Disparate systems for operations and accounting limited Modus Furniture’s visibility and access to enterprise-wide information. Offsite warehouse operations were not well connected to other operations. Yet, as an importer with long inventory lead times, Modus Furniture needed real-time insight into inventory status to meet customer needs and minimize carrying costs. Poor information flow between its systems hindered accounts receivable, collections, and chargeback performance. Its homegrown operational system lacked the scalability necessary to support the ongoing growth of its business. 

As a result, Modus Furniture sought a single, integrated solution that could streamline all its operations and deliver real-time information visibility throughout its organization. Needed was a comprehensive, flexible and scalable solution that would support rapid business growth. Just as critical to the organization was finding
a cost-effective, easy-to-implement solution that could be maintained without the need for additional IT resources. 

The Solution: Aptean Distribution ERP 

After considering nearly a dozen different ERP solutions, Modus Furniture selected Aptean Distribution ERP for its ability to meet Modus’s business needs without requiring costly customizations or additional IT resources, as well as its ability to more tightly integrate Modus’s financial and operational processes across all locations. 

“Aptean Distribution ERP offered the best out-of-the-box functionality to meet our business needs,” said Jon Richey, operations manager for Modus Furniture. ​“We were able to implement the solution without the need for additional IT resources or costly customizations — especially in areas such as credit, collections, chargebacks, container tracking and direct shipping — and we are seeing the benefits of tighter integration and improved visibility throughout our operations.” 

The Results: Aptean Distribution ERP Implementation Benefits

Modus Furniture has seen dramatic improvements in its operations and a direct positive impact on its bottom line since selecting and implementing Aptean Distribution ERP. ​“The system took just seven months to implement throughout our operations,” said Richey. ​“The process went well and was driven by a strong team from Aptean that helped us challenge our current processes so we could implement improvements.” 

The system has enabled Modus Furniture to integrate its warehouse, which processes about 30 percent of its orders, onto a common system for improved visibility. Receiving, putaway, barcoding, labeling, bin tracking, pick tickets and bills-of-lading are all automated for improved efficiencies. Aptean Distribution ERP’s strong direct ship capabilities also enable Modus Furniture to seamlessly manage its high volume of direct ship orders to larger furniture merchandisers, which account for up to 70% of sales. Comprehensive inventory planning, forecasting, purchasing and allocation provide Modus Furniture with the tools it needs to better handle its import operations to ensure timely availability of products for all its customers. Within the first year, inventory accuracy improved from 80 – 95%. 

Automatic order acknowledgments to customers, with notifications to appropriate internal personnel, have reduced manual and often overlooked work processes and improved order accuracy. Improved communications and real-time data visibility in accounts receivable and collections streamlined workflows, automated tasks, reduced chargebacks and significantly reduced past due receivables. 

“Before we implemented Aptean Distribution ERP, over 25% of our accounts receivable were greater than 90 days outstanding,” said Richey. ​“With Aptean Distribution ERP, that number has literally dropped to zero.” 

Aptean Distribution ERP’s strong import capabilities, coupled with its ability to efficiently handle the complexities of selling to various sizes and types of retailers, enable the solution to provide a strong ​“out-of- the-box” fit with Modus Furniture’s business model. As a result, Modus Furniture has been able to minimize the need for system customizations— lessening the time, money, and resources necessary to implement and maintain the system and reducing the total cost of ownership.