Sanilac Creamery Frees Up 10-15 Hours Per Week With Wherefour ERP

For a hometown creamery, slow and steady is the name of the game. Twenty years goes by in a flash, and the local raw material supply chain supports a dependable sales stream. But when the product is just too tasty and gains a nationwide following, the demand for traceability and compliance can't be ignored. That's why this Michigan business began searching for a best-in-class ERP platform that could support their established operation and provide room to grow.

About Sanilac Creamery

Sanilac Creamery started making small-batch spreadable cheeses in 2001 using cow and goat milk from local farmers in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their artisan cheeses were an immediate success, and they gained a following across the state and coast-to-coast.

Over the years they expanded their product offerings to include a full range of cheeses, gelato and sorbets, filling out the whole spectrum of sweet and salty delights. All of Sanilac Creamery's departments continued to grow under the same roof — their manufacturing facility, a brick-and-mortar retail cheese shop, classroom and event spaces, and their administrative and sales offices.

And while old-world techniques are the recipe to cheesemonger success, there comes a point when old-world administrative techniques no longer serve the company. That's when Operations Director Lana Hinojosa began searching for a software solution that could streamline the entire operation.

Taking the Leap — Choosing a System to Elevate Operations

With all departments operating under one roof, manual inventory and production tracking worked for a long time. But it was time consuming. "We had paper lot sheets that we kept track of production with," says Lana, "and we used a combination of Google Forms and spreadsheets for our wholesale customers. We physically counted our inventory using spreadsheets every month."

Low-tech solutions were working, but Lana knew there was a way to make it work better. "We started looking for an ERP system that offered inventory tracking, traceability and a wholesale customer portal," she says. That's when she discovered Wherefour, and she set up a demo for her team.

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"We did the Wherefour demo and we immediately loved the user interface. We liked how simple and clean it looked. And it hit all the marks for functionality that we needed."

Lana Hinojosa

Operations Manager, Sanilac Creamery

Onboarding with Wherefour: Challenges and Successes

Sanilac Creamery had found the perfect solution in Wherefour, and now it was time for implementation. Lana remembers their biggest challenge clearly: the time-consuming task of data entry. "We have a lot of inventory items. We have 150 SKUs plus even more than that for our raw materials." Wherefour's Customer Success Team offered helpful tools and training, and Lana and her team were able to use the bulk upload function to simplify the data entry steps.

During the onboarding process, two dedicated people on the Sanilac crew went through all of the Wherefour Academy training modules. "Onboarding is really detail-oriented and time consuming. I would advise anyone going through the process to have multiple users going through it together. It helped us a lot," Lana remembers. And much like the platform as a whole, Lana notes that the training modules are designed for growth, too. "Definitely go through all the training modules," she adds. "Even if you don't think you need them right now, learning what they can do sets you up for the future."

When Lana and Sanilac's Quality Assurance Manager began their ERP search, their primary goal was to improve their audit experience. Like all operators in the food and beverage sector, Sanilac Creamery undergoes annual third-party audits as well as annual facility inspections. Once Wherefour was implemented, the NSF auditors took notice. "They're so impressed. We can run mock recalls at a moment's notice, and everything is right there. Wherefour saves us a ton of time," says Lana.

Optimizing Time and Increasing Sales

After three years of operating with Wherefour's cloud-based ERP system, Sanilac Creamery has plenty of data showing their success. But Lana says that the biggest benefit isn't necessarily in the numbers, it's in the hours. Those hours used to be spent on manual data entry and inventory counting, but now there's an automated system providing real-time information to all users, all the time.

Several of Wherefour's products are dually beneficial, both in back-end functionality and in demonstrating benefits to potential customers. "Wherefour's wholesale ordering portal shows prospective customers how easy ordering can be," she says. "We have the time and the software to go out there and get new customers."

Sanilac Creamery is also taking advantage of QuickBooks® integration to optimize their accounting, and they're loving the dynamic intelligence of Wherefour's new Insights functionality. "We didn't even know that level of data reporting was possible when we first signed up, but we're loving the real-time access to our COGs and our sales," says Lana.

While Sanilac is streamlining all aspects of their operation, Lana notes that Wherefour's customer service is a constant no matter what task is at hand. "The Customer Success Team has been really fantastic. They answer our questions quickly, and they're open to requests or suggestions. It always feels personalized. Wherefour really cares about their customers."

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"Using Wherefour has saved me about 10-15 hours per week. I have so much time to focus on growing the business and getting new customers. It's incredible."

Lana Hinojosa

Operations Manager, Sanilac Creamery