ASC Software
Collaboration Meets Warehouse Management

On a busy Friday afternoon, Pete Gilstrap, the President and CEO of ASC Software takes a quick look into his agenda, and finds a slot earmarked for meeting a client regarding a consulting project to help them realize their strategic plan for the next five years. While he understands that the project will be tough—not something that ASC’s competitors are even capable of executing—there is a certain sense of excitement that is apparent from his active engagement in laying down success metrics for the client’s roadmap. Unlike ASC’s competitors who would just assign ‘business managers’ to optimize their clients’ warehouse management process, Gilstrap makes it a point to lead from the front by being involved in every project and fully supporting his team to mitigate the customer’s challenges. “This is the sole reason that in the 28 years’ long and lustrous history of ASC, we never had a failure,” says a proud Gilstrap. “The area we focus upon is: delivering innovative solutions; this ignites in us, a spark to pioneer processes that the warehouse management software landscape has not witnessed previously.”

Founded in 1989, ASC has been consistently providing innovative warehouse management solutions for complex supply chain challenges to the pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries. As a privately-held American company, the firm not only provides scalable, reliable, and best-of-breed solutions, but backs it up with years of experience and knowledge—a true partnership for success. “By being active in the manufacturing industry for about 40 years, I have seen and experienced many things first-hand in the field. This, along with my team’s process expertise, enables us to comprehend our customers’ needs better and drive innovation,” explains Gilstrap.

Supply Chain Performance Accelerators

The mainstay of ASC’s business has been to comprehend its clients’ requirements and build an inventory or a manufacturing system that allows the process controls to work effectively, overcoming complexities irrespective of the clients’ size and geographical presence. Today’s complex supply chain environment has created a situation where manufacturers and distributors are often confronted with a demand for faster delivery of products. However, considering the redundant processes and lack of full visibility into the inventory, organizations find it daunting to fulfill these demands. “Especially in the pharmaceutical industry which has stringent regulations and products so delicate in nature that even the smallest error in the supply chain process can cost dearly to business prospects as well as human lives,” adds Gilstrap.

ASCTrac WMS is built to handle the drastic rise in the number of orders done through e-commerce, enabling organizations to effortlessly tackle the intricacies in picking, packing, and shipping of goods

This scenario calls for a robust and automated warehouse management solution that can seamlessly manage the complete supply chain operations. Coming from a process engineering background, Gilstrap believes that a process-driven strategy is crucial to reduce risks and better manage supply chain operations. ASC Software helps supply chain companies and manufacturers to have a 360-degree view of not only their inventory but also the market conditions. The firm is stirring a revolution through their state-of-the-art warehouse management software solutions, purpose-built to optimize workflow by helping manufacturers to build, pack, and ship products efficiently.

ASC’s warehouse management solution, ASCTrac WMS, provides real-time information about the supply chain operations that helps teams make accurate decisions quickly. ASCTrac WMS implements high-quality data-monitoring techniques through which the complete material flow, from production to delivery is traced, leaving no scope for errors. The solution ensures customers connect to every portion of the supply chain, including lot traceability, resource planning, accounting, shipping, and forecasting. By integrating with ERP, the solution assists customers to share the real-time information of the inventory and precisely predict future requirements. ASCTrac WMS has embedded EDI processes to further improve the workflow as well as gain high inventory accuracy.

Uniquely Positioned to Assist Manufacturers

Built and designed as a true distribution and manufacturing system from an operations perspective, ASCTrac WMS can handle all variations of distribution and manufacturing for enterprises of any size from any industry. Thus, all operations are planned, accurate, visible in real time, and thoroughly verified. This includes transactions such as repacks, scraps, quality control holds and releases, parcel shipping, and trailer shipping at the point of activity for directed workflows. “ASCTrac WMS is built to handle the drastic rise in the number of orders done through e-commerce, enabling organizations to effortlessly tackle the intricacies in picking, packing, and shipping of goods,” explains Gilstrap.

Having been in the supply chain trenches for almost three decades, ASC’s seasoned supply chain professionals are uniquely positioned to assist manufacturing and distribution companies across a wide range of tasks including quality control.

To illustrate the difference that ASC brings, Gilstrap cites a scenario, where one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing companies was using a warehouse management solution that failed to meet the demand. The client lacked the technical expertise and was facing practical difficulties in managing the supply chain operations. This was when ASC stepped in and helped the client efficiently manage their inventory and manufacturing operations across multiple regional locations. As a result, they were able to ship the products to the destination faster. The client also achieved increased productivity, cost reduction, and enhanced customer service that eventually improved their business outcomes quite significantly. Further, through its innovative built-in embedded mobile device management for ASCTrac WMS, the firm is enabling its clients to track and support every mobile device from a single console by the IT team, all inside ASCTrac WMS.

"For our customers, we are ‘connecting the dots in their supply chain’"

The firm’s “best-of-breed” WMS is backed up by its competent and ever-ready technical support teams. “When a customer calls us with an urgent need for support, we do not have to read a long list of contact notes or ask them a lot of questions. We know them on a first-name basis, and we know their operation so well that we can quickly diagnose and respond to their issue,” states Gilstrap. Further, the ASC’s technical support teams visit customer sites occasionally to meet the clients in person and see how their software is being used for various operations. “When there is a complex software product like a mission-critical WMS system to support, the ability to quickly focus on an issue is important to the customers,” adds Gilstrap. “Over the years, we have had clients turn to us from our competition, who did not like being shifted around like a ‘number’ when they needed help or support from their provider.”

The Future Paradigm

Since its inception, ASC has been on a course of continual innovations. Having won several awards for providing the “best-in-class” WMS solutions for the past fifteen years in a row, the firm today offers over 30 modules to the core WMS product to support many different industries and will be announcing new ideas and products in 2018 that will follow their legacy.

Along this path, they have announced built-in mobile apps that would offer speed, agility, and reliability to improve warehouse operations and also allow customers to upload photos of the inventory for quality verification purpose. ASC Software aims to extend its mobile app-based product portfolio to enhance the process workflow in manufacturing, and in challenging storage areas such as the freezer environment. As customers demand better services, pricing, and commitments to be filled on schedule, collaboration is critical, which the firm aims to bring to the table. “At ASC, we live and breathe collaboration every day. For our customers, we are ‘connecting the dots in their supply chain,’” as our tagline sums it up in one word: collaboration,” adds Gilstrap.