Natural Factors Nutritional Products

Natural Factors Nutritional Products, headquartered in Coquitlam, British Columbia, has been a leader in the manufacture and sales of naturally-sourced personal health products for over 40 years. With markets in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Natural Factors is well-positioned to take advantage of the burgeoning global demand for naturally-derived health products. In the United States alone, the size of the emerging nutraceuticals and supplements market is estimated by some observers to be in the region of $80 billion, with enormous up-side potential.

Natural Factors began automating its systems in 1992, at which time the company chose SYSPRO enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for its total supply chain management and financial tracking capabilities. "SYSPRO was chosen because it matched the company's needs," says Jaime de Sequera, Chief Information Officer for Natural Factors. "An important selling feature was its modular nature, which renders it affordable and highly scalable." Fourteen years later, SYSPRO continues to provide Natural Factors with complete control over the planning and management of its operations, including sales, accounting, manufacturing and distribution.

Natural Factors produces millions of tablets and capsules every month. On a daily basis, the company packs an enormous variety of finished goods into thousands of bottles, and fills hundreds of sales orders. At present, Natural Factors carries thousands of active stock items, with new formulations continually introduced. The company's corporate structure includes company owned distribution centres and manufacturing facilities. "Without SYSPRO ERP software," says de Sequera, "we would not be able to manage the complexity of a business this size."

According to de Sequera, one of SYSPRO's most basic advantages is its adherence to the familiar logic of best practices. "SYSPRO approaches each specific business discipline in the most intuitive manner possible," says de Sequera. "It never confuses you with eccentric terminology. Instead, it operates according to best business practices, which makes it very easy to understand, and simple to learn."

As a manufacturer of naturally-sourced nutraceuticals and supplements, Natural Factors places enormous emphasis on quality control. "Quality control-and government health regulations-are easily satisfied," says de Sequera, "due to SYSPRO's 'Lot Traceability' module." As batches are produced, each one is given a specific, serialized lot number. That identifier allows Natural Factors to know everything about its product, including where the raw materials came from, when they were received in inventory, who received them, and to what job the raw materials were allocated. "Lot Traceability builds a very useful database," emphasizes de Sequera. "In the event that a problem occurs, we can trace the product back to its source. Without that function, we would have much less control over the quality of our products."

When the U.S. Department of Homeland security (under the Bioterrorism Act), issued guidance for the entry and release of imported food products into the United States, Lot Traceability provided an additional dividend. "Essentially," says de Sequera, "the Department of Homeland security wanted assurances that we had the systems in place to provide relevant information if there was ever a problem with a product. SYSPRO's Lot Traceability gave us that capability. Instead of being a huge process, we had already met the requirements. That saved us a great deal of time, effort and money."

With company names like Enron and WorldCom still ringing in legislators' ears, Natural Factors, like all companies, is forced to contend with mounting levels of financial reporting compliance. From Sarbanes Oxley (for companies operating in the U.S.) to similar provincial and federal legislation in Canada, the demands are exacting and mandatory. "In its compilation of various modules and applications," says de Sequera, "the ease-of-use of those applications, and its use of open-ended database architecture, SYSPRO is the best segue you can create between the data and the regulations."

Built to meet the needs-and budgets-of small to midsized businesses, SYSPRO ERP is well suited to single and multi-site operations. With facilities in Burnaby, Coquitlam, Okanagon BC, Toronto ON, and Everett WA, Natural Factors takes advantage of complementary technologies, such as Thin Client, to efficiently and inexpensively incorporate all its offices within the SYSPRO ERP fold. "Our wide area network," says de Sequera, "allows us to control SYSPRO centrally, yet decentralize its availability."

In 2005 de Sequera and his colleagues decided to switch SYSPRO from Natural Factors' original Unix platform to Microsoft's SQL Server 2000. The migration to Windows, which took two months (and resulted in no business disruptions), has allowed Natural Factors to leverage Microsoft's .NET component architecture to deliver SYSPRO's e.net solutions. This new wave of Web services enables functions such as remote sales order entry and inventory status determination using remote devices such as palm pilots and cell phones. "With the availability of wireless broadband," says de Sequera, "the potential for Web-based business solutions is enormous." Natural Factors has already implemented on-line picking; company warehouse workers now use wireless tablet PCs which update the system as they pick.

The amalgamation of SYSPRO and .NET also allows Natural Factors to monitor its supply chain linkages. For example, by connecting to the reporting systems provided by couriers such as UPS and FEDEX, a Natural Factors customer service agent can instantly retrieve the exact shipping status of any item directly from the SYSPRO query screen. Says de Sequera: "That's very powerful from a customer service perspective."

SYSPRO's Sales Order module allows Natural Factors to input sales orders instantaneously from its call centre. "The sales order entry functions are straightforward and intuitive," says de Sequera. "In addition, they're integrated with inventory and inventory management. At any time, and at any stage of the supply chain, we can get accurate, real time information on our products."

"SYSPRO handles many other processes that are critical to our success," says de Sequera, "and it allows us to do all this in an integrated fashion. In addition, it creates a repository of useful data that we regularly use to measure our performance. It also allows us to report against that data, so we can make informed business decisions for guiding our growth. In many respects it has allowed us to grow our operations in the most efficient manner possible. All-in-all, SYSPRO fulfills our needs in a very good way."

For more information on Natural Factors and their products please visit: www.naturalfactors.com

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"The Department of Homeland security wanted assurances that we had the systems in place to provide relevant information if there was ever a problem with a product. SYSPRO's Lot Traceability gave us that capability. Instead of being a huge process, we had already met the requirements. That saved us a great deal of time, effort and money. "

Jaime de Sequera, Chief Information Officer, Natural Factors.