HVAC Firm Gains Significantly Improved Inventory Control
Professional Cooling and Control Systems (PCACS) provides commercial facilities with high-performance building automation controls and HVAC services. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., PCACS houses thousands of products that are used to supply energy management and building automation and control to customers like large Army, Navy, and Air National Guard bases, along with power plants and civic centers throughout the U.S. and internationally.
PCACS keeps over 5,000 items in stock, valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. More expensive items, such as drives that run chillers and boilers, can cost over $15,000 each.
For years, PCACS used an informal approach to tracking inventory. Employees would log incoming and outgoing items on spreadsheets, but did not manage the stationary items that were already in stock. Having such a relaxed system ultimately resulted in several major issues that cost PCACS valuable time and money.
“We were continually missing items that we thought were in stock. Often times when we would order a certain part for a particular job, it would be used for a different job and we would have no idea,” explained Tommy Gugliotta, operations manager of PCACS. “On numerous occasions, we had to have inventory shipped overnight because our tracking system was so inefficient. We wasted countless dollars and time searching for specific items to replace a part or repair a machine.”