Senior Purchaser, Efco

Carol Wilson

Carol is one of the senior purchasers for Efco and is responsible for purchasing all the steel that Efco uses across their forming and construction products.

About Efco
Efco is a leading company specialising in concrete forming systems for various construction projects, including bridges, houses, and parking garages. Their operations encompass the procurement and management of steel required for these forming systems, highlighting their pivotal role in the construction industry's supply chain.
Industry
Construction
Location
Des Moines, Iowa, United States of America
Enabling swift actions with on-time communication through Unifize
This video showcases Carol Wilson's journey with Unifize at Efco, detailing the significant shift in handling the Returned Goods process. Carol contrasts the pre-Unifize era, where cumbersome Excel sheets, multiple tabs for documentation, and manual notifications led to inefficiencies and communication gaps. With Unifize, she highlights a streamlined process with automated alerts and a centralized system, ensuring accuracy and quick resolution. This transformation has not only enhanced operational efficiency but also fostered a better collaboration environment, showcasing Unifize's impact on improving business processes.
Enabling swift actions with on-time communication through Unifize

Overview

Carol Wilson, a senior purchaser at Efco, shares her insightful journey with Unifize, emphasizing the platform's pivotal role in enhancing document management, collaboration, and operational efficiency within Efco's complex construction projects.

Challenge

Carol faced considerable challenges in document retrieval, collaboration, and managing the Returned Goods process. The inefficiency of traditional systems, such as reliance on emails and manual documentation, significantly hampered Efco's responsiveness and operational agility.

Solution

Efco turned to Unifize for its exceptional adaptability, user-friendly design, and the capability to streamline complex processes. The platform's integration of automated notifications and centralized document access provided a customized solution that perfectly met Efco's specific requirements.

Ease of Use

Unifize's intuitive interface enabled Carol and her team to effortlessly adapt the platform to their workflow, enhancing the management of critical documents and significantly improving efficiency without disrupting established processes.

Communication and Collaboration

Unifize transformed Efco's communication, centralizing discussions and decisions, thus eliminating inefficient channels. This ensured that vital information was always readily available and actionable.

Documentation and Compliance

With Unifize, Efco achieved a higher level of documentation accuracy and readiness for compliance. The platform's document control and audit trail capabilities allowed for better record-keeping, easing the preparation for audits and regulatory compliance.

Results

The implementation of Unifize led to substantial improvements in Efco's efficiency, notably reducing the time required for managing documentation and the Returned Goods process. This efficiency gain allowed for innovation and compliance to coexist seamlessly.

Professional Preparedness

Carol and her team were better equipped for regulatory inquiries and audits, thanks to the organized and detailed record-keeping Unifize facilitated, keeping Efco at the forefront of compliance and operational excellence.

Regulatory Alignment

Unifize supported Efco's commitment to quality and safety, ensuring alignment with not only industry standards but also enhancing the company's ability to meet and exceed regulatory expectations.

Conclusion

For Efco and Carol Wilson, Unifize has been transformative, simplifying the complexities of document management and compliance, boosting operational efficiencies, and fostering a more collaborative and informed team environment.

Transcript
[00:00 - 00:04]
Before Unifize was an Excel sheet that we had to fill out.

[00:04 - 00:16]
And then they had to attach everything by tabs. So you created a tab for pictures, a tab for what was wrong with it, a tab for when the credit came back, and so forth.

[00:16 - 00:21]
I mean, it was multiple tabs. And each person that had to touch it had to do it.

[00:21 - 00:25]
You can't collaborate like you can in Unifize on the Excel.

[00:25 - 00:34]
The Excel again, it's a memory thing. You have to remember the right people to contact and in the right order to make things happen.

[00:34 - 00:39]
In Unifize, it automatically alerts you through the email process.

[00:39 - 01:03]
I don't specifically want to go back to the previous one because, again, you've got to call people to tell it's there. You have to notify them, the accounting to stop payment. They don't realize it's there. I mean, it's a constant check. Now, it automatically emails them back to okay, stop. You got to look at this now and don't pay anything.

[01:08 - 01:23]
I'm Carol Wilson, and I'm one of the senior purchasers of Efco. Efco sells concrete forming systems to supply and make bridges or houses or parking garages or beams and so forth.

[01:23 - 01:28]
I'm responsible for all the steel, for all the forming systems that we make here.

[01:29 - 01:35]
It's whatever is wrong coming in. And that could be once a week, it could be once a month.

[01:35 - 01:48]
The important thing is to catch it at the time it's coming in and not after the fact when you've already cut something. Because once you've cut something and it's wrong, it's our material. You know, you can't go back on the vendor then and expect a payment.

[01:48 - 01:53]
In what I do, if I can't do it right away, I'm moving on to something else. Now you forgot.

[01:53 - 02:02]
And you can't go back. But once it’s in Unifize, It's there. It pops up on everybody's screen that's in that group. They can't forget. I mean, it's popped there now.

[02:06 - 02:16]
We did get audited from a different government and we had to go back ten years to find the certs for the material that we shipped out.

[02:16 - 02:26]
I'm the only one that had it on the computer to find those certs or you had to go find it in the paper boxes. We don't keep those after five years. I said, That's a real problem.

[02:26 - 02:41]
If I wasn't here, yes, I can get into my emails. IT could. But how it's sorted is all by supplier, so you have to know the supplier, you have to know the product, you have to know what you're looking for when you go find the certs. Because I keep all the conversations all the way through.

[02:41 - 02:56]
The reason we are using Unifize now, Unifize allowed me to move the certs to the PO, so now you're not have to find the supplier. You're finding the PO with the material that came in on that PO.

[02:56 - 03:02]
So now you just eliminated going through all the conversations of the supplier folder.

[03:02 - 03:11]
The only way I can see that this is going to happen to show the success of this and this could happen, we'll probably get another audit from the same country.

[03:11 - 03:13]
“Oh, we have all that data now. It's all right here.”
01:42
Why is Carol using Unifize now
In this video, Carol Wilson from Efco shares her transformative experience with Unifize, highlighting how it revolutionized their document management process. Facing a daunting challenge of retrieving ten-year-old certification documents for a government audit, Carol discusses the inefficiency of their previous system, where critical documents were buried in emails or physical files, leading to weeks of searching by multiple team members. She outlines how Unifize streamlined this process, allowing for easy access to documents through purchase orders, significantly reducing search time and improving efficiency for the entire team.
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01:48
What does collaboration mean to Carol with Unifize
In this video, Carol Wilson from Efco delves into the essence of collaboration through Unifize, contrasting it with traditional communication methods like emails and phone calls. She highlights how Unifize's platform ensures critical information is instantly accessible, preventing delays and misunderstandings in her workflow. Carol appreciates the tool's ability to keep projects moving forward by ensuring that notifications and updates are prominently displayed to all relevant team members, making it impossible to overlook important tasks. Her experience underscores the efficiency and clarity Unifize brings to team collaboration.
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01:03
How to effectively utilize Unifize
In this insightful video, Carol Wilson from Efco discusses the critical success factors for implementing Unifize within an organization. She emphasizes the necessity of company-wide adoption, from top-level management to every department, to fully leverage Unifize's capabilities. Carol shares her firsthand experience with the platform, highlighting how comprehensive engagement ensures seamless collaboration and efficiency. She underscores the importance of management endorsement and following through on processes to realize the full potential of Unifize, reflecting on its impact on audits and data management.
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0:44
About Carol and her role at Efco
In this video, Carol Wilson introduces herself as a senior purchaser at Efco, a company specializing in concrete forming systems for various construction projects like bridges, houses, and parking garages. She shares insights into her role, where she oversees the procurement of all the steel required for Efco's forming systems. Carol highlights the scale of their operations, detailing the logistics of steel procurement, whether it's directly from mills in large quantities or through suppliers on a more regular basis, showcasing the complexity and importance of her role in the company's supply chain.
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03:08
How was Efco handling Returned Goods process before versus after Unifize
In this video, Carol Wilson from Efco vividly details the transformation in handling the Returned Goods process before and after adopting Unifize. She describes the cumbersome, error-prone system of managing returns via Excel, involving complex tabs and manual notifications, which often led to delays and communication breakdowns. Carol contrasts this with the streamlined, efficient process enabled by Unifize, where automated notifications and a centralized system ensure quick, accurate handling of returns, significantly improving accountability and operational efficiency. This change not only saved time but also enhanced collaboration across departments.
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