October 2003

Kewadin speeds toward success with Eatec's inventory management system
By Allison Hearn

In 1979, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians introduced Bingo as its first form of gaming to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and in 1984, its board of directors voted to develop the tribe's most successful business, Kewadin Casinos. On November 15, 1985, Kewadin Casinos was opened in Sault Ste. Marie. Since this time, the Tribe has developed four (St. Ignace, Hessel, Manistique, Christmas) additional casinos throughout the Upper Peninsula and has expanded each site as needed. In addition to these casino properties, the Tribe operates many non-gaming businesses including two Kewadin Casino Inns, two Mid Jim gas station/convenience stores, a commercial furniture store, and a professional cleaning service.

In an effort to encompass all of the Sault Tribe and Kewadin business endeavors, the organization recently implemented the foodservice and retail management system, EatecNetX. This system was the perfect fit for Kewadin and the Tribe, allowing the company to integrate its financial and point-of-sale (POS) systems along with automating many of the processes the company previously handled manually.

A Taxing Challenge
In the summer of 2003, the state of Michigan entered into an agreement with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe exempting their members from certain sales taxes that are normally applied to purchases. While the new agreement gave Tribe Members a tax benefit, it posed a unique problem on the business end as the organization had to figure out a way to process non-taxable sales, track them and report them to the government.

The time frame given for discovering and implementing this solution was ninety days. The person put to this task was Mike Day, information services director for the Tribe and Kewadin. Day chose to upgrade the existing POS system in order to meet the goals of the new tax agreement, but he also realized that it was time to upgrade Kewadin's inventory management system as well. The new inventory system would replace the enterprise resource planning system Kewadin had been using for purchasing and receiving since 1992. The old system was mainly designed for manufacturing operations and wasn't equipped with the functionality to break inventory down into detailed item units, which would greatly benefit a foodservice or retail operation. In order to reduce time spent on manually recording individual inventory items, Kewadin needed a system that was suited to its needs.

"None of our purchasing and inventory solutions were tied together or integrated with our accounting system," Day said. "In addition, purchasing and inventory for both food and beverage and retail were not available in a single application."

With the clock ticking, Day's choices for inventory management boiled down to two systems. EatecNetX, a centralized back-office solution from Eatec Corp., beat out its competitor based on the ease with which it could integrate with Kewadin's POS system, and the system's capability to streamline the inventory processes for all of the company's outlets. "We liked the direction that Eatec appeared to be going in," Day said. "We also liked that it is a Web-based application because that was a better fit with our long-term technology plans."

The installation was completed in just 60 days. Day was impressed with the efficiency and expertise the implementation team exhibited: "It was a wholesale change not just for five different casinos, but also for the food and beverage in the casinos, its gift shops, and all the other extensions of Kewadin, as well as a separate purchasing department. But Eatec mobilized its people, enabling us to go live on time on April 1."

The system's robust features have enabled Kewadin to automate the requisitioning, purchasing and receiving of inventory, putting the entire process online and eliminating many ineffectual manual procedures.

Mobilizing Inventory Management
The Tribe is also using EatecPocket, a wireless mobile accessory of EatecNetX, in its convenience stores to receive goods and do physical inventory. Day is confident that EatecPocket will provide users with additional benefits. "The ability to move around with a wireless, real-time device that's basically a PC is a great advantage to the receiving process," Day remarked. "It's truly wireless - updating the database in real time." Kewadin also generates bar coded product labels for retail items with EatecNetX to facilitate scanning using EatecPocket. Kewadin is currently finalizing the wireless network in all of its casinos to begin using the EatecPocket in those facilities as well.

Inventory management for Kewadin's six dining facilities will soon be improved with the recipe level tracking available in EatecNetX. Once the recipe database is complete, Kewadin Chefs will be able to access data showing the detailed management of their inventory along with the improved cost analysis of the products that they're serving. In the future, EatecNetX will enable Kewadin to forecast, engineer menus and track inventory depletion based on sales.

Kewadin is also considering Eatec's business to business exchange solution, which would allow Kewadin's main vendors the ability to electronically update information on orders directly into Kewadin's system. This will reduce the receiving process to a simple approval of shipments.

In the meantime, Kewadin is still discovering the benefits of EatecNetX. "We are paying much closer attention to inventory across the board," reports Day. "We have a system that provides us with inventory visibility; one that enables access for the purchasing people as well as the managers and the accountants. We didn't have that before." Day concludes, "The fact that we're having great success with the system speaks well for Eatec and for our folks too."

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