Central Lewmar Case Study

Background
Central Lewmar has grown from a diverse number of privately owned paper merchants in the northeast to one of the four largest independent paper merchants in the U.S., with annual revenues approaching $750 million. For more than 100 years the Central Lewmar philosophy has been to provide the highest level of service to the graphics arts community.

Central Lewmar's commitment to service is fulfilled every day for more than 5000 customers in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Additionally, Central Lewmar is a primary source of paper for a number of direct mail, catalog and mass marketers from coast to coast.

Challenge
Is there a way to enhance a high level of customer service while also remaining competitive and at the forefront of the industry?

Steve Fraistat, VP of Corporate Purchasing for Central Lewmar in Newark, New Jersey, wondered if there was a better way to efficiently and accurately check their strategic supplier's inventory in order to get the business process rolling. He hoped to accomplish this goal while also streamlining and shortening the existing order process of phone calls, faxes, e-mails and more phone calls.

First and foremost, customer satisfaction could not be sacrificed - and Fraistat hoped to eventually increase and maintain a higher service level. However, with vast purchasing and operations experience, Fraistat reviewed his options and knew he needed help.

Solution
Central Lewmar hoped to collaborate with their supplier to spearhead an initiative to automate and make routine the manual tasks of daily purchasing transactions.

Central Lewmar decided to go after the first step in the process - Inventory Checks - because if they don't have it, you can't buy it. The solution had to be robust enough to offer a genuine savings in time and manpower.

Central Lewmar's former process of checking their supplier's inventory involved a Customer Service Representative placing a call to a supplier account executive, who then would check availability in the inventory system. With the new real-time inventory check functionality, the Central Lewmar CSR can enter the items in their own inventory look-up system, check their inventory on hand and the mill's inventory, and see the results displayed on their screen within a matter of seconds.

Results
"I believe real-time inventory checks are of tremendous value, especially as a customer service tool. It will also add to a more efficient, less error-prone purchasing system," says Fraistat. "With real-time inventory checks through Liaison, you don't give your customers the chance to call anyone else. You can answer and make the sale right away. We stay in business, and we don't put our customers in a position where they suffer from slow processes. We look forward to working with Liaison in developing even more solutions for our purchasing pains."