About Kichler Lighting

Kichler Lighting Corporation designs, contract manufactures, and distributes residential lighting primarily in the North American market. With locations in Cleveland, OH, East Hartford, CT, Atlanta, GA, and Las Vegas, NV, Kichler processes approximately 1,000 new orders per day, manages about 6,000 active SKUs, and employs over 500 people.

The Challenge

Kichler Lighting faced a significant challenge when they decided to transition from their previous ERP system (Peoplesoft) to a new one (Epicor). The goal was to accomplish this change with minimal impact on end users while simultaneously improving and streamlining processes that were redundant, required collaboration, or were challenging for users.

Key questions that arose during this transition included:

• Which processes should be retained or made obsolete with the new ERP system?
• How could existing workflow processes be transitioned without starting over?
• How would new automations and integrations work with the new ERP system?

The Solution

Kichler Lighting partnered with Clear Process Solutions (CPS) to implement Hyperautomation solutions that could integrate with multiple systems, data warehouses, APIs, and web services including analytics and algorithm (AI) architectures. This approach enabled diverse continuous improvement opportunities and provided both current and future integration capabilities.

The solution addressed processes across all departments at Kichler, from data storage and visibility to simple forms to complex workflows.

Key features of the implementation included:

1. No changes to the end-user interface or routings
2. Re-pointing of integrations on the back end using plug-ins
3. Portability of existing automated processes to the new ERP system
4. Ongoing process improvement focus through support and analytics offerings

Results and Benefits

The Hyperautomation solution provided by CPS allowed Kichler Lighting to focus on ERP system changes while keeping mission-critical processes running smoothly.

Key benefits included:

• 55% reduction in Customer Service workload
• Rapid process portability, leading to faster time to market
• Significant cost and time savings through a no-code approach
• Seamless integration with the new ERP system using plug-ins
• No end-user training required for processes with only back-end changes
• Avoided need for additional software purchases on top of the ERP change
• Ongoing support (COE-as-a-Service) from CPS to increase efficiencies, expertise and drive new utilization within Kichler Lighting
• Rich dashboard KPIs to monitor and identify cycle-time reduction opportunities and overall Hyperautomation value

By leveraging CPS' Hyperautomation managed services, Kichler Lighting successfully navigated their ERP transition while improving processes and maintaining business continuity.