How Did Bee Valve Get a High ROI With Their New ERP?
Bee Valve Inc. is an Ohio-based fluid handling manufacturer with a long history of innovation. In the early 1970s, the company helped lead the industry with non-metallic hose couplers and adapters. Today its valves, couplers, adapters, strainers, and fittings serve agriculture, irrigation, and industrial markets. In 2022, Jim and Hallie Stewart acquired Bee Valve and its sister companies, forming Black Tip LLC. The Black Tip family also includes CableTek Wiring Products, Pioneer Products, and Plastic Enterprises.
The Stewarts loved the products and saw real potential. The business they inherited, however, ran almost entirely on paper and spreadsheets. A legacy Macola system handled only accounts receivable and payable, with no inventory or production tracking, and no one had been trained on it. The four companies kept separate data, which created duplicate vendor and customer records, and their employees rarely worked together. The Stewarts knew they needed more than new software, and they turned to Algorithm to implement Acumatica Cloud ERP.
The team focused on three things:
People First
About 85 percent of office staff and most production workers were temporary employees when the Stewarts took over. Leadership defined core values, broke down silos between companies, and cross-trained employees so they could support whichever company needed help that day.
Building from the Ground Up
There were no existing processes to copy, so Bee Valve's super users built the system instead of just learning it. Our consultants challenged them with the right questions, and together they designed workflows that fit how the business actually works. The team also cleaned and consolidated its master data before import, starting on Acumatica with one trusted source of truth.
A Culture of Documentation
Before the project, almost nothing was written down. Today the team maintains a process binder of 80 to 90 pages covering every key task, both in the system and on the floor. Onboarding is faster, and employees can share responsibilities across the business.
Bee Valve went live on June 11, 2024, and celebrated with food trucks, cake, and awards for the whole team, including our consultants. Four companies across two campuses now run on one connected platform, and the team keeps finding new ways to use it.
"They truly listened, understood what wasn't intuitive to us, and provided clear, confident guidance." Hallie Stewart, CEO, Black Tip LLC
Take a look at the full story of how Bee Valve went from spreadsheets to cloud ERP: