From Warehouse Lines to Painless Tuesdays: The Bill Bowers AC & Heating Story

About Bill Bowers AC & Heating

Bill Bowers AC & Heating is a family owned and operated HVAC company based in Hudson, Florida, serving the Hernando, Pinellas, and Pasco County communities. Licensed, bonded, and insured, the company provides residential and commercial heating, cooling, indoor air quality, and maintenance services, with same-day service on many of its offerings.

The Challenge

Jessica Raymond manages inventory and the business’ fleet, and she came on board right as the company was first putting an inventory process in place, so there was no old system to compare against, just the absence of one.

Without a system, techs had no way to track what was used off their vehicles at a job site, which was hurting the company's margins and numbers.

A bad day before Ply would have been we had no way to track what was being used off the vehicles at a job site, and it was really hurting our margins and our numbers.

Jessica Raymond, Warehouse Manager at Bill Bowers AC & Heating

Trucks weren't reliably stocked, so techs would line up at the warehouse asking for parts. "There was a line of techs asking for stuff because we didn't have a rhyme or reason to it," Jessica says. A missing item could mean an hour-and-a-half round trip to a supply house for a part that cost a couple of dollars.

Bringing in new software wasn't an easy call. "One of the biggest hesitations about bringing in the software is the unknown, not knowing how it's going to work out, if it's going to be effective for the business in the long run," Jessica says. Techs felt the same way at first. "They reacted a little hesitantly. They're not really open to change, but they're coming along."

The Solution

What won the team over was how versatile Ply was for tracking inventory on trucks while techs were out in the field, a clear upgrade from a paper trail that was hard to keep organized.

Techs can now see exactly what's on their trucks instead of guessing, and every item used gets tracked and tied back to the job. "It's helped them track what's being used on every job, versus before there was no record of it," Jessica says.

Support during rollout made the difference in getting there. The team switched to manufacturer barcodes already on products instead of printed labels, and set up backup barcode books, changes Jessica credits to on-site help from Ply's support and implementation team. "Working with the support team that came out to our actual location was great, actually having hands-on experience and seeing a better way to do things that we've been doing for two years. It really helped cut down some time."

Her favorite feature? Being able to scan and manage inventory remotely. "If I'm out running parts to somebody, I can actually keep track of the inventory that's here in the warehouse while I'm on the road. That's very helpful to keep an accurate inventory."

The Result

For Jessica, Tuesdays got a lot better. "A normal Tuesday now is completely painless compared to a couple years ago," Jessica says. "The techs will come in and they'll already have all of their parts that have been used off their trucks, and it'll be in a bin for them because it alerted me on Ply that they already used it. Before, there was a line of techs asking for stuff."

• Reordering time cut from up to 45 minutes to as little as 5 to 15. "What would take me almost 30 to 45 minutes has now taken me maybe 5 to 15 minutes," Jessica says.
• About 85% less time spent on manual counts. Jessica still runs weekly cycle counts, but no longer hand-writes everything down to reorder. "It has really helped reduce probably 85% of having to manually write everything down to reorder everything, when I can just simply look at my out-of-stock app on the actual dashboard."
• Supply house runs way down for service techs. Trucks stay stocked, and Ply alerts the team when something runs low, so techs aren't making unplanned trips to Home Depot or Lowe's mid-job.
• Freed-up capacity in the warehouse. With less time spent purely on inventory, Jessica has been able to take on warranties and support the team in other areas. "Before it was focusing solely just on the inventory, and now I can focus on warranties and also helping the team out in other aspects as well."
• A specific save: a few weeks before this conversation, a tech couldn't find an item and thought it wasn't on the van. "I could remotely go into their van from my app and I saw that it was stocked, and they just had to find it, and they did have it. It really saved us from having to drive an hour and a half out to a job site."

Looking ahead, Bill Bowers AC & Heating is planning to grow into multiple locations, and the goal is to mirror the current Ply setup, trucks, departments and all, across every new one.

I would recommend any smaller business that's up and coming to use Ply, and even some of the bigger businesses as they grow. I think it would be good because it's so versatile.

Jessica Raymond, Warehouse Manager at Bill Bowers AC & Heating