Above: Chicago Tube & Iron (CTI) selected Epicor’s Kinetic ERP solution to help manage the company’s 40,000 SKUs across eight locations.
July, 2025- Crawl. Walk. Run. That was the internal mantra for the rollout of a new ERP system across Chicago Tube & Iron (CTI). “We had been using a homegrown system that was reliant upon three different platforms for our various distribution and fabrication operations. It was the proverbial ‘burning platform’ situation,” notes Chris Prodoehl, vice president of information technology at Chicago Tube & Iron, referring to the business metaphor signaling a dire need for change.
After a formal review, CTI selected Epicor’s Kinetic ERP solution that integrates a full range of functions from inventory management to planning and scheduling, and from business management to data analytics. Kinetic is one of many ERP solutions developed by Epicor for a myriad of customer segments. Kinetic was designed specifically for manufacturers.
At CTI, Kinetic supports eight locations— containing over 1.2 million square feet of distribution and processing activities—in the United States and Mexico, and has more than 400 users across the company. “Now, Kinetic is second nature to our team members,” Prodoehl says.
MANY PERSPECTIVES
To facilitate the review, CTI engaged an ERP consultant. “At Chicago Tube & Iron, we do a lot of things really well. But we have limited experience launching an ERP system. So we brought in a consultant to help guide us through the decision-making process,” Prodoehl says. For the CTI team, the process of selecting an ERP system was a group effort. “We made it a company project, not an IT project,” adds Prodoehl. The ERP review team eventually grew to about 30 people including company vice presidents; general managers from each CTI location; and representatives from purchasing, finance, operations and more.
A key consideration for the team in choosing Kinetic was Austin, Texas-based Epicor’s experience with manufacturers and distributors. “Thirteen percent of our manufacturing customer base is in the fabricated metals market and uses Epicor to streamline production,” says Jen Triftshauser, Epicor’s director of product management.
Two years after signing the contract with Epicor, Kinetic was launched throughout CTI. “Our must-have at the onset was one ERP system that would solve everything,” says Prodoehl. “Five years into Kinetic, we’re happy customers. It is smoothly running our daily operations,” adds Prodoehl.
Kinetic has a series of modules, including Planning and Scheduling, which tracks promise dates.
LEARNING TO CRAWL
The first step in onboarding Kinetic at CTI was tweaking the system to the business. “We needed to enhance and customize the Kinetic software for our distribution purposes,” explains Prodoehl. Despite making tweaks, CTI remains eligible for the Epicor twice-yearly updates—a testament to the way Kinetic was designed with flexibility and the customer in mind.
Early on, CTI leveraged use of the software’s Inventory Management module. “Inventory is a big asset. With Kinetic, we now have the ability to track lots, cutoffs and more. This saves us significant time,” says Prodoehl. A unique feature of Kinetic, and a popular one throughout the CTI enterprise, is part-onthe-fly. “This feature allows the sales team to create a general quote for a one-off part immediately. Many customers use this feature for prototyping,” explains Triftshauser. The feature also allows users to easily adapt to changes in customer needs, supplier situations and market conditions.
“At CTI, we have more than 40,000 different SKUs—for sizes, shapes and wall [thickness], for example. When a customer orders a one-off fabrication, we can provide an estimate quickly even if we don’t have an inventoried part,” reports Prodoehl. In addition to quoting, part-on-the-fly allows users to push the job to the shop floor after customer approval. Part-on-the-fly also ships the finished product, then generates sales and revenue data for the one-off or prototype.
There are more than 400 users of Kinetic across CTI locations, including warehouse and shipping personnel.
OTHER MODULES
Kinetic is loaded with features including the Epicor Sales Management module with CRM capabilities and integration to Salesforce. Process and product data can be tracked through Epicor Product Management, which supports traditional bill of material management and connects with CADLink to streamline engineering data flow.
For manufacturers and fabricators with complex jobs, the Project Management module is a helpful tool for project billing as well as time and expense management. “This module eliminates the need for double entry of project information like engineering and material details. The result is fewer mistakes in data entry and less time needed to initiate a project so the job can get into production quicker,” explains Triftshauser.
The Epicor Production Management module integrates with NESTLink to optimize material usage and minimize scrap or waste. The Planning and Scheduling module keeps track of promise dates and helps management mitigate employee vacations and proactively manage equipment maintenance.
Also available on Kinetic is the Epicor Supply Chain Management (SCM) suite. “Through bar code scanners on mobile devices, SCM tracks material usage for enhanced traceability in real time,” notes Triftshauser.
THE POWER OF INFORMATION
The CTI team has benefited from these modules. “The Epicor document management tool has a lot of power behind it. We find multiple uses for this tool,” reports Prodoehl. One example: CTI uses Kinetic to track steel mill certifications and trace material flows.
CTI also taps into the metrics available through Kinetic. “My job is to get the data out of the system and present it to our internal customers. One big need is determining job costs. Kinetic has the ability to drill down to see which jobs are profitable—and which ones are not,” states Prodoehl. Through the flexibility of the Kinetic platform, the IT team at CTI can customize dashboards to present the metrics in the format requested by its leadership.
As the CTI team became comfortable with Kinetic’s use on the fabrication floor, the team began applying the software’s capabilities to the accounts payable office. “We tapped into the Kinetic document readability function for scanning AP invoices. Now our AP clerks just verify the data, which saves a lot of time. We didn’t start with this capability right away; the team worked up to this,” notes Prodoehl. Another benefit of Kinetic is the peace of mind it gives Prodoehl.
“Now all the data is on the cloud, so we are no longer engaged in executing system upgrades or disaster recovery. This lifts a lot off my shoulders, freeing up this time for me to support leadership in more strategic ways,” Prodoehl explains.
Kinetic effectively connects the distribution and fabrications operations across CTI.
READY TO RUN
“I like that Epicor doesn’t sit on their laurels. The team is always looking to enhance the software. Twice-a-year updates are issued to address minor bugs. To me, Epicor seems really focused on the customer,” Prodoehl emphasizes.
He points to the software developer’s own form of crowdsourcing—the Epicor Ideas section of their website, which invites users to post “wouldn’t it be nice if…” suggestions. “CTI employees contribute to this page. Often, Epicor takes these ideas and works them into the next release,” Prodoehl adds.
As Epicor refines its products, Prodoehl focuses on the future. “We might add Kinetic’s ecommerce module down the road. It’s all part of our crawl, walk, run approach.”
Chicago Tube & Iron, 800/972-0217, http://chicagotube.com/
Epicor Software Corp., 800/999-1809, http://epicor.com/
