Shorr Packaging brings departments together to support customers faster
Shorr Packaging struggled with internal reporting to streamline shipments and ship quicker. With Smartsheet dashboards and Dynamic View, the company has gained a bird's-eye view and a more efficient way to work.
dashboard views on a single solution within 90 days
employees use a single solution with the help of Dynamic View
Industry
- Consumer Goods
Organization Size
- Mid-market (200-1999)
Region
- North America
Platform Capabilities
“Before Smartsheet, we were drowning in emails and spreadsheets. But now, Dynamic View is like a breath of fresh air. Everyone understands what's happening.”
Director of Process Improvement, Shorr Packaging
Founded a century ago in northern Illinois, Shorr Packaging has grown into one of the largest independent packaging distributors in the United States. Providing innovative packaging solutions to customers, Shorr has a clear guiding principle—listen to the customer. “We handle everything from distribution of a comprehensive portfolio of packaging products to equipment automation to managing logistics,” says Mitch Mook, Director of Process Improvement at Shorr Packaging. ”Our packaging experts create strategies for streamlining processes, and vendor networks, while increasing throughput and efficiency.”
Departments acting in concert
Shorr’s 600 employees are scattered across multiple departments like customer support, procurement, warehouse staff, and project management. “We often find ourselves in a situation where many different groups are trying to solve the same problem: getting our products or documents to customers fast,” explains Mook.
“This was our key challenge—how do we coordinate all this work across different departments?”
Originally, Shorr Packaging introduced Smartsheet within its organization to manage projects more efficiently. Soon, the team saw an opportunity to take advantage of Smartsheet capabilities to expedite materials. One of the most used capabilities is Dynamic View, which enables granular sharing to ensure the right people have access to project or workflow data at the right time for viewing or editing. In Dynamic View employees can zoom in on line items specific to their work to check and update status, or even make requests. “It’s fantastic—with Dynamic View in our dashboard, everyone in the organization can request to expedite something, check its status, see the workload, and know what time frame to expect an item,” shares Mook. “Dynamic View is very simple, and it works like a charm—our staff can engage with the data, add attachments, comments, and whatever else they need.”
A 360-degree view
Today, the solution is being used by 150 employees, with as many as 3,000 views of the dashboard within 90 days. This has helped foster visibility and collaboration within Shorr’s team.
“Before Smartsheet, we were drowning in emails and spreadsheets. But now, Dynamic View is like a breath of fresh air,” shares Mook.
“Everyone understands what's happening. Whether you're in customer support, a buyer, or an account executive, it's all in one spot. This helps us keep everything organized across different functions. Smartsheet makes our processes a breeze, especially when it comes to getting materials out the door quickly.”
To ensure a successful adoption, Mook started with a Proof of Concept. “We had to show the value of Smartsheet, so we started small, focusing on our finance group first. We sorted out discrepancies, streamlined our processes, and saw significant cost savings. That success convinced us to expand it across the whole organization.”
Understanding, learning, building
The next step was to find new ways to engage the employee-owners and encourage the use of Smartsheet. “We like to involve our team members in the process,” says Mook. “We host one-day workshops, where people from different departments collaborate to determine business needs, gaps, and the path forward. My favorite thing about Smartsheet is how quickly solutions can be built for real business problems.”
Employee-owners who wanted to learn more are encouraged to take Smartsheet’s 10 to 15 hour Self-Paced Core App Learning Path—a set of courses to help users master Smartsheet. “We also turned it into a friendly competition.. It's gamified, and it keeps everyone engaged.”
Success is Contagious
Today, Shorr Packaging is looking for ways to streamline other areas of work. “This approach is catching on for other processes, too—like setting up new suppliers, new customers, or reviewing and approving design requests,” concludes Mook.
“Warehouse transfers and automation projects now also follow this template. Smartsheet changed the game for us. It's simple, it's effective, and has allowed our employee-owners to increase productivity."
