S&J Lighting Case Study

Project Overview

As a growing electrical distributor, S&J Lighting relied on manual tracking and disconnected processes to manage orders, purchasing, and customer communication. The objective was to implement a system that could handle real distribution scenarios — including special orders, backorders, and vendor coordination — while improving speed and reliability at the counter.

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Challenge

S&J Lighting struggled with tracking backorders and managing special-order items. Staff often had to manually monitor incoming shipments and remember which customer an item belonged to. Non-stock items created accounting complications by affecting average cost and COGS incorrectly, while pricing and order handling varied between employees.

Communication was also time-consuming — sending updates to customers and vendors required manual emails and follow-ups, and there was no easy way to track whether vendors had responded. These issues slowed service, increased internal coordination, and made operations difficult to scale.

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Solution

We implemented a solution tailored to S&J Lighting’s operational workflows:

Backorder & Special Order Management:
Enabled clear tracking of backordered items and allowed incoming shipments to be reserved directly for customer orders, ensuring items reached the correct customer immediately.

Non-Stock Financial Handling:
Separated special orders from regular inventory so non-stock items no longer distorted average cost or COGS, preserving clean financial reporting.

Automated Communication:
Automated customer and vendor email workflows, including tracking vendor correspondence and reducing manual follow-ups.

Unified Order Processing:
Standardized order handling and pricing logic so staff could process orders quickly and consistently at the counter.

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Results

With VitalGap, S&J Lighting eliminated manual tracking of special orders and backorders. Staff could immediately see what was arriving, who it belonged to, and when it should ship. Counter service became faster, vendor coordination required less effort, and financial records remained accurate even with frequent special orders.

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Impact

The new workflows reduced operational friction across the business. Employees spent less time coordinating internally and more time serving customers. The system created predictable order handling and gave the company confidence to handle higher order volume without increasing complexity.

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