Zurn Corporation started out by manufacturing a patented backwater valve. Today it manufactures and distributes one of the most diverse plumbing products packages in the world. Zurn’s products include; Specification Drainage Operation, AQUAFLUSH flush valves, AQUASENSE sensor-operated plumbing products, AQUASPEC commercial faucets, Wilkins, Zurn Light Commercial, Flo-Thru™, the Chemical Drainage Systems, Zu​rn PEX Plumbing Systems and Zurn Radiant Heat. This wide variety of products requires manufacturing, assembly, distribution and service of plumbing products and accessories.

A typical Zurn warehouse order includes pre and user-defined kits made up of parts from multiple locations and suppliers. Employees often filled orders at warehouses using pick lists and order forms and any unfilled orders were marked as back-ordered​. Back-orders were faxed to warehouses with similar stock. Faxing was time consuming and often delayed orders from being filled and often times produced duplicate orders. In addition to manually faxing back-orders, the accuracy of manually stocked inventory levels was an issue because this information was not maintained or available in real-time.

Distributed Network Software (DNS) and the Zurn warehousing team created a warehouse solution named ZPPG Online. ZPPG Online is hybrid warehousing software that focuses mainly on generating orders. Key metrics of an order at a Zurn warehouse include pick lists, inventory level reports and status reports of an order. Zurn turned to DNS to produce a fully functional warehouse solution that exceeds their needs. DNS used standard developmen​t methods and Microsoft Visual Studio software to create industry specific warehouse software for Zurn. ZPPG Online is used today to create orders, track the status of orders, create order documentation and instantly transmit back orders to other warehouses for fulfillment. Microsoft Terminal Server across the Internet is used to distribute ZPPG Online to multiple warehouses.

The fact that ZPPG Online centralized inventory of multiple warehouses to a single location eliminates back-order delays and greatly reduces inventory inaccuracies. Employees now spend less time faxing orders and more time producing additional orders. Along with Zurn’s relationships with customers, ZPPG Online has enhanced the business’s overall competitiveness. Customer satisfaction is on the rise as internal efforts are more focused on growth and less on troubleshooting customer orders.