SmartTurn Will Streamline Inventory Management to Help Renovate and Build 100 Homes

SmartTurn Will Streamline Inventory Management to Help Renovate and Build 100 Homes

OAKLAND, CA and LOS ANGELES—May 9, 2007—SmartTurn, the leading on-demand Warehouse and Inventory Management System provider, announced today that it has partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles. The partnership will accelerate and streamline the inventory management for the Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP) 2007, which will bring together thousands of volunteers in Los Angeles to build and renovate 100 homes in one week, Oct. 28-Nov. 2, 2007.

Designed for quick implementation, ease-of-use, and real-time inventory accuracy, SmartTurn will help Habitat for Humanity manage its inventory and warehouse operations more efficiently. The SmartTurn™ Warehouse and Inventory Management System provides real-time visibility for the quantity, location, and status of housing materials needed by Habitat’s volunteers to renovate 70 homes in Los Angeles and to build 30 additional homes in San Pedro and South Los Angeles.

"SmartTurn will allow Habitat for Humanity to build more houses quickly and efficiently with less time spent worrying about the flow of supplies, inventory, tracking, and allocation necessary to make this project a success", said Dave McKechnie, JCWP Materials Procurement Director, "SmartTurn has the right functionality we need to optimize and account for $5-to $6-million-dollars worth of inventory materials. The solution will help us make sure that we get the right materials to the right place at the right time."

"SmartTurn is also a pretty easy application to use, which is important because we have a lot of volunteers coming in to use the system and we can get them up and running without a lot of training time. Anyone at any location will be able to easily manage Habitat’s inventory on demand", McKechnie added.

SmartTurn is a fully-hosted service delivered over the Internet so Habitat will not have to install any software, purchase any hardware, or worry about IT and maintenance for this project. Habitat workers have an aggressive timeframe and speed of implementation is essential. SmartTurn will be implemented in days. McKechnie said Habitat also chose SmartTurn because the inventory solution can automate several of their business processes, such as:

• Write and track purchase orders
• Input vendors, barcodes, pricing, descriptions as part of the purchase order
• Receive purchase orders by scanning bar codes and generate accounts payable reports
• Assign materials to a given bin location
• Create a pick ticket and shipping document
• Generate reports to indicate all above actions

"As part of JCWP, these homes will take a huge amount of logistics", McKechnie said, "There will be a lot of materials moving rapidly, and SmartTurn will ensure us optimal inventory control. Now in its 24th year, JCWP is an intensive week-long build that takes place in a different city around the world each year. Los Angeles was chosen as this year’s host city to raise awareness about the area’s need for affordable housing. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife will join Habitat volunteers Oct. 28-Nov.2 in Greater Los Angeles to build simple, decent and affordable homes. Volunteers participating in the week-long event will come from across the country and around the world. Celebrities and elected officials are also expected to take part in the build".

Jim Burleigh, General Manager of SmartTurn, is excited that SmartTurn will play such a significant role in the success of Habitat’s humanitarian effort. "We hope that by using SmartTurn, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles will be able to increase the average number of homes built each year for deserving families", Burleigh said, "SmartTurn will make the administration of inventory management quick and easy for Habitat for Humanity so they can focus their energy on helping the community".

About Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles

About Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles

HFH GLA (www.habitatla.org) strives to eliminate poverty housing through advocacy, education, and partnership with families in need to build simple, decent affordable housing. Since 1990, HFH GLA has built more than 190 homes, transforming the lives of hundreds of individuals. In the spring of 2007, HFH GLA kicked off a three-year campaign to build or renovate over 250 homes in the greater Los Angeles community. Nearly 100 of these homes will be completed with the help of over 2000 volunteers from around the world during the Jimmy Carter Work Project, a five-day build project this fall

To find out more about Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles, visit its website: www.habitatla.org