Executive Summary
C&G Arms is a manufacturer of firearm accessories that specializes in holsters and tactical gear. Operating out of a single physical location, the company supports its open-concept production floor with a KANBAN inventory system. With a team of 30 employees, C&G Arms is rapidly scaling to support its ambitious growth goals. To improve internal efficiency and gain control over their extensive SKU catalog, C&G Arms partnered with Zenatta to implement Zoho One, starting with Zoho Inventory and expanding into additional apps.
The Challenge
Before working with Zenatta, C&G Arms relied heavily on spreadsheets to manage its core business functions, including sales, inventory, and purchasing. This manual approach caused delays in procurement and left the team constantly reacting to low stock levels rather than planning proactively.
“Before Zoho, we would run numbers quarterly on our usages and base our inventory on that, which would always leave us reacting too late.”
The company recognized the need for a structured ERP system that could streamline inventory control, production planning, and usage forecasting.
The Implementation
Zenatta began the implementation by focusing on Zoho Inventory, which became the central hub for managing the company’s 1,900+ SKUs. A highly customized system was developed to address the unique needs of C&G’s manufacturing and fulfillment operations.
Shopify Integration & Fulfillment Accuracy
C&G sells products through Shopify and initially relied on the native integration with Zoho Inventory. However, this integration often forced fulfillment—even when items hadn’t shipped—leading to data inaccuracies. Zenatta replaced and extended the integration using Zoho Flow and custom functions that:
- Automatically unforce fulfill incorrect orders.
- Sync tracking information and shipment statuses between platforms.
- Capture draft dealer orders and convert them to finalized orders once approved.
- Maintain accurate stock levels and fulfillment statuses in real time.
Custom Order Types and Shop Sheets
C&G processes three distinct order types—Quickship, Dealer, and Custom—which all have different fulfillment paths. Zenatta created logic in the system to classify and process each type based on product attributes and order contents. For each order:
- A Shop Sheet is dynamically generated to guide internal production.
- A Pick Slip is generated for customer fulfillment, with signature tracking.
- Custom line item flags (e.g., out of stock, custom, wholesale) are parsed and displayed for the production team.
Production Labeling & Inventory Insights
To support their KANBAN system, Zenatta created a comprehensive labeling workflow:
- Bin Labels dynamically calculate reorder levels based on usage trends and are printed for inventory tracking.
- Kanban Labels designate production cards by color (e.g., blue for bulk, green for stocking), helping floor teams prioritize production.
- Item and UPC Labels ensure consistency in packaging and inventory scanning.
This system is printed onto adhesive paper and used throughout the shop for visibility and tracking.
BOMs and Usage Metrics
Zenatta implemented a custom Bill of Materials (BOM) system with the following features:
- Product-level recipes linking SKUs to raw materials.
- Inventory adjustments on sale, manufacture, or purchase of items.
- Relationship mapping between shared components across multiple products.
In addition, usage metrics were developed and visualized in a Zoho Analytics dashboard, giving C&G’s team clear insight into:
- Current stock levels.
- Top-selling and low-stock products.
- Forecasted demand and usage trends.
This dashboard is now displayed on warehouse monitors, offering live insight into operations.
Creator Apps for Inventory & WIP Tracking
Zenatta built a custom Creator app to manage real-time inventory adjustments. Employees use barcode scanners to:
- Log completed production.
- Allocate stock to the correct warehouse and bin.
- Classify items as blue or green cards, bulk or stocking.
The system is expanding to include Work-In-Progress (WIP) tracking, giving visibility into where items are in the production lifecycle—CNC, molding, packaging, etc.—based on scan location. This enables:
- Queue prioritization.
- Bottleneck identification.
- Full transparency from production start to fulfillment.
The Results
C&G Arms now operates with dramatically improved visibility and control across their inventory and production systems. Key improvements include:
- Real-time inventory tracking across 1,900+ SKUs.
- Accurate fulfillment data between Shopify and Zoho.
- Structured production scheduling, reducing errors and delays.
- Better usage forecasting through BOM tracking and dashboards.
“Having structure in place on what and when to produce has really helped our production floor. After working with Zenatta we are now able to contain the 1900+ SKUs we actively stock.”
-Christopher Burns – Founder and President of C&G Arms LLC