Mueller Industries, Inc. | Scaling High-Volume AP Automation Across a Global Manufacturing Enterprise

Enterprise Invoice Processing Automation with InvoiceAction

Client Overview: Global Manufacturing Operations Powered by Enterprise AP Automation

Founded in 1917, Mueller Industries, Inc. is a global industrial manufacturer with more than a century of experience producing essential products for critical infrastructure and industrial applications. Its companies manufacture a broad range of copper, brass, aluminum, and other engineered products across four principal business segments - Piping Systems, Climate Products, Electrical, and Industrial Metals - with operations spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Its AP environment supports numerous businesses and thousands of suppliers worldwide. That scale is matched by the complexity of the invoices moving through its AP operation: invoice values range from nominal amounts to millions in funds, creating significant demands for accuracy, visibility, and control.

Mueller has relied on Artsyl InvoiceAction since 2017 to automate invoice processing across this enterprise environment. What began with a small host of user seats has expanded over time, while the company maintains annual capacity in the hundreds of thousands of invoices. In 2025, Mueller further expanded its deployment by moving to a dedicated Artsyl cloud environment.

Today, InvoiceAction supports high-volume invoice processing alongside Mueller’s QAD Enterprise Edition environment, automating invoice capture, applying intelligent rules and validation, identifying suppliers, and moving transactions into downstream processes with less manual intervention. Mueller handles large invoice volumes in a typical month, with volumes varying across the year, helping the organization maintain accuracy, control, and productivity at enterprise scale.

When Growth Outpaced a Manual AP Process

By 2016 and 2017, Mueller’s growing operations had pushed its paper-based AP process to the limit. Vendors mailed invoices to manufacturing facilities, where documents were reviewed, manually coded, approved, and then physically shipped to corporate accounts payable for processing. When discrepancies were found, invoices could be sent back to the originating facility for correction and resubmission - sometimes traveling back and forth multiple times before payment was completed.

The process was consuming time, increasing shipping costs, and putting growing pressure on both AP staff and executive leadership.

“They were always exhausted. They were unhappy about the process.”
- Dana Wininger, Director of Corporate Accounting and Shared Services, Mueller Industries
“The antiquated process resulted in excessive overnight charges for invoices going to and from the facilities and corporate.”
- Dana Wininger

At the same time, Mueller was managing suppliers across multiple countries, multiple currencies, and increasingly complex invoice activity. Every invoice still required manual review, coding, matching, and intervention. As the business continued to scale, the limitations of that model became impossible to ignore.

“Everything was 100% on paper, manually keyed.”
- Dana Wininger
“They were manually matched, manually keyed, manually coded.”
- Dana Wininger

And the staffing implications of continued growth were equally clear.

“We probably would have ended up with 20 unhappy AP people, if not more.”
- Dana Wininger

The business was scaling. The AP process was not.

As invoice volumes continued to grow, Mueller began looking for a more scalable way to manage invoice processing without adding more manual effort, storage, and administrative overhead. In 2017, the company implemented Artsyl InvoiceAction to introduce invoice processing automation into its AP operation and create a foundation that could support continued growth.

From Paper Files to Intelligent Invoice Automation

Before implementing InvoiceAction, Mueller’s AP operation depended heavily on paper. Thousands of filing cabinets were spread across the organization, external storage providers were used to archive documents, and historical records were even stored in former mining facilities simply because space was available.

“We had thousands of file cabinets all over. I mean, I could say the world.”
- Dana Wininger

With InvoiceAction, that paper-intensive environment shifted to digital invoice processing. Invoices and supporting documents can now be captured, processed, indexed, validated, and moved electronically through the AP workflow, reducing the need for physical storage and document handling. Paper-based archiving has largely been replaced by digital access, while invoices that once traveled between facilities and corporate AP can now move through the process electronically.

The transformation goes far beyond eliminating filing cabinets. By combining automated invoice capture with intelligent rules, validation, and downstream processing, Mueller moved from a paper-driven AP model to a scalable intelligent invoice automation environment built for enterprise operations.

Scaling InvoiceAction for High-Volume Enterprise Processing

Since the initial rollout in 2017, Mueller’s use of InvoiceAction has expanded from a handful of user seats to roughly three times as many users, reflecting how invoice automation became embedded across a much broader enterprise AP operation rather than remaining a limited departmental deployment. Today, InvoiceAction supports processing across more than 40 businesses and thousands of suppliers, with annual invoice capacity into the hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands invoices handled in a typical month, with volumes varying across the year. At that scale, automation must deliver far more than speed - it must support consistent processing, validation, exception handling, and visibility across a complex, multi-business environment. In 2025, Mueller took the next step by moving to a dedicated Artsyl cloud environment, providing an infrastructure designed around the scale of its deployment and long-term processing needs. The transition built on years of successful upgrades and continued expansion of the platform.

More AP Productivity Without More Headcount

As Mueller’s invoice volumes and business complexity grew, InvoiceAction helped the AP operation scale without requiring a proportional increase in staffing. Instead of adding people simply to keep pace with more invoices, the company increased productivity within the team already in place.

“We increased productivity over the years without adding additional heads from the initial rollout.”
- Dana Wininger

The impact extended beyond accounts payable. In some facilities, employees who had previously spent much of their time entering and processing invoices were able to redirect that capacity toward purchasing support, research, accounting activities, document management, and other operational responsibilities. Rather than allowing invoice volume to dictate headcount, Mueller used automation to increase the value its existing teams could contribute across the business.

Intelligent Invoice Processing for Accuracy and Control at Scale

Before automation, Mueller’s manual invoice process created opportunities for duplicate invoices, supplier-selection errors, and incorrect payments. With InvoiceAction operating alongside QAD Enterprise Edition, intelligent rules and validation now help identify suppliers correctly, flag exceptions, and apply greater control throughout invoice processing.

“Accuracies improved significantly.”
- Dana Wininger

That control extends across the invoice lifecycle. Mueller can more easily identify missing invoices, missing receipts, unmatched transactions, and exceptions requiring attention, while transactions that meet established criteria can move automatically into downstream processes with significantly less manual intervention.

“Everything is working faster, better, and more efficiently than it did before.”
- Dana Wininger

Responsive Support Behind a Long-Term AP Automation Partnership

Over nearly a decade of production use, Mueller’s relationship with Artsyl has extended far beyond the original implementation. As the company completed upgrades, moved to the cloud, introduced new workflows, and adapted to changing processing requirements, Artsyl continued to provide hands-on support and dependable project resources.

That long-term relationship has also been reinforced by consistent implementation and upgrade execution. Mueller completed multiple upgrades over the years, including its transition to the cloud, with projects delivered against the timelines established at the outset.

“Every upgrade implementation was always on schedule based on the timeline that was given up front.”
- Dana Wininger

The cloud transition became another milestone in that evolution, building on years of successful upgrades and collaboration.

“The second major upgrade or implementation by going to the cloud was much easier.”
- Dana Wininger

Just as important, Mueller consistently points to the people behind the technology. As new requirements emerged, Artsyl remained closely involved in helping the company adapt its automation environment.

“The project has always had people assigned to it from Artsyl who are very dependable.”
- Dana Wininger
“They respond very quickly.”
- Dana Wininger

That responsiveness has helped Mueller continue expanding and refining its automation environment as new business needs emerged. Over time, the relationship became about more than technology alone - the combination of dependable support, successful implementations, and continued results reinforced Mueller’s decision to stay with Artsyl.

“That's the whole reason why I'm still using Artsyl.”
- Dana Wininger

That long-term confidence is reflected just as clearly in Dana’s view of the partnership:

“Working with Artsyl has been very successful.”
- Dana Wininger

Today, InvoiceAction is no longer simply an automation project for Mueller - it has become part of the operational infrastructure supporting a large, global AP environment. When Dana was asked whether Mueller could operate at its current scale without Artsyl, her answer was immediate:

“Oh, no.”
- Dana Wininger

After nearly a decade of high-volume production use, InvoiceAction continues to support the scale, accuracy, productivity, and evolving AP requirements of Mueller’s global enterprise.