A wholesale distributor on the Belgian market / Warehouse automation
How a wholesale distributor automated their warehouses with a custom mobile app.
One of our partners brought us on board to help them build a custom app for an important client. The client started as a small family business but had grown enormously over the last few years. As a wholesale distributor they currently have a number of warehouses all over Belgium.
The client's existing order picking process was still largely done with pen and paper and required manual data entry to their ERP system. Due to their fast growth business operations weren't able to keep up and they were lagging behind in terms of digitalization.
We were able to quickly build an app that, with the help of strategically placed barcodes in their warehouse, was able to completely digitalize their existing workflow. Instead of pen and paper the warehouse workers now carry an android phone with scanning functionality and data gets transferred automatically to the ERP system.
who
A wholesale distributor on the Belgian market
This wholesale distributor of plumbing fixtures and heating has over 600 employees and nearly 30 sales locations all over Belgium. They have a long standing relationship with one of our partners, who in turn trusted us on numerous occasions to help them build various software components. For this particular project our technical expertise was valued to build a specialized Progressive Web App with scanning functionality.
challenge
Slow and error prone order picking operations
The client had been growing rapidly and had developed their own internal operations that worked well for them but as they grew bigger the overhead that came with their day-to-day operations kept growing as well. They hadn't taken the time to improve their processes and because of rapid growth it was difficult to prepare the company for further scaling in a sustainable manner.
The warehouse order picking system was still largely based on pen and paper while at the same time they relied on manual data entry to their ERP system. Other digitalization solutions, as those that come with certain ERP systems, were outdated, not easy to use and configure and expensive to set up and maintain.
solution
Digitalize the current process through a mobile app equiped with barcode scanning functionality
An app was developed to digitalize the current warehouse order picking process in the most straightforward way possible. Barcodes were placed strategically in the warehouse and every employee on the floor was given an android phone outfitted with a scanner.
Instead of paper forms the floor workers could receive their orders directly on the app, move around the floor and scan any items that were picked for the order. This data was then directly send to the ERP system for further processing, eliminating the need for any manual data entry.
The app was specifically made to be easy to use and needed very little training as we stayed very close to the existing procedures, which worked well for the company.
outcome
The client was very enthousiastic about the provided solution and quickly came back with more ideas for automation of their warehouse
Warehouse workers are much happier and efficient working with the new system
Because of the new system all mistakes due to manual data entry are expunged
The order picking process has been sped up significantly