Mobile Solution Eliminates Manual Process
Inefficiencies
With the increased efficiency of a mobile data
collection solution, this company has grown 60% without having to hire an
additional office employee.
Integrated
Solutions, October 2008
Written by: Sarah
Howland
Alpine
Valley Bread Company (Alpine) is a bakery headquartered in
Arizona
with 14 distributors who deliver
products to approximately 200 separate locations of natural food stores and
grocery chains, such as Costco. With the distributors visiting a growing number
of sites each day, Alpine’s manual process for delivering and ordering product
was becoming cumbersome and inefficient.
Each
distributor is responsible for managing the delivery and ordering of bread at
each customer site. The distributor would take an order to a site, remove the
stale bread (according to date codes), calculate the sellable amount left
on-site, and determine the quantities of each bread for the next order. The
distributor would write down the stale bread dollar amount to be credited (the
store receives a credit for stale bread) and order information and provide the
store with a hand-written credit memo. The distributor also provided the
customer with an invoice generated at headquarters prior to delivery. If there
were any discrepancies, changes to the invoice had to be made manually. After
leaving the store, the distributor would call in to headquarters to relay the
order for the next delivery. The call center would complete a written order
form and enter the data into Alpine’s QuickBooks system for processing.
An
apparent inefficiency in Alpine’s manual process was the duplication of efforts
in ordering. Further, the stale bread data being relayed was only an overall
dollar amount to be credited. Knowing what bread is staling at which site would
allow Alpine to take measures to lower its stale bread rate, which would
increase its profitability. In May of 2006, Ann Wise, COO of Alpine, began
looking for a solution to automate the distributor process and eliminate these
inefficiencies.
Real-Time
Connectivity Increases
Mobile
Workforce
Effectiveness
Wise and a team of decision makers researched four software vendors before
deciding on ServQuest and MINIMATE from Prism Visual Software. ServQuest is
desktop software, hosted at Alpine’s headquarters, which tracks service
history, creates invoices, and integrates with the bakery’s QuickBooks
accounting system. MINIMATE is a handheld application that links the
distributors with the headquarters database, displays customer histories, and
calculates invoices. “We chose Prism Visual Software because they took more
time than the other vendors to understand our business processes and what we
were looking for,” says Wise. “They became a business partner, rather than
making us feel like we were ‘just a sale.’” Alpine also chose a Motorola MC70
handheld computer and O’Neil microFlash 8i portable printer for the distributors
to use on-site.
Installation
began in October of 2006, and currently 30% of the distributors are using it.
Alpine decided to phase in the solution to allow time for ample training for
each distributor and to ensure a seamless transition for the customers. The
first step of the installation was to purchase a server to host the ServQuest
application. A local IT company installed the server, and Prism Visual Software
loaded the software remotely. Once the software was installed, all customer and
item data had to be entered. As each distributor begins using the solution, the
software is loaded onto the Motorola MC70 via USB connection at Alpine’s
headquarters.
After
using Prism Visual Software’s video training materials to train management on
the solution, Alpine management decided to create its own training program for
the distributors. The company chose a distributor it felt had a high level of
acceptance and understanding of the technology to begin using the solution
first and be used as a template for a training manual. “We found out this may
not have been the optimal approach,” says Wise. “Since this distributor’s level
of technology comfort and knowledge was so high, we found that this wasn’t on
par with everyone else’s.” To compensate, Wise or a sales manager goes into the
field with each distributor the first week they use the solution to go over the
manual and do hands-on training with them. Alpine has found that the complete
training process for each distributor takes approximately two months.
Automate
Ordering To Prevent Errors
Now, the delivery and ordering process is automated for the distributors who
are using the solution. As a distributor delivers an order of bread, they enter
into the handheld the quantity and type of each stale loaf and the quantity of
each bread remaining on the shelf. The software automatically generates the
next order based on desired quantity at the site and communicates the order
directly to the ServQuest application at Alpine headquarters. Using the
Motorola MC70 and O’Neil 8i printer, the distributor prints a professional and
accurate invoice and credit memo for the customer. With the detailed stale
bread information that the solution provides, Alpine has more insight into its
stale rates, enabling the company to manage its accounts more closely. For
instance, if a distributor is routinely ordering 50 loaves of wheat bread, but
20 are repeatedly going stale, the system indicates the optimal quantity to
order based on sales history for the past four weeks. This allows the distributor
to adjust the ordering accordingly and prevents mistakes that could occur with
the manual process.
With
deployment to only 30% of the distributors, Alpine has already reduced its
stale rate by 15%. “As a result of increased productivity, our business has
grown 60% without the company having to hire any additional office employees,”
says Wise. Alpine plans to complete deployment of the solution to the entire
distributor force over the next
year.
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