Canon OY steel wholesale business client faced the reality of managing information flows. Typically to the industry, their operations involved a lot of inbound and outbound deliveries, and with them a large variety of documents. Manual and slow work created major bottlenecks to operational efficiency. For example, data from incoming deliveries was manually transferred from the waybills to the ERP system. This in turn tied up staff resources and took time away from more important tasks. Once the problem was identified, attention was focused on finding solution and on a system upgrade that would allow more efficient data flows.
Logistics operations are fuelled by data and the smooth flow of information is the lifeblood of efficient operations. Common objectives for logistics operations are generally the ability to respond to rapid change, optimising service and costs, optimising inventory turnover and supporting the product lifecycle. These are also areas that our customer wanted to develop.
The challenges of data flow inefficiencies and data capture were addressed in the context of a major warehouse development project. The client wanted to build an information management system that could rely on barcodes throughout the product lifecycle. They also wanted to build a system where data from the barcodes would be transferred directly to the ERP system, reducing manual work and the possibility of errors. And with deliveries of up to 90,000 units a year, the need for automation was very high.
Canon’s extensive experience in end-to-end information lifecycle solutions helped us understand the customer’s challenge and deliver solutions at the right stages. In addition, we wanted to emphasise in the project that the quality and methodology of data capture is critical for the further exploitation of the data. The generation of structured data is important for efficiency.
The solution we built was a response to the customer’s needs and brought the desired concrete improvements to the interplay between data and product logistics. For example, when information about incoming shipments is sent to the company with the waybills, the customer can use the capture technology to scan the product number, waybill number, heat number, quantity and dimensions of the product delivered, among other things. This information is routed directly to the ERP system, making the process much more straightforward than before. The development work carried out has therefore enabled the automation of logistics data management to deliver real benefits and freed up staff time for more productive work. In addition, the improvements made could be measured in terms of money, time and also peace of mind.
1. Economic benefits
By reducing manual work, operations become more efficient. Data capture also has a major impact on monitoring and forecasting inventory and its values.
2. Improved customer satisfaction
Being able to process orders more quickly can reduce delivery times and enable real-time tracking of deliveries. All this improves the customer’s perception of the organisation and builds trust and loyalty.
3. Gaining a competitive advantage
Data, when analysed, allows insights into trends and enables informed decision making. When data is available and usable, it is a true competitive advantage.
4. Ensuring compliance and managing risk
Effective information management solutions can ensure that legally required information is extracted from documents and stored. Robust solutions also have a significant role in ensuring that data is available throughout the organization and authorized stakeholders. All this reduces the risk of sanctions and reputational damage.
5. Increasing degree of digitalisation
For example, by introducing automated extraction of information from incoming documents, the increase in the degree of automation of activities will increase the degree of digitalisation of your entire organisation, benefiting everyone, both your organisation and your customers.
6. Improving employee satisfaction
When manual processes are eliminated, employee satisfaction increases dramatically, and smoothness of work reaches a new level.
If your company has processes that need improvement, please contact us. Let’s map your situation and turn industrial digitalisation into a workable job with practical benefits.
Benefit from efficient information management
