HardwareBox Streamlines Operations and Reduces Warehouse Costs

​by Andrew Gurney, Managing Director, www.scansku.com

HardwareBox is an Australian based Interior Hardware brand exporting to over 35 countries. With 55% year on year growth and new warehouse facility in Michigan, U.S., HardwareBox has long believed in the importance of keeping product quality and design standards high, whilst exceeding customer service exceptions.

The Challenge

Retailing door levers should be easy, right? Well for HardwareBox, their unique custom door lever offer as well as worldwide shipping, made this seemingly simple supply chain much more complex!

HardwareBox is unique in its market, in which it allows customers to design their door lever style, and finish/color through the company’s website. Whilst a great offering for the customer, this makes managing inventory for each component of the lever a nightmare, particularly when you’re only using spreadsheets!

“We give our customers great flexibility and allow them to be creative in designing their door lever. When they’ve gone through that process they become emotionally invested in the end result. The last thing we want to do is send them the wrong items!” David, HardwareBox’s Operations Manager, explains.

With rapid growth and a geographically expanding customer base, HardwareBox’s warehouse staff were spending 30% of their time undertaking manual processes in updating orders, booking shipments, adjusting inventory and providing tracking details to customers. HardwareBox was using a basic front end eCommerce system and operated a paper based warehouse which involved staff moving between pick-face and the office, in order to be able to update order or inventory data. This manual process was costing HardwareBox significant losses in stock due to manual errors, and higher warehouse costs with the staff tied up completing low-value activities.

The Solution

HardwareBox selected a new platform which combines the ScanSKU M Series Barcode Scanners from ScanSKU with Ecomdash (Inventory Management), and Sendle , HardwareBox’s shipping platform.

David evaluated several options for solving their challenge, although decided on this pairing of platforms for simplicity to use and ease of implementation.

Replacing HardwareBox’s paper based operation, the new platforms’ functionality allows David, and his warehouse staff, to receive and view pick orders on the ScanSKU Scanner, update their status, check and update inventory and book shipments. “This is now completed all whilst out on the warehouse floor with no requirement to move between the warehouse and office to manage orders or inventory” David explains.

Training the staff on using the new ScanSKU Scanners and platforms took less than 2 hours and David and his team were seeing benefits from day 1 of implementation.

By redesigning HardwareBox’s system, ScanSKU and Ecomdash provide real time and intelligent data to the Management team on sales whilst providing the customer with an up to date status of their order as it moves through the supply chain. Inventory losses have reduced by over 18% through the ability of HardwareBox to cycle count, investigate and update inventory during the picking process.

Features HardwareBox uses most

Certainly the biggest feature was the ability to check and update inventory. As the Inventory synchronizes with the website, accurate inventory is critical for HardwareBox to ensure they can fulfil the customer order without creating backorders. “It also used to take 2 hours to update Inventory” David says “now this can be done as we pick the orders, in just seconds”.

“Further to this, with our new new Mobile functionality enabled we are able to identify damaged goods on receipt, snap a photo, and upload into the cloud (using dropbox app) to be sent to our suppliers- that’s a lot of time saved”

In addition to the time saved, HardwareBox’s new ability to book shipments on the warehouse floor means the courier receives the booking faster than ever before. “This means potentially a pick up the same day from the courier rather than the following day” David explains “to a customer, these savings of minutes here and there, are critical in building our relationship with them”.

The Numbers

About ScanSKU

ScanSKU develops and manufactures held-held Android Based Barcode Hardware Solutions. ScanSKU partners with app and software developers in Inventory, POS, Asset Management and Mobile Invoicing Industries, to ensure the the customer can begin using the solution right out of the box.

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