Automating Field Service Warehouse Inventory
Our team transformed a paper-based process into a digital one through the Microsoft power platform eliminating inventory discrepancies.
Digital Process Automation
Microsoft Power Platform
Inventory discrepancy reduction
Project Overview
COVID-19 led to supply chain disruptions and breakdowns in key business processes. Deer Park Roofing was not shielded from these effects as many of their staff transitioned to working from home. As the busy season came and went in their residential division, they were left with a large discrepancy between the book value and physical counts of inventory. We were tasked with determining the root cause and developing a solution to prevent it in the future. After, meeting with the process stakeholders we determined there was a breakdown in the current paper-based process. There was often confusion around who was responsbible for entering the paper transaction tickets for the warehouse leading to them being lost or not entered. The large volume of tickets and repetitive nature led to a great digital process automation candidate.
The Solution
Our first step in building an automated process was to build a way for the warehouse team to digitally track warehouse inventory entering and leaving for jobsites. Utilizing a Microsoft Powerapp presented itself as the best solution due to low cost and ease of support over time. Our team collaborated with process stakeholders to create an app that was simple and intuitive to use.
The second phase of this project was utilizing an unattended digital robot to import this data into their legacy accounting software. Power Automates native integrations with Power Automate made is the best choice for this implementation. We collaborated with Deer Park Roofing's accounting team and their accounting software provider to optimize the process. Once the process optimized, we began building out the automation. Within 6 weeks we were able to completely transform a paper-based process into a fully digital and automated process. Check out the video below to see what automation in action looks like. Everything you see below happens on a separate computer without human interaction.
*All data in the following videos are for demo purposes and do represent actual Deer Park Roofing data.
Project Results
Transforming a paper-based process to an automated and digital process led to Deer Park Roofing almost eliminating their book value discrepancy. Within the first month they saw a 98% reduction in their inventory discrepancy. They were also able to take advantage of the additional analytics for the most popular items and begin stocking them on trucks to reduce go backs.
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