Technology Case Studies - Purchasing

Tiling

Tiling contractor - 40 employees - £2m turnover

The Challenge

To reserve ceramic tiles for their projects they wrote out orders that were faxed to its main supplier. However, by the time the fax had been processed the stock had often been sold to people using technology for more efficient purchasing.

Their main supplier had for years offered EDI to its customers.

But like many smaller firms, they felt they did not know enough about computing to take advantage of this opportunity and were reluctant to commit the time and money resources needed to set up EDI links.

The Answer

They found an alternative way of trading electronically - by accessing their supplier's Web site on the Internet. They can now see directly into the supplier's system. They can check current stock levels, and delivery schedules. Using e-mail, they can reserve stock straight away.

The Benefits

E-mail is cheap, reliable, and available 24 hours a day so can be used whenever a firm like it does its ordering and administration.

A bed manufacturer uses integrated procurement and manufacturing control software to translate its customers' orders into purchase orders to its raw material suppliers worldwide. Orders are issued via EDI. The system helps cut delivery times for customer's order from four weeks to one. Overall, stockholding of raw materials and finished goods has been reduced by 50%. The company estimates that, by integrating electronic purchasing with manufacturing and sales, the software has already saved it £450,000.