The app allows users to create their own QR/bar codes, scan QR/bar codes, select the right quantities of product they want to order and to complete an order in the Eriks web shop. The QR codes generated can be affixed on a customer’s racking, boxes or wherever their machine is, and their process is then integrated into the Eriks web shop.
Users can also search for products, to set up a favourites list and to build a shopping cart – as people do when they use Amazon or other web shops. The app shows the lead time for products, which are picked, dispatched and delivered in 24 hours to most of the UK via Eriks’ Fulfilment Centre of Excellence in Oldbury in the West Midlands.
Mick Holland, Eriks chief product officer, said: “The App removes the challenge of distance and allows customers to interact seamlessly with our IT system in a way that adds genuine value and a great deal of process efficiency. It’s important to note that this is a replenishment process – it's not vendor managed inventory, it’s not an inventory management algorithm and it’s not stock control – it is however what most people need.”
“Many of our customers are what I would call ‘the busy buyer’” Holland continued. “Our product is not their core focus, it’s a small percentage of their overall spending. They need to follow a set of purchasing procedures as they cannot allow what I call ‘maverick spending’ - where people order what they want without following a rigorous set of criteria. We want to unburden the busy buyer in this regard.”
Those using the app can specify a purchase order number that applies to a selection or all maintenance products. This allows the busy buyer to give autonomy to their engineers to buy products up to a certain spend limit and then receive all the spending information on one invoice at the end of the month.
Customers can set up the system by ascertaining the part numbers and quantity per bag that they want. They can then drop that information into a list on the web shop and output QR/bar codes onto labels on a standard printer which they can then fix to the shelf, tote or storage area ready to scan to replenish. As part of the Eriks solution, users can find all the racking, twin bins and labels all in one place on the web shop.
Holland concluded: “The launch of the Digital Replenishment App is the start of a journey and our first venture in providing our customers with a fully digital experience – it's a big focus for us. The user interface means that customers will control all aspects of their digital experience with Eriks. The objective is to make us easy to work with as we become almost invisible to the buyer.”