Customer Inventory Management Website

how they came to us

Inefficient and manual inventory

A contracting client of ours approached us with a problem: they were losing their tool inventory at a higher rate than they should. They found their current, all manual process of distributing and returning tools for jobs lead to some chaos. Some employees misplaced tools and forgot to notify anybody, some would give the tools they took to another employee who would take it on a job it wasn't expected to be on, and some thought they returned a tool, only to have forgotten it was still in the truck. Others could have used them for their own personal purposes.

Overall, the process allowed for too much to get lost, and it often took a long time for management to find out that the tool was missing or never returned. Even worse, when they investigated where the tool had gone, the search often became a he-said-she-said of who lent it to whom and where they left it and who found it lying around.

our approach

Custom management of tools

Our approach to the tool request process focused on making the first half of tool usage easy with the second half being more manual to reduce the amount of inventory loss they had. The process of taking tools on a job could be improved to ensure the return of the tools was more likely.

First, we built a bare-bones version of an e-shop for them. This would be the structure that would allow them to both automatically request tools and manually go in and mark tools as returned. All tools would need to be part of this system and marked with their SKU or item number. They would be set at $0 because the purpose was to track, not buy. The checkout system was also modified to remove most of the normal e-shop requirements and include more useful fields such as where the tool was being brought and who was in charge of the job. This information was useful going forward in ensuring the person who requested the tool and the person in charge of the job were clearly marked and known. If any tools ended up missing, it was easy to know exactly who last had it at which job shortly after it should have been returned.

The largest part of the project was the importing process. Because they had hundreds of tools, some with variations within each tool type, we utilized a built-in import process. We assisted the client in creating a spreadsheet that would allow them to add, remove, and change info, then import the sheet into the website to bulk-update or bulk-add items. We also created a lengthy document with step-by-step instructions for them to use as a guide.

Finally, the process to return tools to the shop was kept manual, requiring the manager to log in and mark the tool as back in stock on the site. This was kept as manual as possible because it prevents employees from simply marking a tool returned when it was not, and it tracks who makes edits to the tools on the website, deterring any manager from lying about the tool being returned. This level of accountability helped reduce any confusion, which led to less tool losses.