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How to automate the quality verification process and improve warehouse complaint management? How to optimize the delivery control when up to several dozen trucks are coming to the warehouse daily? Could this be done more efficiently, along with eliminating paper in the process? The technology is here to help – at Solwit, we have created a web app for our client. It optimizes the warehouse complaint process.
Managing the warehouse and warehouse complaints is a rough challenge. Large retail chains, mainly in the food industry, are struggling most with the problem.
A large FMCG retail company decided to cooperate with Solwit to solve numerous problems related to complaint management. The application was meant to be a response to the needs of the client. They expected not only the creation of a system but also the unification of the report base and access to historical warehouse data. Our development team has created an app dedicated to warehouse workers who control the delivery of perishable products.
So far, the delivery complaint process in the company has been manual. In this case, the quality control concerned only food products and was mainly an organoleptic examination. The employee checked such features as the number, label, color, and firmness of the products, smell (which is essential especially in the case of products such as fish or meat), packaging condition, temperature, etc. The batch must meet the established quality criteria to pass the inspection successfully.
Notes from the quality control were made on paper and then transcribed into Excel sheets. Complaint processes require specific documentation, including photos, justifications, and data such as the type of defect or number of deficiencies. A complete set of such information had to be sent by e-mail to each supplier separately. It was time-consuming and highly ineffective. The working time of the employee responsible for the control of deliveries was not efficient – movement and documentation took time, which could be spent on, for example, a more precise quality control. From the perspective of Lean Management, this is a typical example of waste, as most of these activities are not essential to the process and do not bring any added value to the customer.
The solution proposed by Solwit was meant to solve all these problems. We created a web app that had the required functionalities. First, it eliminated unnecessary processes, such as copying information from paper to Excel and then into separate e-mails to suppliers.
The web application simplified submitting complaints to the maximum. The user fills in the form, uploads photos, and that’s it. The system sends the information to the supplier by itself. In addition, the app is compatible with the barcode readers, which speeds up the identification process even more.
And that is still not everything. The app provides constant access to real-time data such as daily and monthly reports. It shows statistics such as the quality of deliveries from a given partner, impacting further business decisions. Additionally, the app has access to warehouse data from other systems used in the company, which, again, improves its effectiveness.
Technologies and tools used in the project: .NET Core Web API, RabbitMQ, Angular 9.
The warehouse complaint process is fundamental in an FMCG business, but as you can see, it can be a stage with many delays and irregularities. Facing a huge rotation of goods in warehouses, multiple deliveries, and the responsibility to care for their quality, standardization, automation, and optimization become inevitable.
The web application developed by our team eliminated all unnecessary actions, shortened the time of the complaint process, and unlocked valuable resources. Thanks to it, a quality control employee can almost entirely focus on the correct identification of defects and shortages of goods. The time once spent on rewriting data can now be spent on a thorough examination of the products.
In addition, the app gives access to previously unavailable analytical data that may impact further business decisions. The app also fits perfectly into pro-environmental attitudes by eliminating paper documentation. Comprehensive ecological solutions that solve problems and bring additional benefits – these are the solutions we like best.
