A luxury and streetwear e-commerce retailer that serves 114 countries and operates in multiple languages was looking for fast and effective solutions to optimize their current delivery logistics in order to ensure on-time shipment and delivery.
The Current Challenges of Improving Delivery Logistics
The primary challenge was to manage the increasing volume of incoming purchase orders which ranged in difficulty from easy and medium to hard.
Apart from the increased volume of incoming purchase orders, processing was quite a labor-intensive and time-consuming task as the purchase orders can range from a few pages upwards to 50 pages, depending on the vendor and the shopping season. Additionally, even a single page purchase order can have between 5 to 300+ line items, making this a task that is not to be taken lightly.
Additionally, every detail on these purchase orders needs to be extracted, verified and processed accurately in order to assess orders correctly and ship them as per the defined schedule. All this needs a considerable amount of dexterity and expertise to accomplish as precision data entry must be combined with real-time processing to build a successful solution.
However, apart from these factors, our primary challenge was that unlike typical purchase orders, from which one can easily extract details like the vendor information, line items, costs, taxes, etc., data processing from these purchase orders was an entirely different matter.
The client’s purchase orders were more complex and required an in-depth approach and a good understanding of the diverse data fields to extract all data accurately and ensure that the FTAs were accurate for every order.
As mentioned before, purchase orders processing cycles are also a crucial factor for timely shipment and delivery. In this case, the client requirements entailed that all shipments needed to be completed within 24 hours of receiving the orders.
The Current Process Flow and Training Requirements
The existing workflow for processing every purchase order is as follows:
- Receive shipment creation request from Merchandise coordinator.
- Verify whether or not the supplier has provided all product information by verifying the status.
- In case of any missing information, the processing analyst has to refer to the master data product list to find the product codes and identify out the remaining.
- Every vendor and product has their own unique identification code that must be entered with each purchase order. Needless to the say, the identification code needs to be entered with great care as any inaccuracies can result in incorrect shipping or delivery of the incorrect product.
- Next, the product information is then entered and the status of the vendor is updated to ensure that the order is shipped in time.
While every purchase order differs in details and complexity, there certain common data fields that need to be extracted from every order slip:
- Product Name
- Category
- Quantity
- Size
- Composition of the products (eg. material, style, etc.)
- Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
Keeping all these factors in mind, ARDEM proposed an improved workflow that was customized to the client’s processing needs and shipping cycles.
The Proposed Solution for Upgrading Delivery Logistics
ARDEM began by understanding their existing processes and evaluating their current needs. This was accomplished via a structure of constant communication with the client and the processing team.
Our next task was to study their current workflow and see how we could eliminate any existing redundancies while improving their processes.
The proposed solution put forth an upgraded combination for purchase order processing that involved the perfect combination of automated data capture and effort-based processing. In addition to this, we employ a proven methodology of double-key-data entry and programmed validation to provide close to 100% accurate data.
Alongside this, we also created a plan for training our data analysts to adapt to their process. This was necessary to create a virtual training sandbox where we ensure that every analyst’s performance is of the highest possible quality while working with a sample provided by the client. Once the quality parameters are met, the analysts are then moved onto the actual processing.
Training our analysts is an important step in the overall processing journey:
- There are a lot of different codes (product code, category code, vendor code, etc.) that need to be entered correctly.
- Each vendor/supplier invoice is different.
- The analysts have to ensure accuracy with shipments, i.e., that they are completed within the predefined cycle time so that the orders can be shipped in time.
- Additionally, if there are any discrepancies the client needs to be notified quickly in order to correct the shipment.
All of the above factors have to be kept in mind while formulating an effective solution that addresses our client’s business needs while providing cost-effective solutions.
Digital Collaboration
Our solution to comply with the time-sensitive delivery logistics requirements included a system of quick and effective collaboration with the aid of the ARDEM Collaboration Platform.
The ARDEM Collaboration Platform
A cloud-based digital platform backed by AWS services, the ARDEM Collaboration Platform allows our client to share data instantly, review the status of their process in real-time and manage their work from anywhere, anytime.
How it Works:
- ARDEM provides unique login credentials that allow our client to access the ARDEM Collaboration Manager (ACM) via a web browser.
- The cloud server is provided by AWS with strict security protocols in place along with the latest SSO protocols.
- The client can manage work assignments for their team, upload documents onto secure folders, or download output files.
- APIs can also be further built in to optimize and streamline large volume data processing needs.
Customizing Solutions for Improving Delivery Logistics:
- We utilized the ARDEM Collaboration Platform to receive shipments/purchase orders/documents and to communicate with the client team.
- Our live dashboards provide visibility into what has been received, what is currently in processing, and what has been completed.
- Reporting on all shipments can also be viewed and downloaded via ARDEM Collaboration.
As a result, we were able to help our client upgrade and improve their delivery logistics.
At ARDEM, we believe in creating effective solutions that provide impactful benefits to our clients and build long-term partnerships for long-lasting success.
If you are wondering about how we can help you improve your existing processes, get in touch with us to schedule a free consultation today!