Have you ever been approached by a customer that wants to have a managed inventory solution but is either too far from your facility or wants to control the inventory levels themselves? The Business Edge solves these problems by giving your customer a simple and accurate process to manage their own inventory replenishment cycle.
How Customer Managed Inventory works:
Start off by contacting Computer Insights to get pricing for a customer web user license. This will allow your customer to utilize TBE Mobile software to scan and submit orders.
Product codes that will be included in their CMI program are then set up in the Business Edge just as if they were a VMI customer using the Customer BIN file. (Required information for each product code is the same, ex. bin location, min, max, production cell, etc.)
Bin labels are printed and provided to your customer for installation in their facility
Your customer installs the TBE Mobile app on an Android OS or Apple iOS mobile device (tablet or mobile phone) connected to the internet.
You grant your customer web user access to your TBE database. This access level provides them with a username and password to access TBE Mobile and gives them visibility to only the items set up in their specific BIN file. See Configure Web Users section of the TBE-Mobile-User-Guide.
You provide training to your customer(s) for creating and submitting an order using the TBE Mobile app.
The TBE Mobile app is then used by your customer(s) to scan barcodes, create their own orders and upload them to your system just as if they were one of your sales representatives. Full instructions for using this functionality in the TBE Mobile software is located in the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) section of the TBE-Mobile-User-Guide.
Benefits for you, the supplier:
Your customer(s) review their own inventory then scan and transmit orders directly to The Business Edge. The orders can come directly into the system or you can get a notification and import them from the menu. This is the same process as Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), except customers do the scanning instead of your sales representatives
The end customer has more control over what is ordered and you can still provide them with a more timely and accurate replenishment cycle.
By providing your customer with the tools to manage their own inventory, you can service customers that are outside of your traditional VMI service area and allow them to place orders whenever it is convenient for them.
Benefits for your customer:
Your customer controls the ordering process which eliminates their potential concerns of over ordering, duplicate orders, missing critical items, etc.
Your customer scans according to their schedule and when it makes sense for them, not on a set frequency of when a sales representative is onsite.
Eliminates order entry errors encountered with a standard purchase order process and is much easier than creating and submitting purchase orders manually.
Multiple areas can be set up inside their facility to enable the splitting of incoming scans onto separate orders for each area. This makes it easier for the end-user to put away the product and keep track of usage in each area.
Your customer controls their own inventory levels, has better visibility of their actual usage and can adjust their fill rate to prepare for increased or decreased usage levels.