Benjy’s Implements Mobile Replenishment Solution for Less Bread
Value
sandwich retailer Benjy’s needed an effective way
to replenish 380 fast selling product lines across its 50
London stores on a daily basis. With the help of solution
provider Information Systems Associates, the company has
implemented a new, wireless solution built on the Microsoft
.NET Compact Framework. This helps the company capture orders
using information about stock levels and predicted sales.
The result is fast, accurate replenishment ordering and
a wealth of sales information to help with strategic decisions.
Inventory Management Challenge
For all fast moving consumer goods stores, replenishment
and inventory management present significant challenges.
Where products have a short shelf-life, reducing out of
stock items and minimising inventory is even more difficult.
These
were critical issues for Benjy’s, London’s leading
value sandwich chain. The store offers freshly filled traditional
and speciality bread sandwiches from 50 stores. The maximum
shelf-life for its products is one to two weeks and many
items last just one day.
With
high volume sales, it is difficult for Benjy’s to
accurately predict the number of products required for each
store on a daily basis. Previously, store managers checked
shelves and estimated the number of goods required for the
next day across all 380 product lines. These orders were
then recorded on long paper forms and faxed to a central
kitchen where sandwiches are produced.
When
these faxes arrived at the central kitchen from each of
the 50 Benjy’s stores, it was keyed into a DOS system.
This was connected to a Microsoft-based ERP system that
handles order processing. Security was an issue with the
DOS system which was also prone to excessive downtime, jeopardising
the integrity of replenishment orders.
Emma
Rickwood, Commercial Director, Benjy’s, says: “The
process of filling in paper order forms and faxing them
to the central kitchen was inefficient and prone to errors.
Initially, we wanted a solution to capture orders electronically
and transmit them more effectively. Then, we thought it
would be better to simply record the number of products
remaining in each store. From this, we could easily work
out how much more stock would be required for the next day.”
In
addition, Benjy’s wanted to record and manage its
wastage more effectively. It also wanted greater visibility
of credits—discrepancies between orders placed and
goods taken in—across each of its 50 stores.
To
achieve these benefits, retailers typically have to implement
an electronic point of sale (EPOS) system. But this option
would be too expensive for Benjy’s. As a chain-wide
initiative, it would cost up to £1m. Instead, it wanted
to work with an alternative solution that would be equally
effective, conceptually simple, secure, reliable, cost-effective,
easy to implement and straight-forward to operate.
Mobile Replenishment Solution
Solution provider Information Systems Associates (ISA) specialises
in creating mobile solutions that link to central systems..
The company contacted Benjy’s to see if the sandwich
chain would benefit from such a solution.
Together,
the companies developed a vision for a new stock control
and order replenishment system based on PocketPC and wireless
connectivity to the central order processing system.
The
new system includes a customised database for each store,
including information on the optimum numbers of products
and predicted sales. When a product is down to just two
remaining, managers use simple electronic forms on PocketPCs
to enter it into the system. A bespoke application, including
an ordering algorithm, then queries the database and works
out how many additional products are required for the next
day.
This
order is then transmitted to the central ERP system in real
time via a GPRS call. The solution also uses sales information
to calculate the wastage and credits for each store.
The
first challenge was to make the electronic form work. ISA
developers achieved this in just half a day using the Microsoft
.NET Compact Framework, a subset of the .NET Framework which
extends the benefits of developer productivity and XML Web
services to devices such as PocketPCs.
The
.NET Compact Framework makes it easy to develop applications
that work on a host of mobile devices such as PocketPC devices
and PocketPC Phones.
Thomas
Payne, Managing Director, Information Systems Associates,
says: “We then created a prototype to validate the
user interface and ensure that the solution functioned correctly
on the chosen device—o2 XDAs. These had certain important
restrictions like the absence of a numeric keypad and that
had an impact on the way we developed the solution.”
The
solution’s target platform is a Microsoft® PocketPC
phone with in-built GPRS connectivity.
This means there is no requirement for building network
infrastructure in Benjy’s stores. The communication
between the PocketPCs and the database, Microsoft SQL Server™,
is driven by a simple Web service for logging in. Meanwhile,
SQL Server™ CE—which resides on the PocketPC
devices—synchronises order data with the central system
via GPRS in real time. The central SQL Server database is
connected to the ERP system by a virtual private network
(VPN). |
