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Inventory Management: Technology for Home-Town Service
In the last issue, we talked about a parts supplier who wanted
to provide home-town service to customers yet grow the business
beyond the constraints of face-to-face interactions. Many of the
customers did not know the item number of the part they needed
and wanted the friendly counter services they would get at the
local hardware store.
The technology provided two alternate solution paths. The
customer could place their order on-line and upload a picture of
the item. These orders are directed to an interactive exception queue where a
specialist would attempt to identify the part. Alternatively, the
customer could print a bar-coded sample tracking form that could
be attached to the item and shipped to the part identification
specialist. The specialist identifies the item and recodes the
order -- counter-service without the counter.
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