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Customer centricity is a lot more than good customer service or a positive customer journey.

For years, business owners and managers have grappled with new ways to provide a better customer experience. From focused email campaigns to self-service tools, manufacturing organizations are trying any and every tactic to remove the friction from customer interactions.

The rise in self-service tools offered to customers over the past ten years isn’t an accident. Customers have often wanted the ability to track orders, check on production status, and view their lie of credit. The world works on a seven-day-a-week schedule with little to no downtime. Limiting customers to 9-5 accessibility doesn’t work, especially when manufacturing shops are working around the clock. With manufacturing organizations managing long hours and extended work weeks, customers often prefer to gather the necessary information for their accounts and orders when it’s convenient for them. And given how often job statuses change, it makes sense that self-service tools have become a popular addition to offerings by many manufacturing companies over the last decade.

The term customer-centric, however, extends far beyond self-service tools. A customer-centric mentality means focusing every aspect of your business on filling the needs of your customer targets. Product development would deliver products based on customer needs. Finance, credit, and procurement would also center their processes on what best serves the customer. The entire business is customer-facing, customer-focused, and customer-driven. It’s far beyond good customer service and it’s a lot more than a streamlined customer experience.

HOW DOES A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC PHILOSOPHY BENEFIT A BUSINESS?

Customer-centric companies target customers’ wants, needs, and desires, constantly striving to surpass expectations and be the best in their market. This approach to building “customers for life” is meant to eliminate the need to continually rebuild business units with new customers. The ultimate goal of the business is to attract customers with a focused product, engage them with answers to their questions and information about processes, and then begin working with those customers to deliver the best experience possible. Therefore, the production and delivery phase should focus on customer touchpoints and optimizing these points of interaction. All processes should be customer-oriented, focusing on ease of use and not necessarily the most streamlined approach for the seller. The ultimate goal is to keep customers working with you long-term and minimize the need to acquire massive amounts of new customers each quarter.

HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC APPROACH?

Many companies moving to a customer-centric mindset start by talking with their customers. Surveys, customer advisory boards, and feedback from employees in customer-facing roles can all add up to crafting new processes and strategies to get your company in line with your customers. Oftentimes, friction between a company and its customers is easy to identify. Things like customer complaints, reasons they chose to work with your competitor, rather than your company, and public reviews and ratings can also help to identify areas for improvement. But a customer-centric mentality goes even deeper than this – it’s an obsessive pursuit of customer satisfaction from start to finish.

Lead and nurture email campaigns are analyzed. How much is too many emails? How long should the emails be? Every phone call, social media post, and blog are examined and refined to determine what is truly ideal for the customer. It’s a top to bottom analysis of your customer journey and can highlight areas that you didn’t know were bothersome or just not needed. In many ways, it can actually reduce the work your company puts in with your potential customers. It can refine the sales process to a few contacts or ramp up the amount of work in every aspect. Either way, it always returns to the needs and desires of your customers. If the process doesn’t result in customer delight, it is torn down, revamped, and relaunched. It’s continuous improvement and it can take a lot of dedication to complete.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND WHY TRANSPARENCY MATTERS

It is inevitable that as processes are improved, an organization changes. Change needs to be communicated, transparent, and based on customer needs. This approach drives change and change can mean the elimination of certain roles and the reduction of hours for other roles. New roles too, may be created, but it’s important to identify that your workforce is an asset and as such their expectations need to be managed. If nothing changes, an organization probably won’t stand the test of time and will eventually close. So, in order to stay strong for the future of work, an organization has to change and its leadership team needs to convey this message to their teams. It’s not about sustaining a workforce, it’s about building a customer-centric workforce – one that is committed to the plan and ready to take on new challenges.

Management will need to adapt and the culture will have to change. Listening to suggestions and hearing team feedback fuels the culture of a customer-centric business and that can’t happen until management is committed to fostering this new culture.

CONTACT US!

Interested in implementing a mobile development platform like Bezlio to help better manage your inventory and transactions? Contact us today and we can begin customizing a mobile ERP solution to address your business challenges or see our website’s Resources tab for case studies and blogs about our products and services.

Achieving accurate job costing is vital to running profitable manufacturing operations and planning for the future. In this blog we take a look at production labor and how it impacts profit, planning, and prioritizing.

WHAT IS PRODUCTION LABOR?

Production labor simply refers to the labor required to produce a product. It includes the labor costs for those employees that work on the line, run machinery, or contribute in any way to manufacturing and assembly processes.

Production labor varies from product to product and, depending on the complexity of the manufacturing process, can be very high. Highly skilled labor often comes with a larger price tag than other positions. Knowing the costs associated with job runs is a key element to determining job costing. How long is the laborer needed? How often are they working on the line? These questions and others need to be answered before you can accurately determine the cost of a job.

WHY DOES CALCULATING PRODUCTION LABOR MATTER?

Production labor costs are extremely important in the manufacturing sector as they can account for a large percentage of a job’s cost. Tracking time, labor costs, and materials used are the three components to job price estimating. Each component carries with it its own unique set of challenges to determine the cost of a manufacturing job. A lot has been made about automation and how it will streamline the process of labor costing as it’s easier to price out equipment, calculate usage costs, and estimate downtime to determine the feasibility of using a machine rather than a person to work on a manufacturing line. But replacing a person with a machine is more complicated than that.

REAL TIME IS THE REAL CHALLENGE FOR REPORTING LABOR

Real-time data is perfect for planning and prioritizing, but it’s only useful if the data is accurate. The challenge with production labor is ensuring the accuracy of the data and maintaining processes that track the movement of labor from one resource to another. In the same way that barcoding and scanning improved inventory data accuracy, mobile technology solutions like scanning and signing on to floor activities are helping to ensure accurate data for production labor.

Mobile technology took scanning items one step further as it provided companies with an easy to use solution for scanning purchase order receipts and inventory counts. Because the data is scanned and isn’t entered manually, the data is more accurate. Mobile technology results in better, more accurate data.

NEW SOLUTIONS STREAMLINE PROCESSES

Technological innovations have birthed new solutions that save time and make estimating labor production more accurate. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology pinpoints a product’s location, cutting the amount of time needed to find an item. Bezlio’s products enable faster transaction entry and simplify cycle counts. This leads to more accurate forecasting, better inventory planning, and cost containment.

CONTACT US!

Interested in implementing a mobile development platform like Bezlio to help better manage your inventory and transactions? Contact us today and we can begin customizing a mobile ERP solution to address your business challenges or see our website’s Resources tab for case studies and blogs about our products and services.

Whether running a small or large manufacturing operation, you have to constantly assess the quality of the products you produce while keeping a close eye on cost. Industrial companies depend on maximizing the production of quality goods to meet demand. Optimal production and performance while maintaining quality is challenging, so we broke down five ways to strike a balance and ensure quality control while managing profitability.

1: FOCUS ON THE QUALITY YOU WANT

First and foremost, everyone on the shop floor needs to know the level of quality you plan to produce. Define it and document it. Once that standard has been established, you can begin to look at floor processes and procedures to determine where to implement changes.

Remember, not all shop floor processes may need to be changed. Oftentimes there are processes that can be left alone, allowing for a finer focus on trouble areas within the manufacturing process. Sometimes the changes that need to be made are to actual processes on the floor, like inventory counting procedures or a transition on the manufacturing line itself. Other times the impacted areas require retraining or cross training to enable a more seamless handoff between shifts. Either way establishing the level of quality you expect is a vital first step to achieving it.

2: COMMIT TO QUALITY FROM THE TOP DOWN

Whether you will be revamping shop floor process, investing in new tools, or retraining staff, the commitment to quality needs to extend beyond the quality control officer. Changes can be challenging and potentially have an impact on morale. Therefore, from high level leaders to managers and everyone in between, maintaining quality standards needs to be top of mind. Old habits have to be changed and replaced with new, more efficient standards. Quality assurance needs to be comprehensive and occurring at all points of manufacturing. Education and training help keep standards cohesive and show an investment by management into producing exceptional products. Adding training and education helps involve employees in the change process and makes them stakeholders in delivering quality products.

Watch our webinar with one of our customers, Unist, and learn how incorporating Bezlio solutions streamlined their processes and boosted productivity across the shop floor to produce best in class products.

3: IMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS

So much has been written about the benefits of early technology adoption and implementation. It keeps your processes current, encourages employees to embrace new, effective tools, and keeps your manufacturing bustling. Technology also helps streamline processes and ensures tighter control of manufacturing, directly affecting the quality of goods and number of defects.

Mobile technology, automation, and artificial intelligence have revolutionized manufacturing processes as they drive quality standards, prevent overruns, and ensure cost efficiency. Real time data can be used to accurately schedule machine usage and forecast future projects in ways that weren’t possible a decade ago. Data can be relied upon to determine reorders, schedule employees, and plan machine maintenance services to reduce downtime.

Barcoding and scanning had a proven impact on data accuracy, so when companies switched adopted these innovations most saw an immediate improvement in inventory count accuracy. Mobile apps like Bezlio offer barcode scanning via smartphones and tablets, and since most people are familiar with these devices, training time is much shorter when compared to other tools. Barcoding also eliminates the amount of paper used in manual counts and purchase order receipt documentation. Eliminating the lag time to enter receipts and counts and removing the possibility of human error not only speeds up the entering process, but also results in better, more accurate data. This accurate data makes data-driven decision making easier and helps cut costs while saving time.

4: HAVE A PLAN WHEN ERRORS HAPPEN

Things will inevitably go wrong and when they do, you’ll need an intelligent plan to respond so deadlines can be met. If the challenge occurs with new equipment, know who to contact for adjustments and repairs. If problems occur with employees, know who can quickly retrain them and keep things moving.

5: OPTIMIZE EVERYTHING FROM MACHINE USAGE TO STAFFING

Manufacturing companies know the value of keeping their machines running to optimize output. Manufacturing project prioritization based on accurate, real-time data is the most effective way to schedule your machine usage. Optimizing production keeps costs down and project capacity levels high, which is the bottom line for any manufacturing company. Prioritizing projects takes into consideration supply chain status, cash management, defect identification, and mature products. Adding mobile capabilities to your manufacturing processes keeps data real time and accurate while also providing access to information anywhere, anytime. From field teams to customers to shop managers, everyone can view inventory data and delivery deadlines. This added layer of transparency keeps stakeholders informed and that is a huge value add to any organization.

CONTACT US!

Interested in implementing a mobile development platform like Bezlio to provide your field teams with access to ERP data? Contact us today and we can begin customizing a mobile ERP solution to address your business challenges or see our website’s Resources tab for case studies and blogs about our products and services.

Times are changing and everyone is talking about the digital revolution. From automated processes to advanced algorithms and everything in between, technology is the new ‘thing’ in inventory management and if you’re not on board with it, you might get left behind.

Inventory management can be simplified to mean managing stock levels, sourcing materials, and finished goods. It involves a precise balance of housing the right stock and the right levels to fulfill orders while limiting extra costs. Inventory management software revolutionized how businesses could improve stock level accuracy and create work orders, bill of materials, and other production documents.

Many businesses store inventory, whether its parts or finished goods, at different warehouses. Managing inventory levels and determining the most effective location for the items is complicated. Inventory is an asset too, so it has to be valued and recorded accurately on a balance sheet. Compliance issues also play a role in inventory management for public companies. Public companies have an added pressure of full transparency of their inventory management efforts, including compliance documentation and inventory transaction disclosures.

Thousands of unique parts. Quote-to-order processes. Lead time management. The manufacturing or assembly process. Shipping considerations. When you consider that inventory management must account for so many areas of a company, it’s understandable that manual processes quickly became a challenge to scale a business.

Upgrading your inventory management system does not have to be difficult or expensive.

These simple steps will help you hone in on what matters to your organization, what value a new system will deliver, and how to calculate ROI.

SCANNING TECHNOLOGY MEANS FASTER ENTRY AND MORE ACCURATE DATA

Barcode technology transformed inventory management efforts in the 1970s, and technology continues to accelerate processes even further. The newest breakthrough in inventory management? Mobile apps that turn a smartphone or tablet into a scanning device. Before mobile scanning, items would be entered into paperwork, verified, and then left on the desk of the person who entered these receipts into a system – sometimes days later. Paperwork could be easily lost or misfiled, contributing to the out-of-date inventory numbers present in the software system. Now mobile apps eliminate the need for multiple scanners and put the power of data into the hands of shop floor employees. Mobile scanning also creates a live inventory count.

GLOBAL MARKETS BOOST ECOMMERCE

The pandemic fueled a huge increase in eCommerce, which led to more shipping and a need for higher outputs from manufacturers. This boost in buying spurred growth among many manufacturing companies, and such growth has necessitated new system implementations, system upgrades, and tools that help manage inventory. As businesses struggle to scale to meet capacity, managing parts and shop floor processes become vital to profitability. Sustaining greater output and strong profit margins is essential to positive economic growth. Many manufacturing companies are looking at their growth projections and realizing that prioritizing projects based on real-time inventory data achieves the best results.

THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL

In this new technological age, known by some as the fourth industrial revolution, data and analytics are becoming essential tools. Machine learning models, fueled by historical data, can identify buying patterns, anomalies, and other behaviors. As more data is added and evaluated, these smart functions become even more accurate.

With remote work becoming a new reality, accessing data outside of the office is vital to keeping forecasting estimates up to date. With more of the workforce moving to remote or hybrid business models, greater amounts of work are completed off-site than ever before.

HOW TO CHOOSE A SYSTEM

Choosing the right inventory management systems depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. You can define your business needs, set a budget, and work with a few companies to gather quotes. Implementation and the training offered is also an area that needs to be looked at. If your current staff is not technologically savvy, they may need additional help and most companies can accommodate extra training.

BEZLIO HELPS PRIORITIZE PROJECTS AND KEEP MANUFACTURERS MANUFACTURING

Manufacturing companies know the value of keeping their machines running to optimize output. Therefore, prioritization of manufacturing projects has to be based on accurate, real-time data in order to be effective. Companies are driven to keep costs down and project capacity levels high. Supply chain status, cash management, defect identification, and mature products all need to be taken into consideration when prioritizing projects. But data is the key component to visualizing all of these factors at once.

Bezlio is a company that not only adds mobile capabilities to mid-sized manufacturing companies, but also covers warehouse management capabilities to increase inventory accuracy. Bezlio’s products enable faster transaction entry and simplify cycle counts resulting in more accurate forecasting, better inventory planning, and cost containment. Additionally, Bezlio records transactions like material movements, material-to-work orders, receiving purchase orders, and receiving finished goods into real-time inventory. Using barcode scanning, Bezlio products record these transactions in real-time using a smartphone or tablet as a scanning device, which speeds up the process and ensures better accuracy by removing accidental keystrokes.

Technology advances led to better inventory management system capabilities resulting in faster data entry, better quality control, and more precise inventory tracking. Additionally, features have been added to many inventory management systems that also allow for mobile access to data in remote locations. What this means is field teams, buyers, and salespeople within your organization can access inventory data in the field. Mobile solutions help remote teams close deals faster and with greater transparency with reliable delivery dates.

Bezlio collects data via two-way integration and adds drop-in solutions, providing increased speed and accuracy.

Cycle counts benefit from real-time data and automation delivered with inventory management systems. The cycle count process has always been extremely manual leaving room for a lot of errors. Barcode technology removes the human error factor and builds quality, real-time data that can be used for project prioritization. Bezlio uses a simple interface that speeds up the cycle count process and automates many of the functions. For example, with Bezlio, users open the cycle count bezl from a phone or tablet, click “new count” or a “recount” and then enter the count ID corresponding to the one set up in their ERP data. If you barcode, employees scan the code to begin – much less room for error, much faster, and your data is captured in real-time.

Next, employees scan the product ID from the barcode displayed on the rack system, shelving or other location. Then it’s a simple matter of counting the items and entering the result in the app. When all lines in the count have been scanned, hitting “submit” pushes the information to the Epicor system automatically, no manual keying into the ERP required. Not only does that process involve fewer steps, but most of them deliver significant efficiency improvements, like barcode scanning. Each step takes less time than it does when working with paper and the results are more accurate. win-win.

Do your field teams need better access to ERP data? Contact Bezlio today and we can begin customizing a mobile ERP solution to address your business challenges. You can also visit the Resource tab on our website to see how Bezlio is already adding value to companies like yours.

Today, enterprises are tapping apps and mobile technology to streamline their processes. from inventory management to sales effectiveness, mobile technology continues to change the way we work–for the better.

The lessons of 2020 continue to impact the way we work and one of the big takeaways the pandemic taught us was the value that field teams can deliver. With crowded markets and multiple competitors in one space, customers are in the driver’s seat and can pick and choose vendors from a long list. This competition puts added pressure on field teams working in sales and technical repairs/maintenance. Up-to-date information is more vital than ever to building efficient organizations and providing access to this information to in-house and field teams has become essential to achieving goals and staying one step ahead of the competition.

A McKinsey & Company report found that the pandemic accelerated the rate of remote work, eCommerce adoption, and automation and these three trends are likely to stay around in the future. Navigating this new workplace reality relies heavily on the use of tools that enable remote work. During the pandemic, many companies deployed automation and AI in warehouses and manufacturing plants to reduce workplace density and meet demand.

Technology and the pandemic also changed how field operations are run. Field teams are held to a nearly on-demand schedule and rely on advanced analytics to ward off and predict problems. Technology has massively changed field organizations allowing companies to use on-demand staffing and reduce complexities associated with full-time workers. This approach can optimize labor costs and lets companies streamline support functions while improving service levels.

Advanced analytics and mobile technology tools have gained popularity because they eliminate the often-manual step of analyzing data on a dashboard. Dashboards were once very popular but left the step of ‘what to do’ with the data to the user.  Advanced analytics provide actionable insights and mobile technology cuts down on time-consuming and error-laden manual processes while widening access to data in remote locations. Even more importantly, companies can respond in real-time to their own accurate data – from anywhere.

Mobile technology allows manufacturers to track all of their assets in real-time and create alerts on a single screen. Responding to real-time data lets field managers set realistic delivery timelines, check on parts inventory, and prioritize manufacturing projects. All of this builds greater transparency and delivers a higher level of customer service, which in crowded markets are important to keeping customers satisfied and reordering.

WHO IN YOUR ORGANIZATION NEEDS ACCESS TO INVENTORY AND PURCHASE ORDER DATA?

Sales teams need immediate access to inventory levels to set accurate timelines and build transparency with their customers. Field technicians need access to data when working on machinery and equipment to check records, schedule proactive maintenance, and ensure upgrades were successful. Customers also favor access to their invoicing data, shipping information, and purchase order status. Customer self-service portals grew in popularity last year and continue to gain momentum into 2021. Integrated data, improved workflows, and easy access to information can be delivered using mobile apps that work with ERP systems and the functionality of these apps refreshes legacy backend systems and deliver greater efficiencies.

WHY CHOOSE A MOBILE APP?

Mobile apps keep data and communications integrated and accessible to field teams. Smartphone and/or tablet access keeps costs down and shortens training time. Bezlio is a mobile app that adds mobile capabilities to midsize manufacturing companies and offers features for warehouse management that increase inventory accuracy. From simplifying cycle counts that result in more accurate forecasting to better inventory planning and cost containment, Bezlio features functionalities that transform an organization from top to bottom.

Bezlio also speeds up the process for receiving purchase orders and finished goods. With Bezlio you scan barcodes using your smartphone which eliminates the need to enter transactions later so your inventory is always up to date. Barcode scanning also ensures better accuracy because it removes accidental keystrokes associated with human error. Paperwork doesn’t pile up and prevent your data from being up to date. Items are scanned as they enter the shop floor. It’s simple to use and costs effective.

HERE ARE FIVE WAYS TO BUILD A STRONG FIELD TEAM

1. Don’t underestimate the value of belonging. We’ve talked a lot about giving your remote teams access to the data needed to build good customer relationships and close deals quickly, but it really comes down to inclusion. When field teams feel they are part of a larger group/team, they perform better. Nurture a team-oriented culture that is connected and built on respect.

2. Provide your field teams with the tools they need to get the job done. If you want deals closed off-site, your field teams need these tools to accomplish this. Be upfront with expectations and back this up with solid training, needed support, and the technical tools to meet goals.

3. Use conflict and failures as teaching lessons for everyone. Working remotely can be isolating and discouraging – especially in challenging times. Keep your field teams motivated and moving forward with new ways to work with difficult customers and share lessons from situations that did and did not go your way.

4. One person never succeeds or fails alone. It takes a village to close a deal, hit a sales goal, and deliver a product on time. Highlight the chain of people that got a deal done and connect with them so they know their success was seen at the corporate office.

5. Turnover and change happen, make growing a team effort. Involve the field team in the hiring process. Listen to their feedback. Growth should be a team effort.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?

You’re ready to make the move to mobile data access and app functionality, but how do you choose the right provider for you? The first step is defining what your organization needs and why you need it. What are you trying to achieve? More sales? Better employee performance or Improved customer service?

Once you define the “what,” you can focus on gathering information about the different companies that offer mobile apps, remote data accessibility, and other process improvements that you have identified. It’s important to work with your system provider to completely understand the implementation process, what support is included, and how often features and services are upgraded. Choosing the right provider can be as important as choosing the right system. Providers are the people you need when systems are being implemented and issues arise. Using mobile technology to your advantage shouldn’t be a challenging process. Many mobile app providers offer customized solutions to address your specific challenges and needs.

The exact value of the efficiency gains you’ll see when switching to mobile app technology will vary by organization, the complexity of your operations, the use of barcoding, and other factors all impact the benefits you’ll achieve.

CONTACT US!

Interested in implementing a mobile development platform like Bezlio to provide your field teams with access to ERP data? Contact us today and we can begin customizing a mobile ERP solution to address your business challenges or see our website’s Resources tab for case studies and blogs about our products and services.