Davant Products, the supplier of plumbing, drainage and insulation products to major retail and trade outlets, has been able to grow its business after switching to Balloon One’s warehouse management system.
The integrated Accellos WMS has helped to maximise customer service to clients such as B&Q, Wickes and Travis Perkins, helping Davant to win new business and encourage old clients to return.
Plus, the system has already paid for itself by reducing stock costs from £1.75 million to £1.25 million in just 11 months.
The WMS integrates with Davant’s SAP Business One enterprise resource planning system, enabling quick and accurate order fulfilment. It also simplifies the management of Davant’s stock of more than 3,000 product lines and helps to keep stock levels optimised.
Additionally, the company has also benefited from the introduction of radio frequency handheld scanners with mobile computing capability and barcoding technology.
The WMS went into action following only a few days of training. Davant held a one day overview session for managers and team leaders and the warehouse staff only needed a two and a half day training programme to get to grips with the system.
Jeff Pryce, operations manager of Davant Products, says: “We ran a live trial for a week and then went live. We saw the benefit immediately as it introduced a new, more consistent and compliant way of working that improved the entire operation. Most importantly, our customers noticed the improvement and are benefiting from our investment in the system.
“The system is very intuitive and it means that anyone can work in the warehouse if we need additional support. This is because the system guides the warehouse staff through the jobs they need to do and they simply have to follow the instructions presented to them on the handhelds.”
The company has also been able to reduce the size of the picking team and is able to pick accurately in a third of the time.
