A typical day at a “Material Inward” Gate: Trucks waiting at the gates, manual material inspection, paper work, manual goods receipt process and hectic ERP system updates.
Sounds familiar? Tired of the slow process?
How do companies even land in such a chaotic situation, what’s missing? If you are asking yourself the same question, congratulations – you have already taken a step towards eradicating the problem.
There can be multiple reason to this: hand-written invoices from vendors, not unified vendor portal, no ASN (advance shipment notice) which tells the client about incoming materials.
This leads to many problems: queuing of trucks and additional surcharges to be paid for the waiting period, no proper planning for the stock level and many more.
If you think that only your plant/warehouse is facing such issue, do not fret, because this is one of the most common problem with most of the companies face and we have a solution ready for it!
The answer to above problem is a simple automation – “Goods Receipt Note (GRN) Automation” and as we walkthrough the solution, we will understand that why this is necessary and how it can be implemented efficiently.
Ideal Solution – Electronic Delivery Notification
An Electronic notification system can be set up in the customer’s ERP where the vendor will send intimation to the customer via an ASN. This ASN will encapsulate details such as Purchase Order Number, Material details, Expected delivery date etc. The vendor generates aa ASN barcode same which is attached to the invoice.
Once the ASN is received and acknowledged by customer, the customer plans & prepares for the incoming package. Once the Goods are received at gates, the barcode of the invoice is scanned and good receipt note is entered into ERP system. If customer has the capability to integrate all its vendors via EDI then a very efficient system takes shapes which provides a better analysis and reports. However this implementation has its own pitfalls w.r.t complexity, cost etc. and is not always suitable for all customers.
Our Experience with various clients
We have seen customers having a plethora of different vendors some of which do have an IT infrastructure and can generate barcodes, send ASN however there are vendors who do not even have a definite IT systems and have hand-written invoices. Also some customers are reluctant to invest on Vendor portals and EDI solutions, which is a costly affair.
To compensate the above scenarios, we have come up with an apex solution which is simple, reliable and very cost effective.
BRiOT’s Goods Receipt Automation Solution
The solution comprises of a simple software for Vendors enables them to generate a barcode (which can be attached to the invoice) and a central software portal at Customer’s side which will be integrated to its ERP system.
- Web based solution:
- Mobile Based Solution
We have a mobile based solution as well where the vendor/customer can operate an android device to generate barcode or scan.
For Vendors who do not own a proper IT structure, a kiosk/android app can be provided by the customer to print a barcode.
Benefits
- No need to invest on costly ERP solutions for vendor portal etc.
- Quick and efficient material scanning and confirmation
- One Beep Solution – Reduced Average GRN transaction time (from 15-20 Mins to less than a minute)
- Faster material movement at gates
- Automatic GRN entry to ERP
- Less manual work, less effort and less errors
- Has option to load specific vendor invoice formats
