Warehouse operations case study
Better inventory tracking for a growing logistics business
The company provided storage and logistics services for interior designers, home stagers and marketing agencies, handling their goods from receiving and inspection through storage, delivery and returns.
Goods could arrive at the warehouse and still be unavailable for customers to order. Staff had to recreate records during cataloging, track down items and resolve gaps in the information used for billing. The company had lost customers over problems tracking and billing received goods.
As its services expanded, the software no longer represented all the work involved. The engagement combined product and engineering leadership with a close examination of how customers and staff got that work done.
Time spent cataloging new items fell by approximately 30%.
New services exposed the software's limits
An interior designer might need furnishings received, inspected and delivered when a project was ready. A marketing agency might need stored materials assembled into promotional kits and shipped to an event. Each service involved several activities, often across different teams.
The software forced those requests into a small set of order types. A customer collecting their own goods had to create a "delivery" and enter the warehouse as the destination. Staff then had to interpret what the customer wanted.
Job mapping and shadowing documented how people handled receiving, storage, delivery and billing, including the information they needed and the gaps they worked around.
Item records began before cataloging
There were plenty of opportunities to improve the customer portal. The product priority was dependable service and accurate billing, which required usable information about the goods from the start.
The receiving change addressed that directly. The revised platform created the item record when it was added to a receiving order. Actual arrivals were recorded against it, and the individual units created during cataloging remained linked to that receiving record. An item's history could begin before cataloging, with a record of what had arrived.
Knowing what was ready to deliver
Customers ordered items. Warehouse staff had to select particular physical units, including the right parts and condition.
That distinction shaped the platform. Each tracked unit had its own identity, condition and movement history. Order selection considered condition, warned about unsuitable units and allowed staff to choose a replacement.
For an item with several parts, the system counted complete assemblies. If a chair required a seat and four legs, two seats and seven legs meant one available chair. The quantity shown had to represent what staff could assemble and send to the customer.
Inventory records supported billing
The same records supported billing. Even when an item was discarded, its record remained available for invoicing; removing it from service did not erase the information needed to account for it.
The platform work connected customer requests to identifiable goods, their condition and their movement. The companion invoicing project used order and storage data to generate charges for finance to review.