BelCentroInstrument (Kleverens: Warehouse 15)

2024: Why you don't need to do automation yourself, or how BelCentroInstrument optimized warehouse processes and increased profits

Is it so easy to put things in order in the warehouse and in accounting? Many people think it's easy. Today, employees of OOO BelCentroInstrument will agree, perhaps, with the opinion of the majority. But before the company achieved the results that it has now, it had to fight the surplus during shipments, switch to a different configuration of the accounting system and even change the contractor in order to refine the mobile software.

Professionals with extensive experience, their own warehouse of floor storage and typical problems in accounting

Since 2014, OOO BelCentroInstrument has represented the Russian company Centroinstrument and is the exclusive distributor of measuring instruments of famous brands KAPRO (Israel), TRUPER (Mexico), FINLAND (Finland) and domestic manufacturers in Belarus. The company offers its customers a wide range of products: from stapler staples, bits, roulettes and screwdrivers to garden equipment.

Today, the company's nomenclature has about 2000 articles and annually grows by 50-100 positions. All goods are stored in their own floor storage warehouse at 740 m ², which is very convenient for placing oversized products and organizing fast wholesale shipments.

BelCentroInstrument has its own fleet for regular routes. And although there were no complaints from customers in cases of underload of one box, because freight forwarders could return and bring the missing goods, various not entirely pleasant situations arose from time to time. For example, storekeepers rushed and sent the same order to the customer twice.

Of course, we found almost all the discrepancies during the recount. But these "investigations" and calls to customers with the question "Did you have 5 units there by accident?" Affected not only the financial component, but also the image and prestige of the company: it seems like a serious organization, and such mistakes allow, Victoria Korneeva, Deputy Director of BelCentroInstrument LLC.

The inventories were a separate pain: first, it was necessary to print out multi-page inventory sheets, then recalculate the goods in the warehouse with your hands, dig through the items, enter all the data into the electronic version, and form a comparison sheet. And only after the repeated recalculation of the positions that did not converge in the number of positions could the results be summed up. Because something could be counted twice, and something could not be written down or noticed at all.

Everyone who works on paper media understands how much time it takes to perform warehouse operations manually - the time is enormous. And the human factor in general, and with the inattention of employees in particular, become constant satellites of all processes. In this regard, it was also not possible to avoid overhauls. Most often, employees confused visually similar products with complex articles, which differed in characteristics and price. Naturally, when they shipped not what was needed, the accounting department did not converge. Plus to the listed.

You need to change something! It remains to understand how

Over time, the BelCentroInstrument 1C: Enterprise Accounting Department used stopped covering the company's accounting needs - the functionality was not enough to analyze sales. And the management decided to connect also "1C: Trade Management." And after another 2 years, it became clear that accounting "on a piece of paper" no longer meets the needs of the business and another solution is needed that will allow you to correctly, quickly and without errors re-register, collect and ship orders.

First, the deputy director of OOO BelCentroInstrument considered an ordinary barcode scanner. But market analysis and comparison of capabilities showed that simply collecting data tied to a desktop on a PC is not suitable. While data collection terminals provide a full-fledged mobile workplace for the storekeeper:

• on the shipping documentation, you can view all the same information about balances, price, characteristics as in 1C,
• with the device you can safely walk around the warehouse, re-record, complete orders.

The most important task was to carry out inventories from anywhere in the warehouse as easily as possible, Victoria Korneeva, Deputy Director of BelCentroInstrument LLC.

Everything is cool, but something is missing

A data collection terminal is essentially a piece of hardware. And for its full operation, you need software that will process the data and send it to the accounting system. The main thing is to choose the right software.

Tucson specialists helped us with the choice of software and shipping documentation. They offered automation based on Cloverens and ATOL Smart.Slim and helped with the implementation. However, we almost immediately realized that improvements were needed in the software. And while we were looking for specialists who can adapt software to our processes, six months have passed, Victoria Korneeva, Deputy Director of BelCentroInstrument LLC.

The typical process of picking up an order involves, among other things, creating a document on a mobile device: he opened the document on the shipping documentation, started scanning barcodes, completed the operation on the terminal, saw in 1C the formed account and invoice. But at the BelCentroInstrument warehouse, they are performed a little differently:

• first, the operator creates an account in 1C,
• then unloads it to the storekeeper's shipping documentation,
• the warehouse employee reads the ShK and checks at the same time whether there are deviations from the document or not. At the same time, no unnecessary documents and additional accounts should be automatically created in the accounting system.

We did not understand for a long time how such a mechanism could be implemented in our warehouse. Setting up "Cloverens" is quite difficult for an ordinary user. At first I independently understood the parameters of the software, and then I began to look for a contractor who could finalize the software, since no one is doing this in Belarus. This period of 6 months was very difficult for us. Because we immediately took 3 licenses of Warehouse 15, three terminals, spent money tangible for the company, and did not receive the desired result, Victoria Korneeva, Deputy Director of BelCentroInstrument LLC.

Earned!

A difficult year in terms of turnover and difficulties with the adaptation of software almost forced BelCentroInstrument to abandon automation. But before returning to accounting "on a piece of paper," the company's management decided to first turn to the software developer for help.

It is worth noting that Kleverens is a vendor with its own network of distributors engaged in sale licenses and integrators who refine software products. And when Eduard Rafikov, deputy head of sales at Kleverens, learned that BelCentroInstrument needed to finalize Warehouse 15, he immediately contacted the MainService specialists and explained the situation.

We connected remotely to the client on the day of the call. BelCentroInstrument has quite specific work with buyer's orders in terms of shipments and processing of documents. We were faced with the task of adapting Kleverens to the changes already available in 1C. Immediately set up automatic online unloading of shipment documents to the data collection terminal from the accounting system. In this mode, obtaining product reference books and documents from 1C to "Warehouse 15" does not require manual loading/unloading to the shipping documentation. That is, the storekeeper does not need to return to the PC after scanning barcodes, enter the accounting system and perform data exchange manually, Alexander Ivanov, head of MainService.

Integrators in one day set up software and work with 6 data collection terminals - ATOL Smart.Slim and ATOL Smart.Prime, and continue to help with system updates, if necessary, advise. So at the end of 2022, in a couple of hours, the work of the Kleverens software was restored immediately after the transition of BelCentroInstrument to the new 1C platform.

Results of automation with Cloverens

As the deputy director of BelCentroInstrument admits, the storekeepers are delighted that the processing, picking and shipping of orders with the introduction of Warehouse 15 has accelerated several times. In the near future, the company's management plans to completely replace the shipping documentation fleet with more modern and productive mobile computers.

Cloverens has a very convenient teamwork option that allows you to process one document from different devices. We use it during inventories. And if earlier we counted 4 racks per hour, relatively speaking, today we manage to count 12 during the same time. There is no need to write down and re-check the articles, there are no errors. The last recount along with the summing up was made in one working day, Victoria Korneeva, Deputy Director of BelCentroInstrument LLC.

Thanks to the implementation of Warehouse 15, it is no longer necessary to print several paper multi-page copies of the inventory sheet, divide the warehouse into plots and assign them to employees, and summarize the recalculation results into one document. The software combines data automatically when exchanging with 1C.

The Deputy Director of OOO "BelCentroInstrument" also said that the influence of the human factor was completely excluded and reduced to 0 cases of underloads and overports. And the training materials provided by the developer have greatly simplified the adaptation of storekeepers to the new work format.

The main advantage of accounting automation with Cloverens and shipping documentation is that their implementation saves our time and money. It's nice that the developer did not stand aside when we came with questions about the improvements. MainService specialists are competent, always in touch and open for cooperation. I would like to wish Kleverens would not stop there, continue to develop its software products and support users at all stages, Victoria Korneeva, Deputy Director of BelCentroInstrument LLC.