Project snapshot
As part of a larger retail system upgrade, long-time client Travis Perkins asked Intellias to build a digital stock management system. The award-winning solution unifies inventory data into a single source, ensuring it has the correct number of products along with location information. We also created a suite of web applications called the Branch Toolkit. Travis Perkins associates can access the toolkit on mobile devices with Zebra scanners. The Branch Toolkit includes product inventory management and location maintenance applications, which branch associates use to find products in stores. Because it serves as a user interface for the branch’s backend systems, the Branch Toolkit also connects to the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and other microservices via a GraphQL API.
The Branch Toolkit was a huge success. Using it, Travis Perkins greatly improved their inventory accuracy and substantially reduced the time branch associates spent counting products. Customers also expressed satisfaction with the retail solution, which won the Best Digital Transformation award from Contentsquare for improvements in operational efficiency.
Travis Perkins has been a leading supplier of building materials and services to trade customers for over 200 years. The company has over 550 branches, including more than 150 Benchmarx showrooms, and employs 8,400 associates.
Business challenge
In a busy multi-channel retail environment, accurately managing inventory is essential. However, stock management at building supplier Travis Perkins was not keeping pace with sales. Reliant on paper for processing orders in the yard and for taking branch inventory, the company frequently had stock issues that slowed them down. The main challenges were:
- Inaccuracies in branch inventory data
- Lost stock and incorrect product location records
- High number of human errors during stock counts
- Time-consuming stock audits
Taking inventory at Travis Perkins was a manual, time-consuming process. Before system modernization, branch associates printed inventories from their ERP system. They would then have to track down products, hand-count them, mark their paper list, and reconcile the inventory in the system with the handwritten numbers.
These inefficiencies in stock management led to other business concerns, from inaccurate replenishment cycles to delayed order fulfillment. They also resulted in unhappy customers. Travis Perkins needed a centralized, real-time inventory management solution that could eliminate redundancies and improve stock visibility across branches.
Solution
We developed a custom solution for Travis Perkins to modernize many of the company’s digital systems, including a modular set of mobile web applications that are integrated into the Branch Toolkit. Running on AWS and managed in Kubernetes, the system powers a set of backend microservices connected by GraphQL APIs to improve the company’s data management strategy. These microservices quickly make the same data available to the company’s frontend system, eCommerce websites, mobile applications, and backend office applications, such as the product information management system.
The ERP and point-of-sale (POS) systems at Travis Perkins ran on Rocket Software’s UniVerse platform. However, its outdated, console-based user interface with desktop-only access created many of the company’s stock issues. We modernized the POS functionality of UniVerse with a new UI but kept the platform for its ERP capabilities as part of the retailer’s backend system. Meanwhile, we developed the Branch Toolkit to provide a friendly UI with mobile access to the back end. It comprises two inventory management applications, which were designed to be easy to use and to simplify training for new employees:
- Product inventory management — lets branch associates access and update stock information within a single, centralized database. Integration of mobile barcode scanners helped speed up inventory counting and audits.
- Location maintenance — provides associates with product locations and manages product placement within the warehouse. This application reduces the time it takes to find and relocate items.
By aligning these applications with Travis Perkins’ backend systems, inventory data was unified into a single source of truth. Updates to inventory or location data are reflected in real time across branches and the company’s network.
Business outcomes
Associates quickly adopted the Branch Toolkit, and the digital stock management system significantly improved inventory operations at Travis Perkins.
Results:
- 86% stock accuracy across branches
- 57% time savings on location maintenance tasks
- 47% time savings on counting product inventory
- 6,000 manual days saved per year
- 82% customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
With accurate stock data across the company’s branches, associates now spend less time manually checking inventory and more time serving customers. The stock management system has also won the Best Digital Transformation award from Contentsquare.
KPIs: 86% branch stock accuracy 6000 manual days saved per year 82% customer satisfaction score
Technologies: AWS, ReactJS, GraphQL, Java, Spring Boot, RxJava, GitLab