Deep Thoughts with Richard Schoen

 Almost twenty years after the paperless office concept was born, many companies are still mired in printed paperwork. Orders and Invoices come in via mail and fax. Invoices, Statements, Bills of Lading, CAD Drawings and other documents are still printed and manually assembled in many cases to create shop floor paperwork and shipping documents. These processes still generate paper, but there are ways to gain tangible Return On Investment (ROI) from automating the assembly and processing of key business documents.

 Let’s look at a common scenario where automating the assembly and distribution of documents can streamline paper flow and greatly reduce manual labor and errors when assembling paperwork for the shop floor..

 Manufacturing Customer X has to generate shop floor paperwork to be sent to the shop floor with every custom order being processed for the day. Employees then manually mark up the documents and scan the completed paperwork. The customer doesn’t feel the environment is conducive to touch screen terminals, so they currently still generate paperwork. Since each order requires a generated system report, paired with a copy of an electronic CAD drawing and work instructions, the process is very laborious. Each night the system documents are printed. At 5 am each morning, someone from engineering picks up the stack of documents and manually prints the CAD drawing to go with each order. Then another clerical person prints the appropriate machine instruction documents and staples the entire paperwork package together. Each day there are over 1000 job packets generated based on the job scheduling system, so repeating this process manually wastes at least 9 hours per day since there are three people involved in the paperwork assembly process. Since the highly paid engineer holds the key to the CAD drawings, they are directly involved in the print and assembly process rather than spending their valuable time working on CAD drawings.

 Even though Customer X doesn’t want to go entirely paperless with their paperwork generation process, they can easily reduce or eliminate the 9 hours per day being spent manually assembling paperwork. Imagine a scenario where each night the 1000 system documents are generated in the evening. As soon as each system document is generated it identifies which CAD drawings need to be assembled and printed with the system document. Then the work instruction documents are called in and printed in sequence. Finally each document is auto-stapled by the printer so nobody needs to be involved in the assembly process unless the printer jams, runs out of paper or toner.

 This story is true however the customer names have been removed to protect the innocent. If you think your company could benefit from automated document assembly and automation technology, contact the experts at RJS to help you capture, manage, secure and distribute your important business documents

If your company spends considerable man-hours tracking orders between the time a product quote is requested and the actual product is shipped, RJS can assist you in streamlining your fulfillment process. This pain point is widespread in industries where products or services are customized – manufacturing for example. In some cases the order or quote request can get lost before it actually gets entered into the order entry system.
Let’s first look at a fairly common and flawed process and then explore a solution using WebForms, which web-enables order-to-fulfillment, eliminates redundant data entry and electronically routes between sales, engineering, accounting, order processing and shipping departments.

The current process may go something like this:

- An order is received by email, phone or fax for your product or service.

- In some instances, the product is mass-produced and can just be grabbed from the shelf and shipped. This particular order however, requires a quote for product customization.

- Because of this, the quote request needs to be routed from sales to the development or engineering team for a review to make sure they can fulfill the customer’s special order.

- Once engineering has determined they can configure or build the product to specifications, the accounting team needs to estimate the product cost, margins needed and the final pricing for the product.

- The order can finally get entered into the order entry system for processing, shipping and billing.

Because these steps are likely done via paper documents being passed around in a manila folder or a steady stream of “reply all” emails, the chance of errors or the quote request getting lost in translation is very high. Problems are often found in customer support prior to shipping or even worse, by the customers themselves. Not only are these mistakes completely avoidable, but companies can lose considerable profits and damage brand equity when employing imperfect order-to-fulfillment processes. Unfortunately, this scenario may sound all-too-familiar. Don’t worry, we can help!

A new streamlined process using WebForms might look like this:

- Customer goes to your website and fills out a new order or quote request, or simply calls a salesperson who takes their order.

- In either case, the order or quote information is immediately captured to a web-based form where it can be monitored and tracked until the order is completed.

- Once captured, the order form is electronically routed to various departments where they add their information to the all-encompassing form.

- Once it clears these steps, the quote or order can be entered or captured automatically into the order processing system and fulfilled.

By capturing the quote information at the beginning of the process and tracking it until the time the order is entered and shipped, we have averted the dreaded “you screwed up my order” call and have delivered the product correct to specifications and on time.

If you’re looking to improve your order-to-fulfillment process and want keep your customers happy, contact RJS to learn more about our WebForms product and how you can streamline your customer and vendor business processes.