THE CHALLENGE
As part of its continual growth, Home Hardware Direct knew it had to boost warehouse throughput to meet online order demand.
At the time, Home Hardware Direct was using its carrier's online portal to manually book shipments, so its team was spending hours each day completing order details by hand, to transfer information to the carrier’s system, and generate shipping labels that were then sent back to Home Hardware Direct’s warehouses to be applied.
Warehouse staff were spending tens of hours each week processing labels, time which the company wanted to reduce, without having to hire temporary staff.
So, it began scoping business process improvement systems that could save its team hours when picking and packing goods.
ABOUT HOME HARDWARE DIRECT
A household name, Home Hardware Direct is the Ecommerce arm of the Home Hardware business that was founded in 1983. The buying group is dealer-owned and is the largest voluntary organisation in the UK for home improvement stores.
With an ecommerce site that serves over 60 members, including independent hardware shops, housewares stores, cook shops, ironmongers and garden centres, Home Hardware Direct sells to the public (B2C).
Home Hardware Direct’s ongoing aim is to improve both its customer service and its sales, something which made it want to increase the speed and reliability of its pick-pack-dispatch process.