Problem Definition
- Marketing and advertising of products
• The costs of printing catalogues to advertise a large number of products are high. • The costs of distributing catalogues to reach a large number of customers are high. • The reliance on printed catalogues to advertise the range of products lacks of flexibility. It is costly and time-consuming to record new products, to update the existing product details and to delete old products.
- Browsing, viewing and selecting products
• As workedUp has now constructed a strong base of regular customers who mainly interact with the company over the phone and the number of customers who physically comes to the store is increasingly smaller, the running of the ‘showroom store’ is less financially viable. • The use of the manually-maintained spreadsheet by the store employee to verify the stock levels or suggest alternative products o is very time-consuming. o can result in errors especially at times of high volume of transactions. o is difficult to maintain.
- Ordering products and processing orders
• Every time a customer places an order, his/her details need to be recorded again which is time-consuming. If they were recorded previously locating them is complicated. • The use of the manually-maintained spreadsheet by the warehouse staff to locate the requested items. o is very time-consuming. o can result in errors. o is difficult to maintain. • The lack of interaction between the spreadsheet-based systems which manage the stock levels and the one which records placed orders makes it very difficult for staff and management to timely access accurate information and can result in errors.
- Setting up collections
• The use of the manually-maintained spreadsheet of pending orders by the store employee to estimate the time it is going to take to assemble the order and give a collection date and time o is very time-consuming. o can result in errors. o is difficult to maintain. • The use of the manually-maintained spreadsheet by the by the store employee to verify the availabilities of collection dates and times o is very time-consuming. o can result in errors. o is difficult to maintain. • The lack of interaction between the spreadsheet-based systems which manage the stock levels, the one which monitor collections and the one which records placed orders often makes it very difficult for staff and management to timely access accurate information and can result in errors.
- Arranging deliveries
• The use of the manually-maintained spreadsheet of pending orders by the store employee to estimate the time it is going to take to assemble the order and give a delivery date and time. o is very time-consuming. o can result in errors. o is difficult to maintain. • The use of the manually-maintained spreadsheet by the by the store employee to verify the availabilities of delivery dates and times o is very time-consuming. o can result in errors. o is difficult to maintain. • The lack of interaction between the spreadsheet-based systems which manage the stock levels, the one which monitor deliveries and the one which records placed orders often makes it very difficult for staff and management to timely access accurate information and can result in errors.
- Maintaining product range
• It is difficult to keep a record of new supplies of products. • It is difficult to locate and remove items which are not in demand any longer. • It is difficult to update stock levels. • It is difficult to analyse transactions to obtain valuable business intelligence to inform the decision-making process about the products to be acquired.