In the building materials industry, inventory is everything. Making sure you have the correct amount of inventory on hand is vital to your customer, your sales team, and your company—never underestimate the importance of knowing your inventory.
In November we began a three-part series introducing the details of our new inventory system. First, we discussed the initial problems we were facing with our old inventory system, and how we identified our problems to begin the plan of making a solution. Our next blog focused on the implementation challenges we faced while trying to make the new inventory system work, and how we fixed those problems.
Now that we’ve gone over the problems and challenges, it’s time to reveal the most exciting part of the process: the end results.
Overall Business Operations
Since we transitioned to the Warehouse Management System (WMS), overall business has been running a lot smoother—the accuracy of our inventory is now sitting at an impressive 99.5%! With such a high accuracy rate we can keep our will-call and truck turn around times low. This accuracy allows us to get our customers the materials they need quickly, ultimately boosting sales and customer satisfaction for Jones Heartz.
Future WMS Implementation at Other Locations
When it comes to Drywall Material Sales, Jenkins Drywall & Insulation, and other Jones Heartz locations, our Jones Heartz location in Denver is the only one that utilizes the WMS so far. Patrick Duff, Operations Manager says “at this point we are talking about possibly adding other locations to WMS, but have not made any decision yet.”
Implementing a new system at all Jones Heartz locations would take a lot of time and finances, but it’s something that we will continue to consider. As Patrick mentioned in the previous blogs, there were various challenges when it came to implementing the WMS including the infrastructure, training, and buy in—however, it was all worth it in the end.
Counting Convenience
Although counting inventory is vital to the building materials industry, we all know that it can be tedious. Counting inventory can be a very daunting and timely activity that every employee doesn’t seem to enjoy.
With the new WMS, Jones Heartz cycle counts inventory every day: “each week we count between 15-20% of the inventory, plus we make sure that every quarter we count the full inventory again,” said Patrick. “This is more of a self-check to make sure we are still in line as the inventory is 100% live.” This might sound like a lot of counting, but it allows us to do only one full physical inventory per year now, ultimately saving time and hassle for our employees.
See WMS at Work Today at Jones Heartz
At Jones Heartz, we value our customers and your time—that’s why we spent so much time perfecting our new WMS system. Are you ready to see our inventory system at work? Contact Jones Heartz today to order the materials you need for you project. The WMS has done wonders for Jones Heartz, and we can’t wait to see the impact it has on you and your project!