Client
Metro Digital
Overview
Inventory management is a mandatory annual procedure within a warehouse, requiring a physical count of all items to align system records with actual goods on hand. Together with my team we aimed to improve this process and to decrease the time our users spend doing an inventory.
Product Design
User Research
Prototyping
The Challenge
The current inventory process lacks accuracy and has an unneccessary complicated workflows. Because of this, users are unable to identify and address stock differences, while the involvement of numerous increases the workload and also impacts the overall efficiency of the employees.
Understanding the problem
Before starting our research inside METRO store, we gathered all stakeholders in a series of discovery workshops to gain insights and additional details regarding the problem. We also conducted a field study to understand the inventory process for insect repellents. We learnted that junior staff counted the items, noted quantities on post-its, and a supervisor later entered the data using a handheld device. A report highlighted discrepancies for corrective actions. The study validated our assumptions, uncovered unknown practices, and provided actionable insights.
The Approach
We started with some changes on the roles and responsibilities by giving acces to junior staff members. They will have the ability to independently add quantities into the system and now the senior staff members can now focus on other tasks. Adding a quick overview of the counted articles and discrepancies will speed up the process. The senior employee can either approve or modify the information from the app. Our process is now entirely mobile-based, eliminating the need for staff members to move around the store and enabling them to concentrate more on their designated tasks.
The Result
Our redesigned inventory process yielded significant improvements, including a 60% reduction in paper usage and a 25% increase in efficiency. This streamlined workflow empowers employees with a sense of accomplishment and increased productivity, while providing stakeholders with more accurate data and a higher volume of completed tasks.
