ERIKS launches app for digital replenishment

For applications at point of use or open industrial stores the App is specifically to help ERIKS’ customers replenish their stocks. It’s a simple tool that allows them to create their own QR/bar codes, scan QR/bar codes, select the right quantities of product they wish to order, and to complete an order in the ERIKS web shop. The QR codes generated can be affixed on a customer’s racking, boxes, or wherever their machine is, and their process is then fully integrated into the ERIKS web shop.

The App also allows people to search for products, to set up a favourites list and to build a shopping cart – much as most people do when they use Amazon or other web shops. As with those, it’s simple to check out and a full order history is available to view. An important feature of the App, given the supply chain difficulties that most industrial businesses have experienced in the last few years, is that lead times for products are shown when searching and products are picked, dispatched, and delivered in 24 hours to most of the UK via ERIKS’ Fulfilment Centre of Excellence in Oldbury in the West Midlands.

Mick Holland, ERIKS Chief Product Officer, says: “The App removes the challenge of distance and allows customers to interact seamlessly with our IT system in a way that adds genuine value and a great deal of process efficiency. It’s important to note that this is a replenishment process – it's not vendor managed inventory, it’s not an inventory management algorithm and it’s not stock control – it is however what most people need.”

The ERIKS App is simple but powerful and once downloaded customers have all their product and order information in their pockets. Using the App means less chance of making mistakes when ordering with no more writing down or copying item numbers or quantities. It all provides faster and easier ordering.

“Many of our customers are what I would call ‘the busy buyer’,” says Mick Holland. “Our product is not their core focus, it’s a small percentage of their overall spending. They need to follow a set of purchasing procedures as they cannot allow what I call ‘maverick spending’ – where people order what they want without following a rigorous set of criteria. We want to unburden the busy buyer in this regard.”

Another major advantage of using the App is that it is possible to specify a PO number that applies to a selection or all of the customer’s maintenance products. This allows the busy buyer to give autonomy to their engineers to buy products up to a certain spend limit and then receive all the spending information on one invoice at the end of the month – which obviously makes life much simpler for them in terms of vendor management and budget control.

The system is simple to set up, once customers have ascertained the part numbers and quantity per bag that they want, they simply drop that information into a list on the web shop and output QR/bar codes onto labels on a standard printer which they can then fix to the shelf, tote, or storage area ready to scan to replenish. As part of the ERIKS solution you can find all the racking, twin bins, and labels all in one place on the web shop.

“The launch of the Digital Replenishment App,” says Mick Holland, “is the start of a journey and our first venture in providing our customers with a fully digital experience – it's a big focus for us. The user interface means that customers will control all aspects of their digital experience with ERIKS. The objective is to make us easy to work with as we become almost invisible to the buyer.”

The ERIKS App can be downloaded from the Apple App store or from Google Play, just search “ERIKS App.”