We have recently been working with one of the world’s leading workplace health & safety and environmental organisations to improve efficiency and reduce error and wastage within the area of procurement and management of their course material.

The organisation holds training seminars but delegate numbers are often not confirmed until end of day beforehand. Material for courses is complex and variable delegate packs are required, averaging 15 components and required within eight working hours.

We began by conducting a needs analysis into the processes surrounding the client’s origination and procurement of print. Weaknesses were identified in the workflow which lead to unpredictable results in the presentation of their content. Additionally, stock control was manual but the complexity of the product was high so error and inventory obsolescence was a significant expense.

A Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis was then provided which showed possible savings to gross and administrative overheads in using DocuPump to improve the visibility along the supply chain. It was also recommended that a PDF workflow be implemented to reduce the incidence of unpredictable results due to incompatibilities between origination and production systems.

We liaised with the client’s IT department and one of our consultants advised and oversaw the implementation of a PDF workflow.

The next stage was to build product structures on our website with min/max stock levels to trigger “order driven” restock through our production department, external manufacturer or email notification for items of client supply. This simplified the ordering process enormously for the client through component products being related to easily web orderable delegate packs, with a single product name only to select.

Automated inventory control and a reliable production workflow provided a realistic alternative, to the client, to holding large stocks of products. Savings were therefore, immediately achievable through most products becoming Built or Manufactured to Order (BTO/MTO). It was predicted over twelve months that the client could make savings of approximately 54% of their previous annual print expenditure through improved workflow, automated inventory control, reduction in maverick purchasing and administration overheads.