Focusing on providing expert customer service with cutting-edge technology, TWG Supply aims to support its customers with software, supply and service. To complete that mission, they needed more than just a scalable WMS. “NetSuite has been great at growing with us; it's fully customizable, as everyone knows, but then we were looking at solutions for WMS. I wanted to be able to do warehouse management at the same time and have a completely transparent transaction," said Bill Tyler, Director of Operations at TWG Supply.
Noticeable ROI, From Implementation Onward
Before landing on RF-SMART, TWG Supply evaluated four different warehouse management systems and ultimately decided to go with another WMS. Although they were promised a one-month implementation process, the go-live date was pushed back three months, doubled in cost, and widely underdelivered with their ROI, sending them off to look for another solution.
“After finding RF-SMART, I had people up and going, running transactions on the first day we were live. That was not the case with our first WMS solution,” said Bill. “New things can be frustrating for employees, and being able to get up quickly and not have issues increases their buy-in, minimizes their downtime, and improves our overall ROI.”
Image Capture Delivers a Solution in More Ways Than One
Since 80 percent of what they sell is cross-docking at TWG Supply, unique products are always circulating their shelves. The RF-SMART Image Capture feature helps TWG Supply maintain picture-perfect knowledge of what’s in their inventory at any given moment. With their broad range of supplies as a one-stop shop for multiple one-time sales, they could be holding parts of the airport's front gate, the jet bridge connecting passengers to the plane, the ground support equipment, or baggage handling systems.
“We may have never seen this product before, and we may never see it again,” said Bill. “We need to get an image of it because when a customer calls again about it, I need to have some idea of what they're talking about.”
Image Capture also helps TWG Supply with tracking and customer service. "When a customer gives me a tracking number, I know exactly what products are in that, not just from the packing slip, but I have actual documentation of those items in that box," said Bill.
And that specific visual documentation helped Bill and TWG Supply save thousands of dollars shortly after implementing Image Capture into their WMS solution.
"The customer called and said they were missing seven of their ten pieces, which would've been about $7,000 in a claim," said Bill. "I went back, looked at that picture on Image Capture, zoomed in, and was able to count. All ten were there. They had unloaded it on the street in front of the airport and hadn't needed all ten at one time. Someone then put these large, manufacturing metal pieces in the scrap bin. Fortunately, I had exact documentation I could backup in a second and communicate with the customer."
Eliminating Phantom Inventory in the Supply Chain
Using native NetSuite records and RF-SMART tracking, TWG Supply can thoroughly audit and backtrack their inventory in real-time. "Whether it was user error or if we just clicked the wrong button, we're now able to backtrack. We couldn't do that with our other warehouse management solutions, " Bill said. "Un-auditable tasks were being written in a way that didn't connect to the system information. That was scary to me because these are general liability impacting events."
Between user error and in the event of phantom inventory, where inventory would show something was on hand but would not be available or found in the bin, RF-SMART was helping to create a more accurate picture of what was in the warehouse.
Knowledgeable Customer Service In-Person and on the Platform
Like RF-SMART customer support, TWG Supply puts expert customer service on their front line, leaving their clients to focus on their airport operations.
“With RF-SMART, we had a great implementation team. It felt like they were ours, 24 hours a day. I'm sure they had other projects going on, but it never felt that way,” said Bill.
Even though RF-SMART made themselves readily available, the RF-SMART Knowledge Base was also accessible to all TWG Supply’s users, from warehouse workers to upper management.
"All of the Knowledge Base articles directly respond to a question someone really would've had. It's written in plain language that I don't have to have a computer science degree to understand, and that's been really powerful," Bill said. “I've been able to turn my employees onto the Knowledge Base, and they can resource themselves, either learning the new functionality as we add it, or if they encounter a question and troubleshoot themselves."
“It's that delegation of knowledge that's going to empower your user,” said Bill. “It's going to cut down on any confusion, it's going to increase their buy-in for the product, and it's going to save you time.”