e-Hardware

Founded as a partnership in 2004 before becoming a limited company in 2011, e-Hardware is an architectural ironmonger based in Colchester with two Directors, five full-time and five part-time staff.

They have 4500 different SKUs which are all purchased from UK wholesalers and includes things such as Locks, Latches, Hinges, Door handles and Window furniture. Orders are received through a whole range of sales channels including Trade Counter, Telephone, their Sellerdeck website, eBay, Amazon and trade customers such as Architects, Builders and Developers. In an average month they can receive anywhere between 3000 and 5000 orders across all their sales channels.

e-Hardware has been using OrderWise since November 2014. We spoke to Paul Brebner, Director of e-Hardware, who took the time to talk to us about his experiences using OrderWise and explain how it has helped revolutionise the day-to-day running of their vast operations.

Although all this manual entry wasn’t a problem in the early days for e-Hardware, as the business began to grow and so did the volume of sales orders being received, it became obvious the company required some form of stock management system.

“Before we had to know where stuff was on the shelves to go pick it, part pick orders and purchase for the orders we weren’t able to pick which was a real pain; it’s alright when you’re not too big as a company because you can cope with that but when you start to grow you start to think I’ve either got to employ a lot more staff to cope with the volumes or try and get better systems and processes in place – that was the exact thought process that led us to look for a new system.”

With e-Hardware struggling through inefficient, manual processes and becoming swamped by increasing numbers of sales orders, the search for a new software system began.

However, it wasn’t just the simple integration with his accounts and online sales channels that appealed to Paul. He explained that after a demonstration of the Purchasing and Manufacturing modules, it was clear OrderWise would be able to greatly benefit the business.

“OrderWise allowed us to create as many suppliers for a particular item as we wanted, so if one supplier ran out, we could go to another supplier, if one supplier was charging too much we could negotiate prices with other suppliers so that was really handy – the Manufacturing module also, because we do broadpacks and make up kits using our products, we needed some sort of manufacturing and kitting process so the fact OrderWise was able to offer that was really helpful.”

Once e-Hardware had made up their mind that OrderWise was the way to go, the extensive implementation process begun. However, Paul explained that e-Hardware didn’t want to just get a new software system, they wanted to completely change the way the business was organised, particularly with regards to warehouse management. With two warehouses in total, one for bulk stock and one for picking stock, the decision was made to introduce barcode scanning technology to make every day warehouse tasks as efficient as possible.

Mobile Warehouse Devices

e-Hardware also made the decision to introduce barcode scanning technology into their warehouse with the hope that this would improve the accuracy and efficiency of despatch and goods in activities. Paul explained how having OrderWise Mobile Warehouse Management Devices has increased the productivity of his warehouse way beyond what he expected to achieve.

“Monday’s usually our busiest day, we can pick anything between 200-300 orders on a Monday. Before we had to pick those manually and one order at a time, so you could end up walking all the way down aisle 1, then go down aisle 2, then go back down aisle 1 again. Now, to pick a whole trolley of totes which is 24 orders we only have to go round the warehouse once – it’s made a massive amount difference, I can get one person picking 200 orders a day now without breaking a sweat!”