Win-win situation for customers and SixPointTwo

EDI connection: taking the stress out of the order process

 

SixPointTwo wants to continuously improve by making business and production processes ever more efficient. We recently made an important efficiency improvement in our order process. We now work with Gatewise, a platform for EDI connections, and this means we can save our customers and ourselves a lot of time. Hedi van Heugten, software developer, explains how this works.

“You can hardly imagine it, but all our incoming orders were still being processed manually ten years ago,” says Hedi. “Each line was manually entered into the project. The order process was partly automated later on. Customers placed their orders by sending us an Excel file that we then loaded here automatically using a script. But it was still manual work for the most part. We had to get the document files from somewhere, and the execution of various checks was still done manually.”

Time ripe for full automation
SixPointTwo took the step towards full automation of the order process last year. “We noticed more and more of our customers were demanding this. This is why we made the decision to implement the Gatewise platform. The platform lets us use EDI connections with customers who want it.”

Repetitive orders: time saving of two days
The EDI connection is ideal for new repeat orders. “This is useful for customers who regularly have us make the same items for them.” How does that work? “A customer places a new order with us. All orders for known items are recognised by the system. These are automatically loaded at night; they are then ready for our production department in the Czech Republic the next day. SixPointTwo can save two days doing this because repetitive orders no longer need to be checked by an employee, the system takes care of it all. This means repetitive orders for our customers can go into production faster, shortening our lead times. So it’s a win-win situation!”

Streamlining
In order to get the maximum return from the EDI connection, good coordination with the customer is necessary in advance. “To streamline the information exchange, good agreements have been made and extensive testing has been carried out on how outgoing and incoming data should be processed. This concerns incoming orders and outgoing order confirmations, reconfirmations, shipping documents and invoices. This means several different specifications and preferences are looked at, including delivery dates, prices, specific colours, different delivery addresses and different customer departments. In addition, the entire invoicing process is automated, which ensures sales invoices are sent to the customer directly from our ERP system via the EDI connection. This prevents various unnecessary processing being required on both sides, which saves even more time.”

We’ll open the gate like this…
SixPointTwo can make EDI connections with many different customers via the Gatewise platform. “We can easily open the gate. And we know exactly how to work with the customer to quickly set up and test the connection.” Our experiences at SixPointTwo and on the customer side with EDI are positive. In the meantime, work is already underway to expand the functionality. “We are investigating how interim changes in orders can be processed automatically.”

Would you like to know how much time an EDI connection with SixPointTwo will save your company? Please contact Hedi van Heugten.

 

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