Home interiors retailer Habitat has consolidated its stock taking across the UK using new portable data capture units and bespoke software from UK-based mobile workforce solutions company Portech Systems.
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Following successful completion of UK implementation of the new system, it will be rolled out to Spain and potentially other European countries. The multinational homes and interiors retailer currently runs in-house stocktaking in the UK to manage more than 3,500 products in approximately 100 different product types. To gain greater stock accountability - visibility and control of items in store - Habitat has decided to implement a new stock taking system from Portech.
The implementation includes the use of a fleet of 108 multi-lingual Unitech HT660portable data capture units. These will enable Habitat to benefit from perpetual counts and rolling counts once the initial stock audit has been undertaken. Currently, counts are conducted on a paper check basis and the stock audit process differs from country to country. The new system will help to provide a unified approach to stock auditing.
The new units and software will also improve speed and accuracy of counts as they are programmed to recognise and alert the stock auditor to skew very quickly. With the new system, Habitat expects to increase productivity of stock audits as time taken for the process will be reduced and counts will occur, where possible, out of trading hours, limiting inconvenience to the store's customers.
Habitat also expects to benefit from a higher level of reporting and visibility as the underlying PC system has also been updated to meet the company's requirements, including the option to view the progress of the stock audit at any given time.
Implementation is already underway with a testing phase running concurrently and will be finished before the critical January stock audits in the UK.
A Habitat spokesperson said: "We are confident that we will be able to transform our stock audit process to deliver strong benefits to our business down to the individual store level. The new system is more than a simple stock audit solution - it has huge potential to help us improve traceability of our products and manage our inventory more effectively at any time of the year. Store managers will be able to access real time product inventory during the order process and analyse turn levels far more accurately than the method we use today."
Shaz Naeem, managing director, Portech Systems, added: "We were selected following a competitive review process and are delighted to be working with Habitat once again. The technology that we have developed offers the ability to expand functionality easily and will improve the stock taking and inventory requirements of Habitat immensely today and in the future."
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