“Because of how quickly we can now get data to the individuals that need it, we have more time in the production facility. And more flexibility.”
GOFORMZ CASE STUDY
AT-A-GLANCE
Romo Durable Graphics needed a faster way to collect and process inventory data from their customers to accelerate production times and improve efficiency.
With mobile Vendor Managed Inventory forms, customer service representatives can rapidly enter inventory replenishment quantities. Leveraging barcode scanning, Romo Durable Graphics delivery drivers can scan product barcodes, which are automatically referenced within their ERP system to identify the necessary part numbers, PO numbers, product bin quantities, and more. A new form is then instantly created, pre-populated with these values, and routed to a customer service representative to place an order.
THE FULL STORY
For over 60 years, Romo Durable Graphics has “created products that leave a lasting impression” for their customers. Not only does Romo Durable Graphics create “decals, labels, overlays, in-mold, and dimensional products” to an impressive array of brands, but they also provide Vendor Managed Inventory services to businesses within Wisconsin.
Romo’s VMI program manages their customers’ decals on site including branding logos, warning decals, and custom decorations. If the customer is running low on a particular product, Romo places an order to replenish said customer’s supply – granting customers peace of mind that their durable graphics are appropriately stocked, at all times.
Before seeking out a digital platform, Romo Durable Graphics relied on paper forms to fill out and deliver Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) information. This process required Romo personnel to drive to customer sites and manually fill out their VMI forms, before returning to the office with order information. This manual procedure often resulted in production delays. “Now you’re losing a day of production because we didn’t get the form back until the afternoon, which doesn’t get entered until the next morning,” explained Jeff Riopelle, the IT Manager for Romo Durable Graphics. “And then you add an additional day for production if we didn’t already have it in stock. It made things very tight for production.”
Seeking a way to optimize their inefficient VMI data collection and order production, Romo dabbled with faxing forms between customer sites and the back-office, as well as testing a ‘digital pen’. Although Romo Durable Graphics made do with these interim solutions, Jeff and his team knew there had to be a better way to relay information between customer sites, the back-office, and production facilities.
To determine what inventory is needed at a customer site, Romo personnel quantify products by ‘bin’, citing how many bins of a certain product are needed at each site. Jeff and his team realized this process could be significantly simplified using barcode scanning, which ideally, could then be input into a form.
Romo Durable Graphics was referred to GoFormz and began to digitize their VMI forms. With mobile Vendor Managed Inventory forms, Romo customer service representatives could now visit customer sites and rapidly scan the barcodes of each product bin. Once the form was submitted, GoFormz instantly emailed the document to a Romo contact. This accelerated workflow delivered critical order information, like the customer name and barcode data, eliminating the need for forms to be manually delivered back to the office from customer locations. This allowed Romo’s production team to work more flexibly and to accommodate customer requests faster. “Because of how quickly we can now get data to the individuals that need it, we have more time in the production facility. And more flexibility,” Jeff explained. “Instead of having one day to produce a product and have to rearrange our entire production schedule for it, this gives us more time.”
Romo Durable Graphics has further optimized its order data collection workflow, leveraging a business process automation software to monitor an email inbox for incoming mobile Vendor Inventory Managed forms, which are used to cross-reference customer product part numbers against Romo’s internal part numbers via their ERP system. The ERP system then pulls the product’s bin quantity, as well as any necessary PO numbers, before generating a new form. This form is routed to a Romo customer service representative, pre-populated with the customer’s information, part numbers, and product quantities needed. Once this form has been completed an order is placed. This type of digital transformation of their systems provides Romo with efficiency, scale and competitive advantages in the modern marketplace.