You're interested in you, dental equipment manufacturer, may need to be a fairly simple and relatively cheap action significantly eliminate the error of the ordering process, take the action to save you thousands of dollars and dealers (or even hundreds of thousands of) a year?
Has with the dental industry more than 36 years, and have been responsible for many parts of the design, development, and production of dental equipment, I don't have any fear of contradiction can be one of the most overlooked areas of potential cost savings is the product ordering process.
Managing the order department is one of my responsibilities in my career. The company is equipped with at least six individuals whose sole full-time responsibility is to create a "buildable order" (correct and complete) for production facilities. They need to deal with many errors related to the sorting process. Even with these product knowledge order inspectors, mistakes are made into production and even our customers. In my daily contact with manufacturers and dealers, I was told that these issues were continuing.
There are many reasons for these errors. Perhaps the biggest reason is that dental equipment is quite complex and can usually be ordered in many different ways. Adding complexity to the ordering process is a "select sensitive option". This means that if a device option is selected, another decision is needed to complete a complete and accurate order. One manufacturer reportedly has a product that can be ordered "in a million different ways". To make the ordering process more complex, our industry has some features. For example, a manufacturer may have different names for the same type of product. The delivery unit installed in the Dental Chair may be named OTP (patient) or CMU (chair installation unit). Another cause of the error is too many companies - they will be products to the market in a hurry - simply "paperwork" (the product manufacturing and transportation, and then let the peripheral support data at a lower priority). Sometimes changes to products that affect costs and pricing are not documented at all. It is unreasonable to expect many manufacturers to rely on manual systems to successfully deal with these and many other challenges. In fact, they didn't!
These problems are further complicated by the fact that many companies have been forced -- perhaps by tradition -- to produce and distribute thousands of product documents, many of which cost as much as thousands of dollars. These errors occur due to previous reasons, but because they do not have an electronic system to capture these errors, they are more complex. Specifically, there is usually no electronic check to determine whether the current price list matches the catalog data they have distributed. Most manufacturers find that after the fact, their catalog data does have errors, and they have no viable option for correction. To redistribute and redistribute directories is very expensive, and addendums are generally ignored by their customers. Usually, most manufacturers decide to put up with these mistakes.
If it is possible to know the total cost of these errors in our industry, I am sure it will be an astronomical figure. During a recent visit to the dentist, I visited their factory. We went into a warehouse with lots of dental supplies. I asked, "what's this?" The dealer replied, "the order is wrong."
Where are the hidden costs of these mistakes? Space limit to prevent a complete list, but including: some manufacturers spend a lot of time trying to key personnel in the remedial order errors (which can be spent on more efficient task time); Incorrect products sometimes have to be scrapped; Additional construction costs, such as. To excavate the cost of concrete ground; Need to work overtime to replace incorrect products; Air freight costs need to speed up the delivery of replacement equipment. Perhaps the biggest hidden cost is the loss of business due to customer dissatisfaction.
The good news is that, for these challenges, there are some very feasible solution, when manufacturers admit that the problems for the first time, and then look for the modern technology to provide solutions, the result will be "make money". One solution is to create a directory "configurator" that is used in the ordering process; The technology already exists. In essence, the configurator will require completeness and accuracy before the order entry. It also has "smart" built-in "know" options that require accurate information to place a complete and accurate order. Some manufacturers have already implemented configurations and have received many of the benefits they provide. Most of us have already used the configurator (probably not) in our daily lives. When we get to the Internet when ordering tickets or hotel reservation confirmation, we are using the configurator, we clearly know how easy it is to use them, and how they can help us avoid mistakes and save time.
Another technology that our industry has just introduced is the "smart directory". This technology directly addresses the challenge of entering the correct part Numbers, product description and price. First, the smart directory compares with the latest interactive price list, all of which are identified and corrected. The revised data can be accessed over the Internet within hours of the change. There is no need to copy directories, send attachments, etc. When an order and a clever directory, sales staff just click the directory of the needed product part number, part number, description, and the correct price is transferred to a working table, then can be automatically converted into the contract can be signed. All data is related to avoiding spelling errors, transposition, etc.
I think most manufacturers and distributors agree that it is imperative to find ways to reduce the cost of producing and selling dental equipment, especially in the current economic situation. Implementing the configurator and smart directory is the best way to achieve these goals. These relatively small investments will be saved by tens of thousands of dollars in cost savings.
