Mass Movement

Challenge

Mass Movement has been in the fitness equipment distribution for more than 20 years, and over this time, they have polished their inner processes and formed their unique vision of operational excellence. Like any other business whose success relies on impeccable logistics, Mass Movement strives to streamline communication across all of its departments and sync the work operations among technicians, warehouse employees, and regional managers.

One way to assure your business runs like clockwork is to implement a business process automation system, and it is exactly what Mass Movement had done prior to working with us. They used ready-made solutions for enterprise-grade inventory management; however, those systems did not fully address their unique needs. It became clear that investing in a custom-tailored inventory management system (IMS) and a resource planning tool was a cost-effective and much more efficient solution in the long run.

Mass Movement came to Redwerk with one big challenge – to build a custom IMS that would be a perfect fit for their current workflow. To implement such a system, we had to dive deep under the hood of Mass Movement’s internal work processes, so that we clearly understood the logic and value behind every feature we develop. Since the functional specifications were dictated by the nature of the business and specifics of the distribution industry, we had to devise solutions that would meet our client’s unique needs and at the same time do not overload the system.

Having earned the trust of the Mass Movement team, we were later tasked with developing a Resource Planner – a calendar-like logistics tool for everyday use. It was supposed to have a Google-inspired simplistic design and include features for monitoring employee availability and capacity, checking order statuses, truck requests, hotel bookings, etc. Since the Resource Planner was designed to work with large amounts of data, our major task was to enable a smooth data parsing process that would not affect the tool’s overall performance.

On top of that, Mass Movement took enhancing the operational efficiency to another level and decided to create a mobile version of the Resource Planner, so that its employees had access to all the essential information on-the-go. Our Redwerk team was responsible for developing enterprise iOS and Android apps that would only partially mimic the web tool’s functionality. The primary focus was on technician scheduling and viewing vital order details for each of the assigned tasks.

Solution

Combining Mass Movement’s industry experience and clear product vision with our technical expertise, we managed to build a comprehensive IMS fully matching our client’s workflows. Moreover, we developed a custom Resource Planner – an indispensable tool for any business looking to level up their supply chain management. We also delivered iOS and Android versions of the Resource Planner and created Windows service and Excel macros for quick data manipulations. Let’s dive deeper into the functionality of each tool.

Core features we developed for the Inventory Management System:

• Inbound Truck: this tab combines read-only and editable fields that display information on distribution centers the trucks are coming to, the trucks’ IDs, numbers, statuses, receiving dates, and notes. The data on each truck can be edited, printed, or removed. The users can also add new trucks and search for trucks with ASN (advanced shipping notification) status.
• Outbound Truck: this tab combines read-only and editable fields that display information on distribution centers the trucks are leaving from, the trucks’ IDs, numbers, statuses, start loading time, notes, and delivery stops. Apart from editing, printing, or removing data on each truck, the users can also print a bill of lading or add a packlist.
• Add Packlist: this button opens up a tab for selecting the quantity of one specific item to be loaded and viewing the number of items already issued to the outbound truck to make sure there is no item missing and the truck is loaded as planned.
• Items: this tab displays a list of items in the current warehouse. Each row of the items table can be edited or deleted. The items page also contains a search bar with filters by status and inventory type. The users can also add new items, change the item status to Issued or move items between warehouses through respective buttons above the table.
• Report: this menu opens up a pop-up window with a request to enter the last 4 or 5 digits of the sales order number. After that, the user will see an Inventory Report, which contains shipping details (name, address, state), the item ID, quantity, description, warehouse location, and other details. The report can be printed, exported as a CSV file, or simply closed.

Core features we developed for the Resource Planner:

• M5 SO Overview: this page allows viewing, editing, and adding orders as well as related data, such as the distribution center location, truck requests, team size, order status, essential for a successful supply chain management. This view also contains an advanced search filter as well as the calendar part where users can add colored notes and type the time the service provision started.
• M5 SO Detail: this view allows adding different resource types, such as MM Staff, TMS, Staff Travel, Rental, Hotel, External Staff, to the parent order and entering the missing data into the newly added fields.
• MM Load Overview: this tab is designed for managing pickup/delivery loads and carriers, and it allows viewing vital information on each load, such as the load ID, status, the load description, cost, pickup date, starting address and final destination. The functionality is further enhanced by a simple search and load status filter.

Peculiarities of the Resource Planner for iOS and Android:

• Designed primarily for technicians and regional managers.
• Each employee can view only the tasks assigned specifically to them.
• Calendar View: allows viewing scheduled tasks for the work week.
• Detail View: provides details on each task and displays related sub-tasks and attachments, such as hotel bookings, flight tickets, etc.
• Admins and regional managers have advanced permissions and thus can view tasks of all technicians and field service workers.

As for the Windows service we created, its core functions are to extract data from an SQL table, write the data into a CSV file, and provide statistics back to the user. The final data target is a cloud software, which is used for field service management at Mass Movement. We also assisted our client to install Excel macros for pulling the data from the SQL database.