THE COMPANY:
Sentric provides an end-to-end service to orthopedic doctors by outfitting their offices with a comprehensive selection of orthopedic products on a consignment basis. Sentric provides products such as knee braces and walker boots to the physician’s office so that a patient can leave the appointment with the proper orthopedic device. Sentric, as owner of the product, files the claim for reimbursement directly with the patient’s health insurance plan which makes the transaction easy and seamless for the physician and patient.
THE CHALLENGE:
Sentric’s inventory is identified by a unique serial number and each item is available in a number of sizes. To receive, count, ship, or transfer ten of the same item, the warehouse team would have to manually write down the item number and ten serial numbers. A physical inventory count conducted at a physician’s office could take up to a full day leaving sales reps little time to make customer calls.
Manual inventory transfers were also creating bottlenecks within Sentric’s inventory flow. The transfers were first recorded on paper and then entered into Sage MAS 90 ERP. “Even with a second review, we wouldn’t realize until we entered a transfer into the system that the product shouldn’t even exist in our warehouse,” explained Diana Girardi, Inventory Control Team Leader at Sentric. It was time to make a change.
THE SOLUTION:
Sentric reached out to Scanco with a very clear mission in mind – to eliminate manual entry. They chose to use both the Barcode Master solution and the Radio Frequency solution to address the needs in their organization.
COLLECT DATA REMOTELY
The Barcode Master solution enabled the Sentric sales team to visit a physician’s office, quickly scan each item and serial number, and then upload the data to determine the items that needed to be restocked. The time to conduct physical counts dropped from up to a full day down to only an hour or two with the handheld scanner. “Our salespeople can hit two or three offices in one day,” said Girardi. “It’s amazing how much faster the counts go now that we use the handheld.”
TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF REMOTE INVENTORY
The speed and increased accuracy of the physical counts made it easy for the Sentric team to know exactly what inventory was being used by each doctor. “There are times we have zero variances,” said Girardi. Because of this, they know that the physician will always be able to provide the patient with the orthopedic tool that they need.
CATCH ERRORS IMMEDIATELY
Sentric’s central warehouse holds hundreds of serialized inventory items that move quickly through the distribution process. The Radio Frequency solution was ideal in that it was capable of catching and eliminating errors immediately. When an item is received using RF, the purchase order, item number and serial number are scanned and instantaneously entered in MAS 90. Each time that item is transferred, counted, or shipped, the RF handheld checks against MAS 90 to en- sure that the serial number is valid. Sentric no longer has to spend hours writing long lists of serial numbers and taking the chance that a number will be misread or transposed. “We can figure out what the issue is immediately with the RF scanner and take care of it before the product goes out the door,” explains Girardi. “Our inventory is incredibly accurate.”
UNEXPECTED BENEFITS
Scanco’s solution did not only bring accuracy and efficiency, it also brought Diana Girardi a promotion to Team Leader of the Inventory Specialists. Girardi was able to devote the time Sentric needed to making sure sales representatives were fully stocked, reporting in, and scheduling refills all while keeping the warehouse running smoothly.