How Whirlpool track inventory using Orca Scan

Whirlpool Canada, a Fortune 500 company with multiple sites in the Greater Toronto area, implemented Orca Scan to achieve inventory accountability. As a result, they increased productivity by 400% and cut costs by $200k per year. Here’s how they did it…👇

The problem

When Jeet was appointed as a coordinator for Whirlpool Canada, he became responsible for the maintenance and tracking of a large inventory across multiple sites. However, there was no structure in place to do this, using only the names of the products to monitor what was on each site. When a new site opened, they simply filled a truck with what they thought they needed and returned the surplus.

What they lacked was the ability to track items as they moved between sites 🚛. As a result, up to $20k - $30k worth of products were being misplaced over the course of each project, with up to 10 projects on the go at any given time.

Jeet and his team knew the solution to the problem was better tracking. They needed a system that would be simple to implement across multiple sites and was intuitive to use 🚀

A little bit of context

Whirlpool Canada manufacture, distribute, and install its products - a true B2C business model. It was important the solution allowed them to track an inventory of big-ticket items, totalling approx $3 million per site 💰

How Orca Scan solved the problem

Jeet started by implementing Orca Scan in his department, simply using his smartphone 📱. For continuity, he incorporated the use of names already in the system into the data of the barcodes.

At each location, a coordinator creates a spreadsheet listing all the items the site needs – from microwaves to washing machines. They do this by scanning the model number of everything that is currently on-site and recording what is missing; this helps validate precisely what is needed, so there is no wastage 🗑

When the new products arrive, they’re scanned using Orca and assigned to the location with a timestamp. As this happens, the contractors receiving the items are required to sign a copy of the exported spreadsheet to acknowledge the delivery - which introduces accountability.

This process ensures the entire journey of a product is tracked - if things go missing, they know exactly where they were last seen. It also highlights where the product should be and, using triggers, tells the team if it’s delivered to the wrong place ❌

These sheets are exported to excel and google sheets, where they are maintained and analysed for order management and to track imports.

Has the solution been successful?

The implementation of Orca Scan at Whirpool Canada has resulted in a 400% increase in productivity, 80% decrease in email communication and savings of around $200k per year due to improved visibility and accountability 📈

It was so successful, the system was rolled out across all departments. The data captured using Orca Scan is now pivotal to the day-to-day running of the company, and, as a result, Jeet was promoted to Account Manager 👏

Thank you

Thank you to Jeet for sharing his story of how Whirlpool Canada uses Orca Scan to save money and improve accountability. We are very grateful 🙏

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