Digitizing the Bucket Brigade
Farzad Dibachi
CEO and Co-founder of Inxeption Corporation, Co-Author of "Just Add Management" - We're Hiring!
“The overwhelming majority of work is still manual, resembling a sort of human-powered bucket brigade, with people wandering around warehouses or standing alongside conveyor belts.”
What a great metaphor. This is from a recent article* about global supply chains and how the pandemic has exposed many vulnerabilities. To pandemic-proof the future, the author argued, we have to use technology to address inefficiencies that hamper flexibility in the face of a crisis.
Remember that “manual work” is not just about physical product handlers. “Bucketeers” in many industries are still using largely analog process tools and traditional sales channels that are both inefficient and also black holes of information. Among them: Paper catalogs. Paying bills by check. Leaving customer interactions to distributors who have little incentive to share their insights. Separate systems for CRM, inventory management, and accounting that demand time-consuming data synthesis to get a full view of the business. Logistics operations where carriers’ billing documentation arrives monthly in a box the size and weight of a fresh pack of copy paper. Advertising campaigns run on hunches.
At Inxeption we like taking those leaky buckets out of our customers’ hands. We digitize, integrate, and streamline processes that allow companies to Do Business Better. Say goodbye to collection agencies—we make transactions real-time with immediate payments. We put catalogs on customer phones, not in their mailboxes. We reduce manual processing errors and make business relationships more transparent. We make it easier to use data to better understand customers’ behavior and desires. We use their own data to offer customers logistics options based on a flat-rate model.
The beauty of digital integration is the flexibility it gives our customers to run a business more efficiently … scrap bulk inventories in favor of smarter supply chain management… pivot when necessary … and charge forward quickly to leverage opportunities. Our customers are amazed at how nimble they become when the Inxeption platform organizes their buckets.
For more information, visit www.inxeption.com
*Why We Need Mass Automation to Pandemic-Proof the Supply Chain, by Derik Pridmore | Jul 10, 2020, Singularity Hub.