Case Study: Tooled-Up
For over 10 years, Tooled-Up has been a customer of Columbus. In that time, we’ve helped the business drive several improvements across its operations by utilising Microsoft Power Platform (Power BI and Power Automate including Robotic Process Automation - RPA).
Overcome the pressures of lockdown
As a small business operating out of one warehouse, Tooled-Up faced significant pressure on the warehouse team due to the increased workload. With the support of Columbus, Tooled-Up used Power BI to optimise its picking process and enhance efficiency, successfully overcoming extreme workloads.
Previously, the warehouse followed a traditional order picking, FIFO-based process where a team member located each product individually as orders came in. The high volume of orders for the same products forced warehouse staff into inefficient back-and-forth trips to the same locations.
Columbus helped Tooled-Up create a set of Power BI reports that allowed the business to quickly analyse the order data, enabling them to adapt the picking waves within their ERP system. This adaption increased staff efficiency by limiting the number of journeys they had to undertake. As a result, this improvement significantly reduced travel time and enabled warehouse members to process multiple orders simultaneously.
Tooled-Up adopted this processing method during the busy 18 month period and continues to use this approach during peak seasonal demands.
Jason Chance, Director at Tooled-Up, speaks on how the new approach helped his business during this period, “By having a clearer visibility of the order demand impact on the warehouse processes, we were able to quickly respond with maximum efficiency during this unprecedented time.”
Reintegrate marketplaces to meet demand
As well as selling through their own website, Tooled-Up also sell on several marketplaces. However, they too faced challenges during lockdown as their processes couldn’t keep up with the increased data demands.
Post-COVID, the Columbus team reworked the integrations, helping Tooled-Up better manage the 70,000 plus product SKUs the company offers.
Columbus has also helped Tooled-Up optimise processes to ensure information is kept up-to-date across its website and all marketplace platforms. For example, a new product added to the ERP system is then made available on the website and all relevant marketplaces in near real-time.
This means Tooled-Up now has the flexibility to sell the same products on several different channels, therefore increasing overall sales.
- Retail & Distribution
- Case
- Business Automation
Summary
- The coronavirus lockdowns presented a new set of challenges for Tooled-Up, who experienced a surge in demand with their order backlog increasing by a factor of over 1000%.
- As well as selling through their own website, Tooled-Up sell on several marketplaces. However, they faced further lockdown challenges as their processes couldn't keep up with their data demands.
- With the support of Columbus, Tooled-Up utilised Microsoft Power Platform to optimise their operational efficiency and improve their data quality.
- This enabled Tooled-Up to:
- Gain actionable insights for informed decisions making
- Improve data quality
- Make enhancements to the core ERP system
About Haarslev
- Established in 1976, Lee Industrial Limited operates under the trade names Tooled-Up and MyToolShed.
- Based in Derby, UK, the company serves as an online retailer specialising in hand and power tools.
- Tooled-Up offers a diverse range of brands, catering to general DIY repair and maintenance needs, as well as providing high-quality tools for trade professionals. Customers can purchase tools through various marketplaces, and the trade websites.
- Columbus has worked with Tooled-Up for over 10 years, helping the business drive several improvements across its operations.
Download your copy of this case study
Read the full story of the project between Columbus and Tooled-Up by opening the pdf version below.
Improve data quality
With a vast product range on offer, Tooled Up are unable to stock every item. Instead of offering next day delivery on every product, customers have the option to arrange collection or delivery on items that aren’t currently in stock. This approach allows Tooled-Up to sell its entire product range across all channels, but it’s crucial for the business to have access to the correct inventory feeds to understand which products are available.
Another challenge for Tooled-Up was that, aside from a few main suppliers the company has good relationships with, not every supplier would send data feed files containing stock availability. Previously, a Tooled-Up employee had to manually search through supplier websites, gather feed files, spend time editing them (as they were usually in a different format) and load them into the company’s ERP system.
Since there wasn’t a dedicated employee assigned to this task, it could take weeks before feed files were updated. By leveraging the RPA functionality of the Power Platform, Tooled-Up automated the data collection process and integrated it with the company’s existing ERP system. Now, this process can be completed multiple times a day without the need for human intervention, improving data quality and saving time for Tooled-Up’s employees.
Automate time-consuming business processes
Invoices from Tooled-Up’s suppliers used to arrive in a single inbox. It was then the responsibility of one person to forward these emails to the correct individual in the finance team for processing.
By using Power Automate, MS Teams, and SharePoint, Columbus implemented automated rules to save incoming emails and attachments into specific lists categorised by supplier in SharePoint. This automation significantly reduced the bottleneck caused by a single person forwarding emails to the team.
Now, the finance team can access the lists and perform several actions, such as:
- View the number of completed/outstanding purchase orders
- Assign items in the list to themselves
- Change the status of an item (e.g., ‘in progress’ or ‘completed’)
This not only provides the finance team with an accurate list to work from, but also enhances visibility across the business regarding outstanding purchase order invoices.
Columbus as a provider
Jason Chance, Director at Tooled-Up, speaks on how his business has improved as a result of working with Columbus, “Thanks to the successful implementation of Power Platform with support from Columbus, we’ve been able to make several operational improvements in the business. For example, we’ve made financial gains by increasing order volumes within the business without the need to increase the team size.”
Jason also says he would recommend Columbus to other businesses wanting to undertake a similar project, “Columbus is our trusted advisor when it comes to recommending changes in the business. Their direct and hands-on approach has been invaluable for us. Over the years, we’ve built up a hands-on working relationship, and they have a deep understanding of our business.”
