Innovations in Stock Management

15 years ago, EDI Plus launched an Inventory Management System for one of our pharmaceutical customers to provide them with remote stock control and visibility over their customer’s laboratories. The system was web based via individual user login, in conjunction with mobile barcode scanning devices and offered:

• real-time stock reports with full audit records.
• electronically imported Delivery Notes, for fast, accurate receipting of deliveries.
• issue, move and stocktake functions at individual item levels, either via the web portal or through the mobile device.
• replenishment order calculations that can be generated at the click of a button in real-time, and then sent directly into the Supplier’s back-office system for processing.
• configurable options to meet a Vendor Managed solution, or full control at the end-user level.
• stand-alone handheld devices that continue to function without mobile data connections, such as inside walk-in fridges.
• using product barcodes to record transactions, and decoding QR codes to identify specific Lots

Over the years this application has been rolled out to customers throughout Europe and Asia, evolving to meet customer requirements.

Over the last 18 months we have been developing the next iteration of this system, rebuilding the online application using the latest web technologies, incorporating external authentication and authorization platforms to support single sign-on, and moving our mobile application onto an Android platform to support a wider audience of end-user devices.

As we continue to migrate existing users onto the new platform, and introduce new customers to the configurable options to meet their specific needs, who knows what the next 15 years will hold…