Introduction
Hello, I am Karthick raj, I worked as a UX Research associate at a start-up company. Here we got a project related to digital transformation for a garment manufacturing company. This company has several departments: Inventory, Production, Procurement, Design, Store outlets, Accounts, customer Order and admin. They need to Integrate and optimize every department digitally to increase efficiency and profit for their organization.
In this project, I am showing a part of how we optimize the goods transfer system in the Inventory Management Interface.
Here we derived the problem statement after getting stakeholder Insights.
A garment manufacturing company has a lot of departments like Inventory, Production, Procurement, and outlets. These departments daily raise goods transfer requests to the inventory manager. Currently, every single item sent from that particular location is recorded in their goods transfer book & the master copy of the same is sent to the drop location along with all the items.
But using the current method they are facing material shortages, a lot of time consumption and Revenue loss. So, the Stakeholder wants to digitalize the goods transfer system effectively to the inventory system.
- Currently, goods transfer data are not digitally accountable to the Stakeholder.
- Currently, Goods transfers are raised by using telephonic conversations and WhatsApp messages between the Inventory manager and Transfer requesters (Such as the Production manager, Store Manager and Procurement manager)
- They are familiar with mobile applications.
- Stakeholders want to optimize goods transfer in an Inventory system.
End Goal
- Help the business improve
- Help the users in an efficient way
What do we not know?
- whether we have to design a goods transfer request Interface for the production manager, Store manager and other requesters?
- How frequently do they raise their request in a day?
- About the exact As-is Business process.
Secondary research helps to know about Inventory management and the Goods Transfer system. So we did desk research about How the inventory system works in garment industries?
What did I understand from Secondary Research?
I found some applications in the play store related to the Inventory ERP system and know about the Inventory process in garments.
- The Inventory Manager has responsibility for purchase Inward the raw material which was ordered by the Procurement team shown in Fig.1
- The Inventory Manager has a responsibility for Transfer the goods as per request which was raised by various departments shown in Fig.3
- The Inventory Manager raises a Purchase request to Procurement Department for unavailable stocks.
Purchase Inward:
- Generally, the Procurement manager / Purchase manager gets a quotation from different vendors. The procurement manager selects the vendor and then releases Purchase Order(PO).
- The inventory manager checks the PO and Inward the raw material then forward it to quality checking. If quality is good then stocks are added to the Inventory system and the accounting department release the fund to the vendor.
Goods Transfer:
As Per the Purchase request Inventory manager is Inward, the raw material and then distribute as per the Internal request which was raised by the Production manager, Store manager etc.
The next stage involves the collection of data firsthand without relying on any other resources. It includes an in-depth analysis of a problem through direct interaction with users. It involves defining the user and user interviews.
STAKEHOLDER STATEMENT
- Explain about your company.
- We are one of the most renowned fashion labels on an international platform today.
- They have a large inventory of fabric, trims, accessories, raw materials, ready-store pieces & client-customised orders, So, we require easy and quick software to track our Inventory system.
- We are looking to develop a customized software system to meet our requirements for the smooth and easy functioning of the organization. Maintaining a track and record of every fabric, trim, accessory, raw material and store piece is of utmost importance with the help of an inventory management system.
2. What is the current goods transfer process you followed in your company?
(As-is Scenario)
Why is an As-is Scenario Important?
Build out a better understanding of our user’s everyday experience to identify improvement opportunities.
What did I understand from As-is Scenario?
Every location in the organization maintains a goods transfer,
every single item sent from that particular location is recorded in this book & the master copy of the same is sent to the drop location along with all the items.
The details mentioned on the transfer of the goods are
as follows:
• Date of the transfer.
• Pickup Location
• Drop location
• Client name / Receivable’s name
• Description of all items sent
• Loaded by
• Delivered by
Currently, they are using manual entry systems which are not digitally accountable and not transparent to requesters from various departments and stakeholders.
3. what is the need for digital transformation?
Improve the efficiency of the goods transfer system and transfer requesters can able to see raw material availability from their mobile application which will reduce the pressure on the inventory manager. In the end, every raw material is accountable.
4. what are the problems currently you are facing?
- Stock availability is not transparent to the requesters.
- Raw Materials are not properly accountable in record books.
- The inventory manager has pressure due to a lot of goods transfer requests and he didn’t able to track quickly whether goods are reached or not.
5. Who is using this system in your organization? what is their education qualification?
Anyone in the organization at the managerial level can rise goods transfer requests and purchase requests to the Inventory manager. All are well-educated.
Empathy Map
After getting insights from our stakeholder interview and secondary research. Then we created a problem statement for goods transfer. We have already shown this on the starting page.
User Flow
Based on Stakeholder insights I came up with a separate user flow for the Goods Transfer requester and Inventory manager.
Problems and Requirements:
So first we are planning to work on optimizing goods transfer from the side of the Inventory Manager platform.
How might we solve their problem?
As per the inventory manager and stakeholder Insights, I developed my hypothesis to initiate a goods transfer Interface.
Wireframes
First, we came up with Low-Fidelity wireframe in draw.io to validate our hypothesis with Internal teams and then presented it to stakeholders for validation.
Hi- Fidelity Prototype
After getting the feedback we made 3 iterations in Low-fidelity wireframes. The digital transformation platform is a little bit more detailed when compared with other product-based applications so stakeholder has a lot of misconceptions about wireframes we come up with a Hi-fidelity Prototype for a better presentation.
Inventory manager Transfer goods as per other’s request
Before starting this flow I validate my hypothesis with the product manager and team. The product manager and I plan for executing our hypothesis as a design.
Task Flow 1
After clicking the hamburger menu from the dashboard, a list of segments is shown on the inventory manager’s Interface.
A lot of Goods Transfer requests were raised from Stores and Factories(Internal requests). Which is shown in New Request Tab. Before transferring their goods, the Inventory manager View and enters the detail then it comes under the order tracking tab.
Task flow 2
In the order tracking tab, the Inventory manager can view and update order status manually (or) When the goods are received the respective department updates the status then automatically status is updated in the Inventory manager Interface.
Inventory Manager Self Transfer.
Task flow 3
- As per stakeholder insight, the Inventory manager also can Initiate goods transfer requests from his end. So here we introduce the floating button to create a goods transfer request from the Inventory manager side.
- Then he can search for goods and then click required goods which will be added to the list of materials and He enters the transfer of the goods in detail.
Task flow 4
If goods are not available, then it is shown in Red Colour, If the Inventory manager wants to raise a purchase request then clicks the name of the Not -available item. the pop-up came up which contains a text field then the inventory manager enters the Required quantity to send it to the procurement department Interface.
Feedback
We presented a Hi-fidelity prototype to stakeholders for review. We got feedback and additional requirements from Stakeholders and the Inventory Manager. At the same time, we validate our hypothesis from this feedback.
After the stakeholder and Inventory manager review, we discussed it with the product manager and the team then again redesign it as per the feedback until finalizing the Screen. Double diamond design processes are followed in this project. Same we come up with various thought processes for a segment which is present in the drawer menu(Task flow-1 1st Fig.)such as Bill of Materials, Purchase Inward, Damaged Item, Recurring Order and Finished Product.
- The stakeholder is not always able to understand wireframes. So, come up with detailed Hi-Fidelity mockups.
- Got a lot of knowledge from this project like how to digitalize and integrate the vast system.
- How to interact with stakeholders and how to get valuable insights.
- How to think quickly and come up with solutions for users’ problems.
- Gain knowledge about how UX design impacts the business.
Thank you so much for reading it till the end. If you have any suggestions please leave that in the comments.
— KARTHICK RAJ S
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