Brødrene Dahl is Denmark's largest plumbing wholesaler and part of the Saint Gobain Group, the world leader in the habitat and construction markets. The company specializes in consultation services and products for plumbing and water & drainage. It also provides tools, pipes & valves, and climate solutions. Brødrene Dahl has 58 stores spread across the country, as well as a climate center in Horsens, where plumbing installers can learn about the latest climate technologies.
"We already had a store solution with handheld terminals but it was becoming obsolete. So we had the choice to modernize the old solution or buy an entirely new one. We asked our supplier Delfi for a bid on the job and it recommended that we switch to the Memor™ mobile computer, because it can do more and is highly reliable," stated IT Manager Leif Mathiesen, who led the project.
Brødrene Dahl took Delfi's advice and implemented a major IT project, introducing 300 handheld Memor™ terminals to read bar codes on the more than 13,000 different products for its 58 stores in Denmark. The Memor™ is equipped with Delfi standard software developed with a number of features to meet the group's special needs.
The compact handheld mobile device is used to perform three key tasks in the stores:
First: the Memor™ is used at goods receiving on a daily basis. The mobile device reads the barcode and number of pieces on the delivery notes accompanying the new products, while entering the number of each received product. If the two numbers are not the same, the Memor™ beeps to indicate the error. When the count is completed, the Memor™ is docked in its base and all the collected data is sent to the company's ERP system, Movex, to update stock figures of the store.
Second: when customers shop in the store, they read the bar codes on all the products placed in the cart with the Memor™. The bar codes can be placed either on the product or on the shelf. If they are placed on the shelf, the Memor™ also reads the number of units. Once the purchase is final, the mobile device is placed in its dock and all the purchase information can be viewed and checked on the screen at the checkout counter. Once purchases are approved, they are registered on the customers' account in the Movex system and the stock numbers are reduced according to the number of goods purchased.
Third: the Memor™ is used for stock counts at the store where items are scanned regularly and for entering the product numbers of all the goods in the store. All the data is then submitted to the Movex system and the actual stock figures are compared with Movex system's figures to detect inventory discrepancies.
Very user-friendly solution
Among the benefits of the new mobile computing solution is user-friendliness, which is very important to us at Brødrene Dahl. The solution has four features that are easy to select, so it's almost impossible for users to do something wrong. It's fast and easy to learn and use the Memor™. Moreover, there are very few operational problems. On the whole, the mobile computing system with the Memor™ is a solution that managers, IT department and users all are very satisfied with. It has been a very good investment," mentioned Mathiesen.
"In fact, the project went so well with such wonderful results that we have decided to acquire a similar solution for the 18 Optimera construction stores in Denmark, also a part of the Saint Gobain group," concluded Mathiesen.
Customer: Broderne Dahl
Industry: Retail
Application: Receiving, Inventory, Picking
Country: Denmark
Datalogic Mobile Solution: Retail In-Store
Datalogic Products: Memor™
Datalogic Partner: Delfi Technologies A/S
