I was watching recently, an Episode of the TV Series Modern Marvels called - Coin Operated.
There was an amazing piece of information about Vending Machines that dispense things like Soda or Chips or other items!
This is a recent advance in Vending Machine Technology that made it possible to cut what was a waste of people, resources and effort and at the same time, improved the Business Intelligence gathering process in the vending machine business!
It was pretty amazing!
It appears that traditionally, the service people who refill the vending machines, and collect the money from them, used to make wasteful trips back and forth between their delivery trucks and the vending machines.
They used to come in, pick up the coins and money collected since their last visit and note down what already got sold. They made a trip back to the delivery truck, picked up what was sold in that vending machine, went back in and refilled it!
It appears that recently, these vending machines come with a small computer inside that kept track of all of the sales in that vending machine. They carried in a small handheld system that they hooked up to this computer with a cable. The Handheld downloaded the sales information. Their office computer had already filled a pallet with what needed to be refilled based on their last trip. So they loaded this stuff and went on their way to the next vending machine.
In the evening, they went back to their office, hooked up the handheld to the office computer. The office computer uploaded all the sales data and updated their Business Intelligence system. For the next trip to the vending machine, this data helped them not only to suggest what needed to be refilled but also instructed them to remove slow moving stuff and refill with more of the faster moving stuff for each of these vending machines!
Now if you look at this - this system eliminated one trip each back to the van saving time and effort for each vending machine!
But most importantly, it eliminated entries on paper, keying in all of the data again into a computer. Above all, it quickly made use of the Business Intelligence and past sales data it had been keeping up and suggested removing slower moving stuff with faster moving stuff for the next trip to that vending machine! This information is used to automatically fill the pallets. This way service people never ran out of stuff they needed for each vending machine. It had planned every detail for each of them. What to remove and what to fill!
Amazing combination of hardware and Business Intelligence software to effect improvements in efficiency, and helping improve overall sales at the same time!
Many times, Process Improvements can be combined in clever ways with Business Intelligence to do things more efficiently and effectively also! This is one such example!
Our business is about technology, yes. But it's also about operations and customer relationships. - Michael Dell
See www.laptopsanytime.com for dispensing of laptops from a self-service one-of-a-kind vending machine.