Traceability is important for Building Materials manufacturers & distributors

Tracing your flooring and tiles back to its origin? But why?

Traceability is important in the Building Materials industry, almost as much as it is in other industries like Food and Pharmaceutical. You need to gain respect as much as anyone else. One example would be in the Flooring and Tiling industry specifically.

From carpets to tiles to wooden floors, batches of products are integral to any building development; this could be in a home, office building or retail store. For instance, if you get the wrong die batch as part of a carpet roll out in your home, you’re not going to be very impressed with your house developer. This then means there will be a ripple effect back through the supply chain as it is not as simple as just replacing say the living room, you will need to replace the whole house - potentially. We know that this will incur unnecessary costs for re-fitting, manufacture of the carpet and re-shipping. I know if I was the homeowner I wouldn’t want to pay twice.

It’s the same principle for tiles as the colour and finish need to be as part of the same batch. Each manufactured batch can be different from each other, fitting 2 different batches together just won’t work as there is always going to be slight differences, and we all strive for perfection. I’m sure if you saw that difference in your home you would be asking for a whole new fit, which again causes unnecessary costs to the business.

At Technology Management we’ve found that several business software solutions don’t go far enough to accommodate the needs of flooring & tiling businesses, so you are more than likely finding yourself chasing your tail especially around traceability.

Traceability is vital for success in today’s manufacturing environment

Many Building Materials manufactures and distributors have found that they do not have adequate visibility into where their materials have come from, where they have gone to and what the composition of those materials are. This can have a knock-on effect and make the supply chain difficult to manage.

When I have spoken with our clients one of the most common issues, they have faced was the management of traceability. Historically they would have used spreadsheets & databases which are disparate and even worse it was manually done on numerous amounts of paper! We together wondered how many times they were doing replacement re-fits because the right amount of a batch wasn’t sent in the first place.

Ask yourself, if a wrong batch was delivered to you, what would your client say? What would they do? How would it jeopardise future business with your client? You need to keep your reputation intact and make sure you get repeat business for future contracts and projects.

Ok, so there’s a problem and a solution is required to stop you losing money and getting a bad rep.

You need a business system that will enable the capability to trace each item you manufacture and distribute. Instead of having to update different systems for different stages throughout the purchasing process you need to be able to have one integrated system from start to finish to have the ability to allocate stock correctly and make sure you get that repeat business you want with your clients. I know that traceability might be just a small part to your business but still just as important. Without it you will be left with a missing piece to your very large puzzle.

Whether it be liaising with specifiers, architects, designers, contractors, or manufacturing & supplying materials, Dynamics Building Materials based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (previously known as Microsoft Dynamics NAV) is the perfect single integrated solution that gives you the confidence to track and respond quickly to any future products issues that may come your way in no time. sounds like a dream I know!

We have a range of well-known industry-leaders in the Flooring & Tiling industry already utilising Dynamics Building Materials every day, including: Karndean, Ted Todd and Victoria Carpets.

Integrated Microsoft Dynamics software for the Flooring & Tiling Industry

Discover the many benefits of Dynamics Building Materials. Attend our 30-minute webinar on the 10th April to discover how integrated Microsoft Dynamics software for the Flooring & Tiling industry can be the fresh start that you need to facilitate the future growth of your business. Book here.