Smart Scanning ~Making work really flow

Company Info.

A Carter & Sons is a Transport, Warehousing and Logistics service provider providing 3PL, warehousing and distribution. Starting out as a road freight operation, the family owned and operated business has grown significantly since its inception in 2001. This level of growth has brought changes in the way that Carters operates – not least in having to streamline and refine processes but, to ensure efficiency as it scaled too.

“We needed to cut down our POD processing time down from hours to minutes”

One issue was the way in which the company manages its proof of delivery (POD) process, as Richard Burke General Manager explains. With the time to process PODs increasing, Richard knew he needed a solution that could automate the task, cope with the scope and which would deliver efficiency. 

In his search of the market, he spoke to an Account Manager at Toshiba, and was impressed with his knowledge of the logistics industry. The Account Manager introduced a Toshiba Solution Consultant, who was able to map Richard’s pain points, recommend the most appropriate solution and demonstrate how it would meet Carters’ needs having grappled with the issue over a long period of time. Richard was delighted that what Toshiba proposed was one that could be implemented very rapidly.

“It’s a really smart system, it knows what to look for by capturing and interpreting data” 

The solution utilises Toshiba’s print/scan technology which allows Carters to capture and interpret PODs in all formats and allocate the document based on the information in it. “It knows what to look for based on the document format, by capturing, interpreting and appending meta data content, and uses it to kick off a workflow process, combined with automating the customer notification and filing process,” explains Richard. Toshiba provides the solution as a managed service, with a single monthly payment based on usage, making it very easy to administer. The Toshiba solution has had a big impact on the business – it has reduced the time spent processing PODs by 3 hours a day, or 15 hours a week. 

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“With the automated system I can push through more and more PODs without needing additional resources.”

Support is very important to Richard – “You need to know you can always ask a question or get the necessary upgrades”, he explains.

The Toshiba system has transformed the POD processing that is at the heart of Carters business. The smart scanning and workflow technology has dramatically improved productivity and the scalability of the solution gives Richard total confidence that it will match the continued growth he envisages for the A Carter & Sons business.

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