Case Study – Heaton Valves Africa 2
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Overview

In order to maintain its position as the foremost expert valve stockist and distributor in Southern Africa, Heaton Valves Africa was looking to enhance the customer experience by improving its processes, product quality and customer service.

To achieve this, Heaton Valves Africa uses AssetTagz to load, inspect, manage and dispatch valves from its warehouses. This automation has given them full traceability on every individual valve from the time it arrives to the time it is dispatched to the customer.

Background

Heaton Valves Africa (Pty) Ltd is an expert valve stockist, flow, relief, steam and combustion system solution provider and distributor of premium products to the oil and gas, petrochemical, mining, power, process, product storage and combustion engineering industries.

Heaton Valves Africa boasts three unique technical divisions being the Petrochem, Process and Engineered Products Divisions. These are managed by, and include, technically qualified and experienced personnel. This ensures the customer base across Southern Africa is provided with a full service delivery and consultation process from three large-scale operations in Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Cape.

“It is fair to say that quality and service excellence are paramount to Heaton Valves Africa. As a distributor, it is what sets us apart in this industry,” explains Grant Harris, Managing Director.

“We had been experiencing issues with supplier performance as well as lacking information about the amount of stock we were holding in the warehouses and what condition it was in.

In order to achieve our goal for the highest standards possible, we needed to find a way to track each individual valve from the time it arrives with us to the time it is dispatched to the customer so that we can ensure quality inspections actually take place.”

Heaton Valves Africa needs to inspect every valve that arrives into the warehouse to ensure it is correct to the order, in perfect condition and that it complies with SANS347, the South African National Standard for all pressure equipment, as well as material certification requirements.

“It is fair to say that quality and service excellence are paramount to Heaton Valves Africa. As a distributor, it is what sets us apart in this industry. But a lack of visiblity, compounded by supplier performance issues, meant that we were falling short of our goals. We needed to take control.”

Grant Harris, Managing Director

The solution

Heaton Valves Africa uses AssetTagz software and handheld computers to load, inspect, manage and dispatch valves from its warehouses.

  • Auditing and tracking of the valve start as soon as the valve is tagged at the receiving bay.
  • Valves undergo an immediate and comprehensive inspection process. Valves are inspected for conformance to test certificates and performance standards.
  • After inspection, the valves are allocated a shelf location within the warehouse and reside there until needed.
  • When a Sales order is received, the valves are moved to the dispatch area within the warehouse and undergo a final check to ensure the customer receives the correct valve and that it meets the required specifications.

The Outcome

“”With AssetTagz we have been able to dramatically improve the efficiency of our warehouses. We know exactly where a valve is located, what condition it is in and trace all the inspection and test certificates for each valve for compliance purposes.””

Mathatha Sitiba, National Warehouse Manager

The next phase

Phase ll is to integrate AssetTagz into Heaton Valve Africa’s ERP software system. This will make the process seamless from creating picking slips through to issuing valves to customers. In addition, when the items have been picked, the order will be marked as completed enabling the system to generate the invoice and delivery note automatically.

By integrating the systems, all paperwork will be removed as the picking slips will go directly to the mobile handheld to be actioned. An additional benefit is that warehouse employees cannot select the wrong item as the process of scanning the identification tag will also ensure that item is on the picking slip. Grant Harris concludes:

“With AssetTagz we can be confident that our customers won’t receive an incorrect or substandard valve again. That gives us incredible peace of mind and the satisfaction that we are meeting our customer service goals. Integration with our ERP system and removing paperwork from the process entirely is our next priority.”

You can download the full case study here.

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