WEB PORTAL SOLUTIONS THAT GENERATE RESULTS

A web-based kiosk that serves as a remote office for truckers

Miles IT helped Holt Logistics facilitate a better environment for truckers and staff by developing a user-friendly web portal that simplified the fulfillment process and allowed workers to complete orders faster.

THE CHALLENGE: TRUCKER WAITING TIME

Building a user-friendly web portal to improve processes

Holt Logistics came to Miles IT with a need to develop a web portal that would expedite the process for order fulfillment. Holt Logistics discovered that truckers were spending a disproportionate amount of time waiting within their premises for an order to be filled. The old method included physical paperwork and a good deal of walking around their facility by both the drivers and warehouse staff.

While it takes 20-30 minutes to prepare a trucker’s cargo, truckers were sometimes waiting hours. The number of trucks that were waiting or wandering on-premise was creating chaos, further reducing efficiency. Holt Logistics needed a web portal solution that would simplify the fulfillment process and reduce overall waiting time.

THE SOLUTION: A REMOTE KIOSK

Developing an integrated web-based kiosk

Miles IT developed a web-based check-in kiosk for a remote office that will serve as a waiting area for truckers as their orders are being fulfilled. The goal of the remote kiosk was to remove several manual steps from a complex process to reduce the time a trucker must wait before their order is ready to be picked up.

The Remote Kiosk application gives truckers the ability to quickly and easily check-in when they are ready to pick up their orders. It also provides Holt and its dock locations the ability to easily track what orders have been checked in and when. This allows authorized users to take the appropriate action with minimal physical intervention and fulfill orders as quickly as possible.

With a secure integration to Holt’s’ AS400 system, order data is directly available in the Remote Kiosk application to reduce the inefficiencies or discrepancies of working with disparate systems.

THE RESULTS: HAPPIER EMPLOYEES AND TRUCKERS

A better overall system for order fulfillment

Holt has seen monumental reductions in the waiting time of their truckers and a streamlined process. Before this solution was in place, truckers were clogging up the loading and travel zones and often waiting more than four hours to fulfill their orders.

Since early deploying the new web portal, Holt is averaging just 40-minute waiting times for its order fulfillment!

Holt’s staff sees the benefits of this solution daily as the need to manage the order process manually through every step has been dramatically reduced, and their capacity to fulfill a larger volume of orders and handle greater truck throughput has increased.

Reduced Waiting Times

The Remote Kiosk application has significantly reduced trucker waiting time – from hours to an average of 40 minutes.

Streamlined Systems

We were able to integrate our web portal to Holt’s AS400 system to negate the need to overhaul legacy software and improve overall efficiency.

Productive Staff

Holt’s staff are no longer overburdened with manual processes that required significant time, energy, and patience.

You Request. We Respond. It Gets Done!®

Project Highlights

The Customer Scheduling Portal makes it easier to schedule orders that will be picked up at the Holt Facility. In just three steps, Holt’s customers are able to enter one or more orders, select from a list of available times, and submit their order while never reaching out to Holt to schedule.
Holt Staff can easily manage an order scheduling request for one screen. For each order on the list, a staff member can confirm that the requested time is still available, and, if not, they can schedule a time that is available on that day. Whether an order is scheduled or rescheduled, customers are automatically notified about their order. This screen streamlines and reduces the manual effort required to facilitate orders.
For orders that are not scheduled through the portal, Holt staff utilize drag and drop functionality to manage orders that are updated through their Scheduled Queue. Orders from that list are synced from Holt’s AS400 system. From this screen, Holt staff can easily identify what time slots are available and the capacity for each location to fulfill orders.
The core of the check-in process. Holt Clerks use this screen in conjunction with a Check-In Kiosk for truckers to check in their orders to prioritize, facilitate, and notify truckers when an order is ready to be picked up. The screen has helped staff to significantly reduce manual work and increase productivity by automating communications within Holt and truckers.