The Reece Picking App
Digitizing the paper process for warehouse staff.
Overview
The aim was to innovate the current paper process to decrease errors of employees pulling the wrong products & to increase picking efficiency in the branches. I was the lead designer & researcher for the app and uncovered, prioritized, designed, and tested all features for the app.
Most recently, after the launch of the app, I created promotional material to generate excited about the app. The app is now used everyday by 20+ branches and has picked 4000+ orders for customers.
Struggle
There were several struggles faced by me and the team while designing/ implementing this solution at the branches. Some of which include:
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Adoption struggles: Discovering what needed to be leveraged in order to increase adoption by the Reece branch staff.
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Current process limitations: There were opportunties within the current process at the branch that would be need to be overcome operationally.
In order to overcome these obstacles I spent time with the branch staff.
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Contextual inquiries
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Generative testing methods (Card sorts, surveys, interviews)
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Process documentation
I then, would host design thinking sessions with several members of different relevant teams (development, ERP, leadership, design) in order to brain-storm solutions for the pain points uncovered. Here are a few specific pain points that we solutioned in these meetings:
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Staff carry around a pencil while picking in order to physically mark on pick tickets when desired quantity was unexpectedly not at the primary location.
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Staff walked back and forth from desktop in order to find other locations for products.
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Staff would mistakenly pull the wrong products for orders because of rushed decision making in crowded product racking environments
Transformation
Through the iterative design process of creating wireframes, reviewing and testing with branch staff, making improvements, and increase design fidelity I ultimately handed off development high fidelity designs. The newly designed app consisted of:
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A feature to see other locations for products, and pick from them so warehouse staff wouldn't need to carry around a pencil and walk back and forth from desktop to find other locations for products.
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Product pictures shown on the product cards for employees to quickly identify what needed to be pulled, and decrease picking errors.
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A scan product number feature, to validate product data with the ERP system and ensure that users were pulling the correct product.