Innovation reduces stockholding and frees up working capital
ByBox, the UK market leader for in-night parts distribution, has further enhanced its service offering to provide a streamlined and fully transparent method of returning spare parts from field service engineers.
Called Blackstripe, the service builds on the proven success of ByBox' innovative method of delivering parts before 8am to field service engineers across the UK using a network of electronic drop boxes.
ByBox has more than 18,000 boxes at 1,350 UK locations together with over 150 manned handover sites and 35Forward Stock Locations and tracks the whereabouts of each part, from warehouse to delivery, collection to returns through its own unique software platform Thinventory.
The same technology is now being used to make it far easier for field service engineers to return spare or broken parts - either to a warehouse, back for repair or, if under warranty, to the original manufacturer for inspection.
A single Blackstripe label applied to the package dynamically routes it back to the originator, creating a faster return loop and ensuring it arrives at the correct final destination, with total traceability at all stages.
Service engineers simply drop the return part off at their ByBox drop box, from where it will be collected and automatically sent on the correct route thanks to the easily identifiable Blackstripe label.
Customers benefit from being able to hold smaller stocks of spare parts which in turn frees up their working capital. Blackstripe also aids the Warranty Return Process, cutting administration costs and reducing the risk of penalties being applied for unreturned warranties.
Stuart Miller, ByBox CEO, said: "Blackstripe is another stage in the ByBox Distribution Revolution which is producing cost savings and time efficiencies for companies that deploy large teams of field service engineers.
"ByBox customers can wave good-bye to the days of return parts arriving at the wrong destination, or remaining in engineers' vans, because at all times our Thinventory system will track exactly where parts are.
"Our ethos is to move the data, not just the part, and to strip out wherever possible unnecessary layers of administration and stockholding. ByBox makes life simpler for field service engineers.
"With Blackstripe there is no need for service engineers to worry about addressing parcels correctly - all the information required is contained within the electronic label."