Agility Systems provides supply chain solution for Exel

Global supply chain management company, Exel, has chosen Agility Systems to provide an end-to end supply chain solution for the management and distribution of field service parts for Exels customer, United Utilities.

Exels requirement was to provide United Utilities with a distributed supply chain solution to source and supply stock from a central store to over 40 satellite stores throughout the UK. The company has a central warehouse in Worsley and its satellite stores contain engineering spares such as water pumps, cables, nuts, bolts and tools.

Technical and cost constraints meant that data networks could not be provided at the satellite stores. A detached system was required to provide ERP function at the satellite stores, but with full integration to the central warehouse.

Agilitys iLink software was chosen to provide this solution because of its supply chain execution functionality and ability to provide real-time and detached transaction processing, with tight integration to Geac System21 Inventory and Warehousing. The combination of detached processing at the satellite stores and real-time at the central warehouse has provided Exel with a cost-effective, end-to-end supply chain solution.

The detached stock management system uses Intermec model 700 PDAs that run Agilitys stock management software, allowing satellite stores to capture the receipts and issues of stock accurately using barcode scanning and stock details validation. On a daily basis, each store can download captured data over a standard telephone line to the central store, where Agilitys iLink software automatically validates the transactions and posts them into Geacs System21 Inventory application.

Kevin McDaid, managing director of Agility Systems, says: iLink is designed to transform the capability of ERP systems to a multi-site environment. This is a real godsend for some end users, who may otherwise struggle to keep effective control of multiple sites. As a result of our increasingly popular solution, Exel can now record stock levels and stock transactions at satellite stores and integrate them within its central system.