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Initially we were asked to determine how service level issues connected with rapid growth could be mitigated so it was agreed to review all aspects of the operation. We decided to conduct interviews with key managers of the principle areas of the business including; Sales, Purchasing, Warehouse operations and Finance. We also undertook to seek the views of people at the "coal face", since we have often found that things perceived as issues by management are not necessarily the same as those who perform the tasks.

Consolidating our findings we produced a set process flow diagrams outlining in fine detail for Purchase Order, Sales Order, Receipts, Picking, Checking, Packing and Returns. Each chart detailed every element in the process with interactive links that pulled in examples of reports, further details on the process, issues and possible remedies.

The graphical and interactive nature of the results together with the integration of report outputs from the client's own systems made the translation of the concepts recommended more relevant to their operation. Means2 were later asked to conduct further investigation into layout issues as a result of this work.