Case Study: Toyota Material Handling
Addressing the need to support an extensive dealer network with
printed literature, premium items and print on demand
documents.
The Opportunity
Toyota Material Handling USA (TMHU), the world leader in
industrial trucks, needed a better way to distribute their
marketing and technical documents to their dealer network. The
challenge was to create an ordering system that could work within
Toyota's existing intranet and be flexible enough to be customized
by each unique division. With over 10 divisions to satisfy, from
Parts and Warranty to Sales and Marketing, there was no shortage of
challenges to face. Additionally, we needed an application that was
user-friendly enough to allow the 100+ dealer locations to use the
system without training. The Dot's FulfillX application turned out
to be a perfect fit.
Designing a Solution
In response to this challenge, the client asked The Dot Printer
Fulfillment to help identify a complete solution that would achieve
the following:
1. Create a web portal for Dealers to use for all
collateral needs from parts to marketing
2. Reduce process cycle time
3. Be able to handle Print On Demand document
seamlessly to the user
4. Upload a transactional file to be imported into
PeopleSoft and SAP for accounting to invoice the Dealers
5. Be able to completely reconcile the inventory
quantities and value monthly
To design and implement an effective solution, The Dot assembled
a cross-functional team of operations experts and skilled web and
IS technicians. The solution had to address three main areas of
concern:
1) Ease of use for the dealers to complete the ordering process
in the least number of "Clicks" possible
2) Different user experiences for corporate users and Dealer
Network users
3) A dead on inventory reconciliation that would account for
last month's activity and reconcile it against current and past
inventory levels and values
The Application that was developed allowed the dealer network to
order and create the items they needed. Users could order from a
large catalog of inventory items. Users were also allowed to create
Print on Demand items from marketing postcards and brochures to
technical manuals.
Web Based Tracking
The last tool needed was a way to allow the users to thoroughly
track all orders and shipments through a web based tool. The Dot
developed an innovative tracking solution using MS SQL technology
and XML. The database captures data from various shipping systems
across multiple carriers. Data is stored and can be called upon by
the original user, the user's Account Manager or an administrator.
With this tracking capability in place, The Dot can verify the
details of every step of the process from request generation
through actual delivery.
The Bottom Line
The Dot Fulfillment's solution provided some very clear
deliverables:
1. Created an easy to use system that allowed
dealers to get up and running in the first month of use
2. Built a lasting tool that would help forge a
long partnership (Site Launched April 2003).
3. Created a streamlined billing process that
allowed Toyota's accounting team to stay in control of their
multi-million dollar inventory