The death of the paper order form in our supply chain

I remember back in 2006, every single order I placed with our main parts distributor came on a triplicate carbon form. You had to scribble the part numbers by hand, call it in, and pray the person on the other end read your 7's correctly. Now it's all through a web portal, and I can track a shipment down to the warehouse shelf in real time. We switched over fully around 2012 when our rep retired and his replacement basically forced us onto their online system. The old way felt personal, but I sure don't miss the misprints or the wait times. Has anyone else's long-term vendor relationships changed that dramatically in the last fifteen years?

4 comments

4 Comments

karen_carter2d ago

Did you guys get any training on the new system or just have to figure it out as you went? We had a few months of overlap where I could still call in orders while learning the web portal, which saved me from a few dumb mistakes early on.

kevin3312d ago

Karen, after fighting it for months that overlap is a lifesaver.

julia_carter612d ago

Exactly. It's not just supply chains, it's everything now. My bank closed its local branch and now I have to scan checks on my phone like it's no big deal. @kevin331 it's like this weird trade-off where you lose the human touch but gain the ability to fix mistakes in five minutes instead of five days.

wood.uma1d ago

Tbh the overlap thing from karen_carter was a lifesaver for us too. We had three months where I could still phone in the messy stuff while I poked around the web portal on slow days, and that helped me not screw up too badly.