Abstract:
Doorco, a company that is part of the cupboard manufacturing industry, was chosen for this project because of the industry’s local significance and its growth determined by the growth of housing needs in South Africa.
Doorco’s market consists of 95 percent housing development projects, which include supplying some of the larger construction companies with kitchen and built-in cupboards. In recent years, Doorco experienced rapid company growth together with facing other industry unique challenges that created a decrease in productivity.
The manual business system currently used at Doorco is inefficient and wastes a lot of time. The storage system is inefficient and the control of inventory is ineffective. The aim of this project is to increase productivity at Doorco by improving the business system, storage system and inventory operations.
A computerised business system had to be designed, which would decrease the time taken to complete important business functions. A new storage system also had to be designed, including an improved layout of the storeroom, which should specify the exact locations of all SKUs (Stock-Keeping Units). Such a system would improve productivity by reducing the time spent searching for parts. An inventory system also had to be designed which would specify the amount and re-supply intervals of all SKUs and such a system would improve productivity by reducing the probability of shortages or oversupply, while also saving space in the storage area. Inventory cost will also be minimized by such a system.
Literature was gathered to aid in the understanding of the problems and relevant techniques that could aid in the problem solving process. Solutions to these problems were developed and presented to the owner of Doorco. The storage system and inventory system were implemented, but the decision of implementation of the computerised business system solution was left to the owner.