Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads,
Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

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For Warehouse Managers and CFOs that are losing Sleep over Retail Chargebacks, Damage Claims, Rejected Loads, Freight Claims and Supply Chain Visibility

How to start saving $20K per month per Warehouse in under 15 days using Enterprise Photo Documentation System. (Patent Pending)

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Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads, Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

Customers 

3 PL Companies

Distributors

Consumer Goods

Heavy Equipment, Industrial, High Value Products

Supplier to Retailers

Food Distributors

Other Customers

FACTS & FIGURES

220+

Customers

500+

Sites

10,000+

Users

Loads

100mill+

Proofs

150mill+

Saving

1200+

Loads every hour

12

Countries

7097 lbs

CO2 Emission Saved/Week

OUR AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads, Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

Case Study

"Used a 12 year old PC with an old school scanner/camera to take pictures for about 10 to 12 years. Started using LoadProof - everything is so much easier now, don't need the elaborate infrastructure we used to have that has reduced labor by 2 people. Been using for more than a year now. When I found LoadProof, It is a giant relief, I did not have to reinvent the wheel, we save 80 labor man hours per week by using LoadProof. We started using for Outbound shipments first, from the benefits we have seen, we have started using it for Inbound as well for Returns - YOU CANNOT ARGUE WITH  PICTURES."
Global Industrial has been distributing industrial products for the last 70 years with customer-centric focus providing industry-leading products, knowledge and expertise, and operational excellence all designed to bring our customers a differentiated and delightful experience. They offer extensive account management tools, huge selection of products, low prices, same day shipments on most orders and extended service plans. Global industrial realized the importance of providing customers the pictures of the condition of their orders when they were shipped, so has been doing this for over 10 years using obsolete technology. 

Recently they wanted to find a better technology and were looking for options, that is when. they ran into LoadProof. They called and got set up immediately and has been using in all 5 facilities ever since. LoadProof has been a game changer for the Global Industrial team

Berner Food & Beverages

Case Study

" $10K in savings per month. Most recently 7 trailers were rejected in a week Started using LoadProof - Less & less rejected trailers After Started using LoadProof - Max 1 rejected trailer a week 

Saved a ton of $$$ - saving anywhere from $10K to $20K per month . The amount of rejected loads have decreased significantly - WE WILL HAVE 4 to 6 TRAILERS REJECTED PER WEEK, NOW THAT HAS GONE DOWN TO MAY BE 1 A WEEK. It has been a fantastic tool for us - It is very easy to use, it can save a lot of $$$." 
Berner Food & Beverage is a leading supplier of shelf-stable, dairy-based food and beverage products to large CPG companies, emerging beverage brands, and private label retailers nationwide. The Company is a single source partner for food and beverage products including RTD coffees and teas, dips, sauces, and snacks. The Company maintains the highest credentials and certifications including SQF2000 Level III, organic certified, HACCP certified, and meets the stringent standards of virtually every CPG brand and major retailer in North America. Berner Foods 3PL is an operation that receives the food products from the Berner Food Manufacturing plant and then ships those food products to the retailers’ distribution centers.

Berner Foods 3PL operations handles food products such as aerosol cheese, Ready to Drink coffee, dips, sauces etc. Ryan Bicksler the General Manager of the 3PL facility and was overwhelmed with the challenge when seven trailers were rejected in a week. The trailers were rejected by the customer because the food products his team shipped were spilled over and the trailer was a complete mess when it arrived at the customers DC. Ryan had to find a solution to address this problem, that is when he found LoadProof and started using it ever since. It has been working really well for his operation and he has turned on LoadProof in other facilities also.

Case Study

Kenco

Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. This facility received construction products such as dry wall from the manufacturer. This facility’s function is ship those dry walls to the customers. 

Before LoadProof, if the customer complained that they received a damaged shipment, the only option for Luke was to replace them for free and take a blame.But after LoadProof was turned on Luke was able to successfully push back and say with Photo proof, that his team did a great job, it was not his fault and it was not fair to pay for the charge backs. 

Also, with LoadProof Luke was able to provide feedback on better packaging practices they can follow in order get the drywall shipped without any damages.
“Damages to the product when it arrived at the DC was too much. After LoadProof we are able to capture photos both Inbound & Outbound Been using for more than a year, saving about $5K to $10K per month, considering the number of claims that are rejected now, because we are able to show pics that we did our job right, just the overall increase, the damages we are able to catch and show it to the production org, results in these savings. The number of claims paid has certainly reduced. THE APP PAYS FOR ITSELF 1000 TIMES OVER.”

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Case Study

Stryker

Stryker Corporation is an American multinational medical technologies corporation based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Stryker's products include implants used in joint replacement and trauma surgeries; surgical equipment and surgical navigation systems; endoscopic and communications systems; patient handling and emergency medical equipment; neurosurgical, neurovascular and spinal devices; as well as other medical device products used in a variety of medical specialties. In the United States, most of Stryker's products are marketed directly to doctors, hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Internationally, Stryker products are sold in over 100 countries through company-owned sales subsidiaries and branches as well as third-party dealers and distributors. 

This DC ships Stryker hospital beds to hospitals. Before LoadProof when a customer submitted a damage claim, the only option that was available was to pay that customer for the damage. Now with LoadProof, the warehouse manager is able to show proof of the condition of the bed that left the facility. Not only that they were also able to show that the bed was shipped perfectly packed with the blankets that protect medical equipment, then they were also strapped to ensure they don’t fall down during transit, etc. 

While using LoadProof on the inbound receiving process helped identify damages that were caused by the inbound carrier.

During the inspection process if they found any issues, they were able to file claims with the inbound carrier with the photos from LoadProof. Also when shipping outbound loads, they were able to document proof of the condition of the shipment that left theirfacility.
"LoadProof Helps to Quickly & Accurately figure out: incorrect shipments, what is wrong with the shipment, and how to streamline processes in the warehouse to reduce man-hours spent, It is also really easy to use. It's a life saver if you will. LoadProof enables the warehouse team to be accountable for all our efforts. We are able to show through photos how we loaded the pallets. We strive to make sure the items are delivered in the same condition they left the warehouse. LoadProof improves efficiency & reduces cost."

Case Study

Sealed Air

Sealed Air Corporation is a packaging company known for its brands: Cryovac food packaging and Bubble Wrap cushioning packaging. It sold off its stake in Diversey Care in 2017, Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1957, American engineer Alfred W. Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes attempted to invent plastic wallpaper with a paper backing. While the wallpaper failed, Fielding and Chavannes later realized that what they had come up with could be used for packing material. Sealed Air was founded in 1960 based on this invention of Bubble Wrap. The same year, Sealed Air raised $85,000 in its initial public offering. Fielding served as executive vice president and director of Sealed Air until his retirement in 1987, while Chavannes worked mostly as a consultant. T.J. Dermot Dunphy served as CEO from 1971 to 2000. An Oxford University graduate who received his MBA from Harvard Business School, he became chairman of Kildare Enterprises, LLC in November 2000 after leaving Sealed Air. During his tenure at Sealed Air, sales grew from $5 million to $3  billion. On July 23, 2014, Sealed Air announced that it would be moving its global headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. In January 2018, Ted Doheny took over as CEO. 

Sealed Air was having major problems with customers submitting damage claims even though Sealed Air shipped everything perfectly, Sealed Air partnered with their 3PL Kenco and Smart Gladiator and came up with the LoadProof solution. 

Upon rolling out LoadProof, Sealed Air saw 95% of the damage claims went away and in the first month $20,000 was saved in the first facility. 
“We captured more than 500 pictures in its first two months of deployment. For Sealed Air, the results were dramatic. Our site saw a 95-percent reduction in customer complaints, translating into an estimated $10,000 in cost savings per month for that one location alone. The solution provided transparency for everyone in the supply chain, including the distribution center, end customers, Sealed Air personnel, customer service reps and carriers."

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Case Study

Kenco - Pharmaceuticals

"LoadProof is so easy to use.
It is easy to store the pictures with the correct context. It is so easy to retrieve the pics you need. It has saved a lot of $$$ for us. It pays for itself 1000 times over."
Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. This DC was shipping pharmaceutical products to customers after receiving the products from the manufacturing plant. 

While using LoadProof on the inbound receiving process helped identify damages that were caused by the inbound carrier. During the inspection process if they found any issues, they were able to file claims with the inbound carrier with the photos from LoadProof. Also when shipping outbound loads, they were able to document proof of the condition of the shipment that left their facility.

Kenco

Testimonial

"Reduce freight claims by 85 to 90%, naturally reduced the chargebacks and claims. Loadproof has helped win the trust and confidence with the customer. The freight claims and the chargebacks have come down by 85 to 90%. With LoadProof we are able to clearly show the condition of the product that left our facility. Our customer has also taken an extra step to integrate LoadProof with the Accounts Receivable department. Now as the AR people are looking at LoadProof, they are able to push back on the automatic deductions as a result of chargebacks. We use Loadproof in two different ways. First we used only for the product that was leaving the facility, now we are using LoadProof for inbound shipments as well, especially to catch damages on inbound product. Also we are able to prove the customer that there were not OSD (Overage, Shortage and Damages) issues.”
Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single  100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. This DC shipped food products that helped body builders and gym goers build a lot of muscle. The customers were complaining that the product arrived damaged and would often submit damage claims. After LoadProof Marlo and his team were able to push back on the chargebacks. 

Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads, Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

Kenco

Testimonial

"Very simple to use, use it in Smartphone/Tablet/Desktop. 
Retrieval of Pics is very easy. 

Eliminated 10 to 15 load rejections per month, 10% of the total loads shipped were rejected, which resulted in saving about $10K per month, because we are able to show pics that we did our job right. No more culpability - wrong blame, customer relationship has improved significantly.

We are doing the right thing for the customer and also doing the right thing for our customer's customer.” 

Kenco Oil & Gas Products, Savings = $10,000  per month per facility 

Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. 

This DC ships a lot of engine oil to the retailers and many other customers. The oil was shipped in smaller packs that are sold in retailers such as Walmart, Auto Zone, Pep Boys and other auto stores, also the oil is shipped in barrels to other larger customers. Without LoadProof this DC was getting a lot of chargebacks from the retailers, with LoadProof Jay was able to push back and prove that it was not the mistake of the DC and was able to make a turn-around in the relationship with the retailer. 

Case Study

" The most important aspect that is helping NCR is the centralized repository of phots that can be accessed by everyone in the Supply Chain, even when they are working from a different location. Also the video is helpful, before we had a different systems, one for photos and another one for the video, so we were jumping between two different systems and it was a pain, I love the new addition, video to the LoadProof platform. When you add a video that was an entire another process that saves time. It was a big game changer, that was a big improvement you ask me that’s really happy to see.”
NCR’s decision was to follow a trust and verify policy as they are working with many 3PLs in multiple facilities. Dennis heard about LoadProof through his friend in the industry and decided to turn on LoadProof in the first facility. Dennis turned LoadProof on in the facility, basically started with a platinum plan in the first facility. They saw tremendous value, as this facility was run by a 3PL partner. They took photographs for the following scenarios
  • LTL shipments to customers 
  • ​Parts shipment to customers, especially the most overlooked items such as cables
  • ​Manifests of the shipments 
  • ​Weights of Shipments 
Then NCR turned on LoadProof in 3 more facilities, so NCR is running LoadProof in 4 facilities so far. 

Track Loader Parts

Case Study

"Before the way our system is set up I’d never really know which one of my warehouse associates pulled the order, who acted and who shipped it. So there was no accountability as far as someone is shipping the wrong part or shipping the wrong quantity. But now that everyone has a username. Once we go to that Photo we automatically know who took the photo of that shipment and who was responsible for making sure that shipment went out correctly so we’ve really seen improvement in those three aspects of business."
Track Loader Parts sells parts for ASV, Terex & select Caterpillar components. Track Loader Parts offers great prices on all ASV, Terex and select Caterpillar track loader parts. These include undercarriage, engine, body components, rubber tracks and more...Track Loader Parts prides itself in carrying out their mission which is to provide the expertise on ASV, Terex and CAT components in a straightforward manner without making the customers go through round robin conversations with reps who don’t seem to even know what they are selling. 

Trak Loader Parts core focus is to not only provide that expertise on the parts and components they are selling, but always accurately identify the part the customer needs and ship it to them on a timely basis, so their large resource intensive projects are completed on time and within budget. Track Loader Parts biggest challenge was to show that they shipped the parts perfectly based on the order that was placed. LoadProof helps them execute on that mission on a daily basis helping them hit right on the bulls eye on every single parts order. 

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Case Study

"With LoadProof we can take different sample audits out there and use that as a training tool or a process improvement tool to really stabilize the shipping processes. We are looking to expand LoadProof across our other facilities. Overall we have improved in the Loading process, we are doing better year over year, our customer service team keeps their eye on the claims that we are receiving. The tool has definitely helped us in the training process, with Loadproof we can easily train the operator, I can ask a Quality Operator to distinguish between properly loaded trailers versus not very well loaded trailers by looking at the pictures within LoadProof. Overall our claims numbers have improved."
Kohler Co., founded in 1873 by John Michael Kohler, is an American manufacturing company based in Kohler, Wisconsin.[2] Kohler is best known for its plumbing products, but the company also manufactures furniture, cabinetry, tile, engines, and generators. Destination Kohler also owns various hospitality establishments in the United States and Scotland. In February 2017, Kohler Co. acquired UK-based Clarke Energy from the management team and ECI Partners,[3] a multinational specialist in the engineering, construction, installation and maintenance of engine-based power plants and is an authorized distributor of GE's reciprocating engines in 19 countries worldwide. Paulo Lubag, the Logistics Solutions Manager at Kohler was looking for a solution to ensure the pallets are loaded properly in the trailers when the loads are shipped out. Paulo’s challenge was to ensure the loads are loaded properly. Paulo was able to leverage LoadProof to train his operators and put in a good training process to load the trailers properly. 

Case Study

Ryder System Inc.

Story Ryder System, Inc., commonly known as Ryder, is an American transportation and logistics company. It is especially known for its fleet of commercial rental trucks. Ryder specializes in fleet management, supply chain management, and dedicated transportation management. It also offers full-service leasing, rental and maintenance, used vehicle sales, transportation management, professional drivers, e-commerce fulfillment, and last-mile delivery services. Ryder operates in North America, and the United Kingdom. It has its headquarters in Miami, Florida within Miami-Dade County. Ryder’s facility in Atlanta ships Kelloggs Corn Flakes to the food retailers. Ryder was experiencing heavy freight claims for some reason. The then operations manager having seen LoadProof and its benefits from his previous work experience decided to roll out LoadProof in the Ryder facility as well. 

From that point onwards Ryder has saved a vast amount of dollars on Freight Claims. Looking at the success from the first facility, Ryder has rolled out LoadProof in the second facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as well. 
“We wanted to make sure we provided pictures with customers with the load bars and packing we did, we did this with the digital camera, it was very difficult to manage the pictures. We would spend all day finding pictures. We wanted a better process, LoadProof has worked very well. When we have a claim against us, we can go back to the pictures and show that when the product left here it was in good condition, but when it got to the destination it might be in another shape or damaged, we could say on our end, it was good when it left here, we don’t what happened during transit. We're saving $100,000 to $200,000 a month on claims through LoadProof, these savings are in freight claims and damages. It makes it so easy to retrieve them and sort  them. I have two important customers with whom I need to share the pictures, the process is lot easier with LoadProof, it was a seamless process to learn how to use LoadProof, My Director has already recommended LoadProof to all his facilities, he has recommended LoadProof to everybody."

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Case Study

Daikin

“Saves 20 or 30 hours of labor per week per site by managing the Phototaking process. We go back to customers that ask - hey what did this look like before left or what it looked like when you when you shipped it. Certainly from a cost deterrent of claims being made back to us."
Daikin Applied Americas (formerly McQuay International) is a global corporation that designs, manufactures and sells heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) products, systems, parts and services for commercial buildings. Since 2006, McQuay has been a subsidiary of Daikin Industries, Ltd. McQuay world headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Products are sold by a global network of sales representatives and distributors. Since its founding in Osaka in 1924, Daikin has expanded business focused primarily on-air conditioning to over 150 countries. Aiming to help solve social and community problems and grow business, Daikin strives to meet expectations and maintain trust worldwide as a global company that supports human health and comfort while creating new value for air and the environment. Daikin has 7 facilities in the USA, from where HVAC systems are shipped to customers all over North America. The 7 sites are Dayton, Fairbault – North, Fairbault – South, Owatonna, Phoenix, San Luis Potosi and Staunton. 

Daikin manufactures large HVAC systems and ships those large HVAC systems in flatbed trucks daily. Each flatbed truck would fit 2 to 3 HVAC system. There are 3 locations in Minneapolis, overall, there are 9 locations in North America. Every day each location is shipping approximately 20 to 30 HVAC systems. In a week they are shipping about 150 HVAC systems, there is no easy way to retrieve Photos of the condition of the HVAC systems, if a customer comes back asking for a specific Photo to examine the condition of the HVAC system, when it left the Daikin facility in order to ensure the product was shipped without any damages. 

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Case Study

Mannington Mills

"LoadProof helped with our claims - as long as they're doing their part on the dock and taking their pictures then we have to go back and say, we did our job right and it dropped a lot of claims. Before we had LoadProof we wouldn't have a way to look at this. It saves us a lot of money and it's helping us a lot.

Looking at the savings, we rolled it out in our other facility in Florida, we are using it in Florida facility too. We are using it in our iPads, Android Tablets and I have got it in my personal phone too, it is so easy to use. Our savings are most from the freight claims. And we have our customers come back and say, this was not on there, we are able to show pictures and say, hey here it is, we loaded the product. I would recommend to a friend or a colleague."
Mannington Mills is an international flooring manufacturer with corporate headquarters in Salem, New Jersey. The company was founded in Salem by John Boston Campbell and his sons Neil and Kenneth in 1915. In 2008, Mannington acquired Burke Industries, which produces rubber flooring tiles, wall base, treads, and accessories. In addition to facilities at the Port of Salem and the Pureland Industrial Complex in New Jersey, the company has three additional plant locations: in Epes, Alabama; Calhoun, Georgia; and High Point, North Carolina. Burke Industries facilities are in Eustis, Florida and San Jose, California. 

A privately held company, Mannington is one of the largest and oldest flooring manufacturers in the United States and is the world's largest manufacturer of luxury vinyl tile. It also produces residential and commercial resilient, laminate, hardwood and porcelain tile floors, as well as commercial carpet and rubber. Mannington Mills was having way too many claims and the Warehouse manager at that time was looking for solution to fix this problem, he ran into 
LoadProof during his research and turned on LoadProof for his facility in Calhoun Georgia. 

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Case Study

3PL Company

"The customer’s customer claimed there were a couple of damage units, so our customer went ahead and asked us. As we had photos of it and he let them know that we did have those pictures as proof and then the $1900 claim was dismissed. LoadProof was so easy to implement, no training required. Anybody with delivery issues would highly benefit from LoadProof, customers with shortages and damages issues would greatly benefit from LoadProof, it works great, it saves money, if you are running a business like this, you need a tool like this.” 

Ernesto Ayala

Supervisor, Distribution
3PL Company
This is a nationwide third-party logistics (3PL) company providing integrated warehousing, transportation, packaging and fulfillment services. Headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, the 3PL operates locations across the U.S. The company's transportation division, offers both logistics services and fleet operations nationwide. Over the years, this 3PL company broadened its customer base and expanded its services through  controlled, strategic growth, seizing opportunities that fit the company’s strengths and strategic interests. They expanded into transportation with a fleet of trucks and a brokerage operation and capitalized on growing demand for packaging services with the purchase of a contract packaging company in Charlotte, NC. While still a family-owned company today, Now this company has become a leading, nationwide third-party logistics provider. 

Employing more than 2,000 associates to help manage 15,000,000 square feet (1,400,000 m 2) of space and 27 locations around the country. There was a request from a customer that shipped computer laptops with the help of this 3PL to retailers was the reason why they had to start taking pictures using LoadProof. This customer wanted to have proof to show that the 3PL that they had hired has been doing a great job in making sure the condition of the products left the facility in a perfect condition. LoadProof has helped this leading 3PL company already save enough dollars and also keep the customer happy. 

Testimonial

It is a vital program to our operation and prevents us from being responsible for damages to product after it leaves our warehouse because we can prove the load was not damaged when it left our warehouse."

Bosch - Summerville South Carolina

Robert Bosch is located in Summerville, South Carolina. This organization primarily operates in the Special Warehousing and Storage, nec business / industry within the Motor Freight Transportation sector. Robert Bosch employs a lot of people at this branch location primarily engaging in Bosch components to auto manufacturers such as Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc. The Bosch plant is primarily in the diesel, gasoline, and chassis systems businesses, manufacturing clean diesel injection products; unit injection products; gasoline, port, and direct fuel injection systems; antilock braking; and electronic stability control products. 

Before LoadProof the outbound team did not have any way to prove that they did their job right, they had to shoulder the responsibilities for the damages, even though the damages were not there when the shipments left the facility, now with LoadProof the Bosch team is able to clearly prove that they shipped their loads perfectly without any damages.

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Testimonial

"With LoadProof it is so easy to show we did our job right, by retrieving photos, even though we did our job weeks or months ago. Vendors were able to look at the images whenever they want".

Kenco - FMCG

Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967.

As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. This facility ships fast moving consumer goods products to retailers on behalf of its customer. Emmanuel as a DC General Manager rolled out LoadProof because he wanted to show bot the retailer and the name brand customer that the products are being shipped in perfect manner without any damage when the products left the facility. 

XPO Logistics

Testimonial

“We export a lot of our products through the containers. LoadProof is easy to document such loads that are being exported because I can take pictures superfast, upload them to the cloud and the pictures stay there forever. I can share those pictures with anybody, in case of a claims situation or if there any questions on the condition of the product when it was loaded. I find LoadProof very useful for my business and I would highly recommend for others as well. 

LoadProof is fast, easy, and very user friendly. Convenient way to track loads, quality issues, and even safety incidents for your business needs. Not only we were up and running in one day, we started seeing value from day one."
XPO Logistics is an American multinational transportation and contract logistics company that manages supply chains for 50,000 customers, including 69 of the Fortune 100.It operates in 30 countries, with approximately 100,000 employees. XPO Logistics, Inc. is the 7th best-performing stock of the last decade on the Fortune 500, with share prices rising more than 1,000% from the time its CEO, Bradley Jacobs, took control. XPO's corporate headquarters are located in  Greenwich, Connecticut. Its European headquarters are located in Lyon, France. Tim was tired of the finger pointing from the receiving side when the containers arrived with damages. So Tim as a Warehouse General Manager was directly responsible for all the damages, so Tim researched and found LoadProof, it was no brainer, Tim immediately signed up for LoadProof and started using the tool. Tim and his team immediately saw the benefits and they were able to prove with pictures that the containers were shipped in a perfect condition and with pictures Tim was able to clearly prove that to the rest of the partners in his Supply Chain community. 

Case Study

DSW Distribution 

"LoadProof lets us be able to do it more efficiently, quickly and keep it organized and stored. We saved approximately $30,000 per year on the labor costs alone, there are many other benefits that we are not able to quantify accurately, overall we like LoadProof a lot." 
DSW Distribution Centers, Inc. was organized in April 1973 for the purpose of warehousing and distributing general commodities within the Greater Southern California area. Early operations began in Anaheim, California in a leased dry warehouse. In 1984, DSW expanded our multi-temperature services into two other cities in Southern California with company-owned land & warehouses servicing the entire USA. In 1985, DSW’s second generation leadership began redesigning DSW’s service offerings, obtaining specialized licensing, and enhancing Management Information Systems to meet the ever-changing demands of logistics and supply chain challenges. TODAY, under this same second-generation leadership, DSW operates over 6,500,000 cubic feet of multitemperature controlled & multi-licensed warehousing space in Southern California’s primary distribution hub of Rancho Cucamonga California, otherwise known as the Inland Empire. 

Story This DC shipped multiple products and one of the challenges was to take pictures of the documentation. This team had a complicated and very expensive system to make electronic copies of the documentation. They were able to replace that system with LoadProof and save quite a bit of dollars. 

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Testimonial

"LoadProof - Taking pictures has instilled a very good discipline among our loaders in house, hence we are able to ensure our loads are prepped up and loaded on the trucks at a much better quality. This directly results in better customer satisfaction and long-term relationships with our customers."

Method Products, Savings = $20,000 per month per facility 

People Against Dirty is a company made up of two brands–method and Ecover–filled with fearless thinkers, mad scientists and adventurous designers who believe in defying the status quo with innovation and optimism. We take cleaning seriously–but not ourselves. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in San Francisco, method (methodhome.com) is the pioneer of premium planet-friendly and design-driven home, fabric and personal care products. 

Formulated  with naturally derived, biodegradable ingredients, method puts the hurt on dirt without doing harm to people, creatures or the planet. Also playing an important role at People Against Dirty is Ecover (ecover.com) the revered pioneering European-based line of ecological cleaning products that has had an enormous impact on the world of cleaning –and a positive impact on the planet. Jerry as a Director of facility was struggling with the chargebacks he was getting from the Retailers. So he turned on LoadProof to show that his team did a great job and was able to push back on the chargebacks successfully.

Not only that, his people after looking at the photo documentation, decided that they would up the quality of the loads they shipped, which resulted in better customer sati raring and also better relationship with the customer.

Testimonial

XPO Logistics

XPO Logistics is an American multinational transportation and contract logistics company that manages supply chains for 50,000 customers, including 69 of the Fortune 100.It operates in 30 countries, with approximately 100,000 employees. XPO Logistics, Inc. is the 7th best-performing stock of the last decade on the Fortune 500, with share prices rising more than 1,000% from the time its CEO, Bradley Jacobs, took control. XPO's corporate headquarters are located in  Greenwich, Connecticut. Its European headquarters are located in Lyon, France. Don Powell was being blamed for the damages that some how occurred after the product left his warehouse in a pristine manner. 

Don and his team were frustrated when they were blamed even though they shipped their loads intact. Don and his team researched and found LoadProof and turned on LoadProof. From that point onwards Don was able to prove to his customer with photos that they did a great job and were able to get the situation addressed. 
"As a General Manager for a 3PL Warehouse, I was responsible for shipping our products to our customer's customer. Somehow, we were told that we were not doing a good job when we shipped the products. So, we started using LoadProof, basically we started taking pictures of every single pallet that would leave our facility, we uploaded those pictures to the LoadProof cloud and made it available for our customer to look at, we wanted to prove, that we did our job right. We did this for 3 months, our customer understood that we are doing a great job and they stopped asking any questions on the quality of our shipments. LoadProof not only helped me prove that we did our job right, but also win the trust and confidence of my customer back " 

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Testimonial

"With LoadProof I am able to send photos of what condition our product was shipped in.

I am now able to push damage claims back onto the carriers as I have the pictures to show."

Kenco

Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. 

This DC was shipping Stryker’s products, Julio was in a tough spot, where his team was blamed for the mistakes that were not theirs. As part of Kenco’s corporate wide rollout of LoadProof, Julio was able to take advantage of the tool and prove that they did their job right and were able to deny the damage claims that were due to carrier’s mistakes. 

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Testimonial

"LoadProof helps since the platform allows you to upload after taking the pictures without needing to use cables. It is a big asset at our site, since it is so easy to download onto phones and iPads." 

Kenco

Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. 

As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. Adriana is the Quality Inspection expert that evaluated the quality of the inbound shipments for a Kenco facility that shipped Oil and Petroleum products. With LoadProof Adriana was able to document the quality infractions and was able to relay the issues with proof leveraging LoadProof.  

Testimonial

Post Consumer Brands

The Story of Post-Consumer brands started in 1895 as Post, founded by C.W. Post. In 2015, Post Foods bought MOM brands (formerly Malt-O-Meal Co.) and became as Post Consumer Brands which is the third-largest cereal company in the United States with its headquarters in Lakeville, Minnesota. Post-Consumer Brands is in the Packaged Food industry sells about 140 breakfast cereal varieties such as oats, pebbles, wheat etc... They have more than 2800 employees and produce $421 million in sales. The company's mission - is to help make the world a better place, and they do this through their dedication to doing business the right way and engaging in efforts to create meaningful change for individuals and communities. Post-Consumer Brands are continually innovating and adapting for customers and clients to ensure that their products meet the needs of people for taste, value and preference. 
"LoadProof helps us with the following:
  • Capture damage from incoming loads to DC’s from Manufacturing plants or DC to DC transfers, provide feedback as needed
  • Capture load securement.
  • Capture as many loads as we can stage or while being loaded to validate load condition to customer. With these capabilities we are able to better serve our customers.

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Testimonial

"I like that everything you need is within the app, such as camera, video, trailer and load options. Another thing that is great about the app is that it collects all photos, videos by time and date on the website. This app really helps my site in inspecting the trailers or if we have issues with incorrect seals and after we load trailers. Makes the process very easy when I need to upload data."

Warehouse Operations Manager


Global Play & Entertainment Company

This is an American multinational conglomerate with toy, board game and media assets head quartered in Rhode Island. This company owns several trademarks and brands that are very well known in the kids toys industry. It also spawned TV shows to promote its products. Originally started by three Jewish brothers, the company is a $4.5 billion behemoth in the toys industry in the world now. These guys were looking for a system of record to store the photos and show the Supply Chain community they worked with that the condition of the loads that left their facilities. So they turned on LoadProof in two of their facilities that are operated by a 3PL partner. 

Now with LoadProof not only they are able to provide visibility on the condition of their loads to their partners, they are able to also internally go back whenever they needed in order to confirm the condition of the loads. 

Kenco Consumer Electronics

Testimonial

“The workflow inside LoadProof is so easy, the steps are so simple for us to retrieve the data.

I can even tell where the driver is by looking at the data.

It has made our life so much easier; we would have to follow 10 steps to get out data before, but with LoadProof we are able to retrieve data in just 3 steps.
This saves a lot of time for us. LoadProof is like a mini transportation system for us.” 

Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kenco was founded in August 1950 by Jim Kennedy Jr. and Sam Smartt under the name Cherokee Warehouses. Cherokee Warehouses owned a single 100,000 square-foot warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherokee Warehouses became Kenco with the signing of its first dedicated contract warehousing arrangement with Dupont in 1967. As of 2015, Kenco was managing over 30 million square feet of warehouse space in North America. This DC delivered consumer appliances to the customer’s residences. At the time of delivery, the delivery personnel are able to take picture of the condition of the  product at the time of delivery. 

They are also able to share these pictures with the Original Equipment Manufacturer, on behalf of whom they made the delivery, this made the process overall much more transparent and improved Supply Chain Visibility for all the parties. 

Testimonial

"Load Proof has helped us capture everything from a BOL picture to a container seal, best of all it's an easy access tool for both the Third Party Logistics Service provider and the customer."

Warehouse Operations Manager


Global Leader in the Design & Manufacture of High-Performance Protective Cases 

This is a company that makes high performance protective cases for anything and everything. This is an American multinational company that designs and manufactures portable lighting systems, temperature-controlled packaging and protective cases. Their products are used in many industries including military, law enforcement, fire safety, and consumer entertainment. The company's flagship product, high performance protective cases, are molded plastic cases that seal with an airtight and watertight gasket. It is based in Torrance, California. 

These guys decided to roll out LoadProof because they wanted to secure proof of the condition of the product that left their facility so they can share the proof when needed with their Supply Chain partners including the 3PL that operated multiple facilities for them. 

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CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML

Who is this for ?

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If you are a

  • Warehouse Manager with Assistants spending way too many hours organizing the photos, searching for photos and you just can’t get the photos you needed quickly, and you are just tired of this and you are looking for a better way to do this, 
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that has a file folder (Google Drive or Microsoft SharePoint) based photo organizing system, and you are tired of spending hours & hours searching for photos manually and you are looking for a better way to do this,
  • ​​​Warehouse Manager that is tired of receiving way too many unfair Retailer charge backs,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that is tired of receiving way too many unfair Amazon Chargebacks,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that is tired of receiving way too many damage claims,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that is tired of too many rejected loads,
  • ​Warehouse Manager that is shipping their products perfectly, but still getting blamed even though the damages are caused by someone else, 
  • ​​Warehouse Manager looking for cost savings and efficiency within your Supply Chain, 
  • ​​Warehouse Manager with freight claims that are taking forever to get paid and are tired of it,
  • ​​Warehouse Managers that want to improve the quality of loads your people are shipping and you think your people can do better,
  • ​​Warehouse Managers that are working with 3PLs, you want to follow the trust but verify principle & you want proof from them, that they did a great job,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager eyeing that promotion, you are looking for a great product that will add value to your organization, so you can implement that, get the kudos and get promotion as well, like many of our customers have gotten promotion,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that has just started with a new employer and you want to show your skills & expertise and you are looking for a good tool to deploy in your facility so you can add some solid value to this new employer and make yourself indispensable to them,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager losing sleep because you are worried you are going to get that dreaded chargeback deduction email, 
  • ​​Warehouse Manager absorbing the cost of the damage, even though it is not your fault, because you did not have proof to show that you and your team did your job right,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager absorbing the cost of the damage, even though it is not your fault, because you did not want to lose that relationship with that brand name or OEM customer. With Proof you could tell, Hey this is not our mistake, please take a look at these photos, but you are not able to do that, because you don’t have proof, 
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that wants to document the quality issues as part of Inbound Quality Audit process, so that you can share those proofs with your vendors or manufacturing plants,
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that is going to lose your job due to Retail Chargebacks, Damage Claims, Freight Claims, Rejected loads etc,

Who is this not for ?

  • Warehouse Manager that does not have any Retail Chargebacks
  • ​Warehouse Manager that does not have any Freight Claims 
  • ​Warehouse Manager that does not have any Rejected loads
  • ​Warehouse Manager that does not have any Damage claims 
  • ​Warehouse Manager that does not see any opportunity to improve the quality of the loads that are shipped by your people 
  • ​Warehouse Manager that does not have any Quality Issues as part of their receiving process
  • ​​Warehouse Manager that likes losing money – add a smiley face – emphasize humor 
  • ​Warehouse Manager that likes paying hefty retailer chargebacks
  • ​Warehouse Manager that doesn’t care about the efficiency and throughput of your Distribution Center
  • ​Warehouse Manager that doesn’t want to get promoted in your organization
  • ​Warehouse Manager that doesn’t want to sleep peacefully 
  • ​Warehouse Manager that always wants to have that butterflies in your stomach feeling on when you are going to receive the next chargebacks and or automatic deduction email 
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Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads, Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

Core Concept

Transformation

Save $20K per month or Save all the dollars lost

Mechanism

Enterprise Photo Documentation System to Prove you shipped your load perfectly

Problem

Warehouse Managers don’t design systems, because they think in processes and design processes not systems

Reason

Save $20K per month or Save all the dollars lost

You can save all the dollars you are losing, if you have photos to prove that you shipped your load perfectly

However, most warehouse managers do not have an Enterprise Photo Documentation System to capture photos and retrieve photos when needed quickly because they think in processes and they design processes. They don’t know how to design systems leveraging the latest technology that is available. 

We are the only people dedicated to solving this particular problem for Warehouse Managers

My core concept is that Warehouse managers lose money not because they don’t perfectly ship their loads, they lose money because they don’t have photos to prove that they perfectly shipped their loads. 

It is possible to prove that you shipped your Load perfectly and save all those dollars, if you have an enterprise photo documentation system with which you can do superfast photo capture, superfast photo retrieval and superfast photo sharing. Unfortunately, far too many warehouse managers don’t understand the importance of such a system and end up wasting too many hours of their employees. We have dedicated the last few years to solving this problem. 

Puga Sankara

Founder & CEO
Smart Gladiator 
LoadProof 

About Me

  • Puga Sankara, Founder CEO Smart Gladiator - LoadProof
  • ​​12+ Years with Manhattan Associates 
  • ​​MBA Georgia Tech
  • 2017 – CSCMP Supply Chain Innovation Award Finalist
  • ​2018 – Supply Chain Brain – Great Supply Chain Partner
  • ​2015 – Venture Atlanta Presenter 
  • ​2021 – SDCE Pros to Know
  • ​​Multiple Years – Top 40 Most Innovative Companies in Georgia 
  • ​20+ Years in Supply Chain
  • ​30+ Manh End to End WMS Implementations
  • ​Supported $Billion Retailers, Distributors, 20+ Big Brands 
  • ​20+ Distribution Center Performance/Throughput/Process Improvement Analysis Projects 
  • ​​200+ Distribution Centers Walked through for Process Improvements
  • ​Founded Smart Gladiator in 2013, 25+ Employees, Boot strapped, + Cash flow 
  • ​​100+ Customers, Products installed in 150+ Distribution Centers
  • ​​Incubated in ATDC Georgia Tech
  • ​Partners with Mercury Gate, Kenco, & Oracle

Customers

CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML
6 CORE ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED BY THE ENTERPRISE PHOTO DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM THAT HAS SAVED $20MILLION+ FOR 170+ WAREHOUSE MANAGERS SO FAR

1. Capture Photos 
Superfast

2. Retrieve Photos 
Superfast

3. Share Photos 
Superfast

4. Support Enterprise 
Supply Chain Architecture

5. Integrate with 
 Other Systems Quickly

6. Procure Turn Key Solution from One Stop Shop Vendor & Deploy in 15 days 

6 CORE ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED BY THE ENTERPRISE PHOTO DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM THAT HAS SAVED $20MILLION+ FOR 170+ WAREHOUSE MANAGERS SO FAR

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1

CAPTURE PHOTOS SUPER FAST

Photos of Loads you are shipping need to be captured in a superfast fashion, so that the throughput of your facility does not go down

  • Capture the photos superfast within seconds and also upload the photos to the cloud superfast, without causing any delay while executing the current processes 
  • ​It is very important to capture the photos superfast, as the operators cannot be slowed down by adding this extra step of taking photos. As the slow down might result in reducing the throughput of your facility, especially if you have back-to-back shifts and your facility is running 24 X7 and 365 days
  • ​Easily tie it with your existing process
  • Outbound Load Verification Process
  • ​Inbound Shipment Verification process
  • ​Quality Audit Process
  • ​Returns Receiving Process
  • ​Gemba Walk
  • ​Safety Training – Lessons Learnt
  • ​Security
  • Smart Phones or Tablets are the best way to capture the photos 
  • Photos are better than videos because you don’t have to sit and watch hours and hours of videos to retrieve that one shot that shows the proof
  • Everyone has a Smart Phone, most supervisors in Warehouses have officially issued Smart Phones, all they have to do is pull theirs out and start taking photos
  • ​Auto Focus - Avoid blurry images – no point in taking photos that are not acceptable as proof
  • ​Auto Flash - Need to work inside trailers where it is very dark
  • ​High Resolution, Medium Resolution & Low Resolution; For documents – Need Medium or high resolution
  • ​Works for any context – Configurable contextual data capture
  • Inbound
  • ​Outbound
  • ​Gemba walk
  • ​Document Capture
  • ​Supports Video also

Old Way

  • Use digital camera to capture photos & manually copy photos to the computer
  • ​Use Operator Smart Phones to capture photos & manually email photos to your Official Inbox 
  • ​No photo capturing, which means there was no photo proof to prove that the warehouse manager and his team did their job perfectly shipping their loads
  • ​Video cameras are used to record the entire operation

New Way

  • Use a sophisticated mobile app to capture photos and upload photos to the cloud directly in seconds
  • ​Now that the photos are captured and available in the cloud for anybody and everybody, any time the warehouse manager and his team can retrieve those photos and prove that they shipped their loads perfectly

Old Result

  • When digital cameras are used there is plenty of walking back and forth from the dock doors to the operator’s desk to copy the photos 
  • ​When Smart Phones are used there is plenty of manual work to copy the pictures from the email to a file folder system
  • ​When video cameras are used, warehouse manager has to sit and watch hours and hours of video to find that exact shot to provide that proof

New Result

  • Swifter capture and upload of photos to the cloud results in a much more efficient process without taking any time and without adversely impacting the throughput of the facility
  • ​Photos are never lost, they stay in the system for ever, unless the user deletes them or archives them
  • ​Photos are better evidence then videos, because they are easy to retrieve
  • ​​Videos are also supported in shots of 30 seconds, hence no need to watch hours and hours of videos to get the proof

Without a Centralized Enterprise System of Record for your Photos, a Warehouse manager cannot show compelling proof that his team did their job right. 

A system of record is a very important information repository that not only stores a specific information in a well-organized manner that is easy to retrieve and share by any authorized personnel of the organization but also serves as an authoritative source of fact. 
Our actions and decisions are only as good as the data we use to act upon them. That being true, when designing complicated systems, the integrity of the data set involved becomes enormously important. Obviously, the data that resides in a system should be accurate. However, it also needs to have integrity, which means consistent and not unnecessarily redundant. 

A good data set is invaluable. Done well, it puts all of the data elements in one place, making it easy to share, analyze, extrapolate, and use. Which system owns the data is potentially even more important. If you want to fundamentally alter the data based on business rule or a business logic, then it should be done in the system that owns the data, so it’s critical to track the lifecycle of the data entity and to refer users to the primary system for specific data. 

The photos that you take in your warehouse are critical Enterprise data. Enterprise data should not be stored in an employee’s smart phone or in an employee’s email inbox or in an employee’s computer. Important enterprise data should be rightfully organized in a centralized enterprise system of record should be stored in sophisticated high available systems with backups that are highly secure and can be recovered in no time in case of a disaster 
According to Bain Capital’s Ajay Agarwal, A solution is considered a system of record if,
  • it runs a mission-critical business process
  • it stores proprietary business data
  • ​​large portions of the employee population interact with it daily or weekly
  • ​​its outputs form the foundation for important business decisions
  • ​​it codifies solutions that are “inside the heads of human beings”
  • ​​it learns and improves over time
For example, a Purchase Order is a very important record because it is a legally binding document. Once it is issued from one party to another party, typically a customer to a vendor or a buyer to seller, the vendor or seller gets to work procuring raw materials, investing in making the finished goods that needs to be shipped to the customer on time, based on the guarantee of the payment signified by the issue of the purchase order. The vendor or the seller carries out all the activities so the finished goods can be shipped on time to the customer or the buyer. And such Purchase orders are critical piece of information that are needed to run any organization effectively. 

Another example is, Sales Order (SO) information is always owned by an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, since that is where all the aspects of the order are handled and tracked throughout the lifecycle of the sale. That same sales order might be downloaded to a warehouse management system (WMS) for fulfillment. The WMS will use the order information to fulfill the order, to optimize the fulfillment process, for packaging instructions, for shipping instructions and much more. However, the WMS system should only be allowed to look up information from the SO data for Order Fulfillment purposes, while changes to the SO data should be done in the ERP. Also keep in mind the system of record that owns that specific entity tracks the different statuses of the entity during the entire life cycle of the entity to accurately provide the latest status. Not all entities have statuses, as some entities are strictly for informational purposes only, for example the special instructions that are associated with an order are instructions to be followed while shipping the order and they don’t have a life cycle nor different status to them.

Similarly, photos are important piece of information that come handy for the following situations

  • When there is a damage that occurred on an expensive merchandise that was shipped through a carrier from a shipper’s warehouse to a customer, and let us say this carrier insured this move, now the insurance company needs proof to show that the product indeed was shipped in pristine condition from the shipper’s warehouse, in this situation the pictures that unequivocally represent the pristine condition of the product, when the shipment departed the origin are invaluable
  • When there is a lawsuit due to a conflict between a buyer and seller
  • When there is a defect in merchandise that was received by a buyer and that has caused a considerable pain for the buyer 
It is very important to have a system that owns the lifecycle of the data set to create a single source of truth. Also maintaining a single, simple architecture eases integration into other systems.

Questionnaire

Can I use the Photos and Videos as evidence in court for or against a lawsuit?

Photo and video evidence can be extremely effective in legal proceedings. Potential evidence is everywhere and readily available with the proliferation of surveillance cameras and smartphones in everyone’s pockets. With this availability, every legal claim seems to incorporate photos or video. But is photo and video evidence always admissible in court? What are the pitfalls to be aware of when using such evidence?

Admissibility

In order for photo and video evidence to be admissible in court it must meet two basic requirements: relevance and authenticity. In order for evidence to be relevant it must have probative value. In other words, it must either support or undermine the truth of any point at issue in the legal proceedings. In order for evidence to be authenticated, it must accurately represent its subject as related to the legal claim. For example, a photo or video used as evidence in an accident case must truthfully represent the conditions of the road at the time and date of the accident.

Objection Tactics

While photos and videos may seem like concrete, immutable representations of reality, the fact is that this evidence can be manipulated in order to skew that reality. Lighting, position, perception, filters and editing can be strategically used to misrepresent the facts. Attorneys know this and will use objection tactics to claim that the evidence should be inadmissible. The following are some of the most common objections to photo and video evidence:
  • Undue Prejudice: An attorney can argue that the photo or video evidence is not a reasonable representation of its subject and may result in undue prejudice.
  • Hearsay: If there is no witness present who can be cross-examined, an attorney can argue that the substance of the photo or video evidence is hearsay.
  • The Best Evidence Rule: If the photo or video is secondary evidence (a copy or facsimile), an attorney can argue that the original copy is superior evidence.
  • Lack of Foundation: When visibility, the time of day, the weather or some other factor is at issue in the litigation, an attorney can question a substantial similarity between the occurrence in question and the photo or video evidence.
Photos and videos can serve as valuable evidence in litigation proceedings. In order to ensure that such evidence is admissible in court, it is important to establish a formal policy and or a system for the collection and preservation of the evidence, to adhere to the requirements of relevance and authenticity and to prepare for the objection tactics of the opposition.

Why the CCTV Video-based photo documentation system you have today is a nightmare to deal with?

Even though video seems much cooler documentation to have as proof, it is just not very practical when the time comes to retrieval of the data. We have customers and prospects that are switching from their CCTV video camera-based system to our LoadProof system. The most painful thing with the video-based camera system is that, the warehouse manager has to sit and watch hours and hours of video just to get that exact shot where that specific pallet is being loaded. Whereas with the LoadProof system, each individual pallet is captured as part of the Load Verification process, it is much easier to get to the photos for a specific pallet, from the list of all the photos that are available in the system. And this means you are not wasting hours and hours of time watching the video, instead you are very quickly performing the steps below to retrieve the photo you need 

  • Input the date range with From date and To date
  • ​Hit enter to get a list of all the photos for that date range 
  • ​The end user could increase the # of loads displayed per page to 100 so quickly navigate to that page that has that specific load 
  • ​​After identifying that specific load, drill down into the Load
  • ​​From there the end user can take a PDF of that entire load – meaning all the photos that belong to that load or
  • ​​Take the photo of that one particular pallet from that load and share that alone in an email. 
With this approach, the retrieval is done in seconds or minutes instead of spending hours watching the entire video. 

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2

RETRIEVE PHOTOS SUPERFAST

Retrieval of photos needs to be performed in a superfast fashion, so that you and your colleagues can verify if your team shipped the loads perfectly superfast, because if there is a problem on your end, you need to fix that first quickly.

  • Retrieve photos in seconds by inputting the contextual data
  • ​Query-based logic to retrieve photos by inputting contextual data using Boolean algebra-based criteria with multiple contextual data elements
  • ​By inputting pre-defined contextual data
  • ​Very flexible contextual data capture capability & hence searches by the contextual data that was captured is so much easier
  • ​Search by the entire contextual data
  • ​Search by a portion of the contextual data 
  • ​​Search by providing one or more contextual data using an OR or AND condition 
  • ​Search by the category of the loads, the following categories are allowed
  • Load
  • Quality Issue
  • ​GEMBA Walk
  • Safety Issues
  • ​Miscellaneous
  • Search by date the photo was captured 
  • Search by a date range by inputting from date and to date the photo was captured
  • Ability to list 10 or 25 or 50 or 100 records per view
  • ​Ability to Export the data to an external file
  • ​Ability to reconcile that exported data against an ERP system or a Warehouse Management System or a Transportation Management System or a Freight Claims Management System or a Deductions Management System or any other Supply Chain System
  • Ability to switch from one facility to another facility by simply clicking on the facility within the same corporate
  • Can easily retrieve photos from different locations, the following hierarchy is supported
  • Corporate level - Users are set up at the corporate level that can retrieve photos from any site
  • ​Network Level - Users are set up at the network level (a network is a group of sites with a certain common attribute) so users at the network can retrieve photos from any site that is within their network
  • ​Site Level – Users are set up at the site level, so they can retrieve photos from their sites only

Old Way

  • Manually search for the photos in the users file folder structure by date, by time or by user
  • ​Manually search for the photos in the user’s inbox
  • ​Manually search for the photos in the word document
  • ​No way to look at photos that are stored in another location because all these photos are stored in a local drive that is local to the facility

New Way

  • Search by the contextual data using a query-based logic quickly and retrieve the correct photos in seconds 
  • ​Search by the entire contextual data
  • ​Search by a portion of the contextual data
  • ​Search by providing one or more contextual data using an OR or AND condition

Old Result

  • Search and retrieval of photos takes hours because it is manually done by executive assistants that are scanning the picture, the text, the date, the order number or Bill of lading number with their eyes, which is a painstaking process
  • ​There are 2 to 3 clerical assistants that are working only on the organizing and retrieval of photos, that is an additional cost of $100K to $150K for the operation

New Result

  • Search and retrieval of photos takes seconds instead of hours
  • ​Can display multiple rows of the pictures in counts 10 rows per page or 25 rows per page or 50 rows per page or 100 rows per page
  • Can easily export that list on the page into an Excel spreadsheet and can be further worked upon easily

When there is a Change, there is Resistance,  but it is worth it  

Change management and innovation go hand in hand. It is comparatively easy to innovate, however getting the entire organization to adopt that change is trickier, even though we all know that change is the only thing that is constant. In an area like supply chain, where conformity is favored over individuality, changing things gets even more challenging. 
There are many reasons for it, including: 
  • Nobody likes a change in the status quo.
  • People are territorial, and nobody wants to lose their territory.
  • ​​Organizational inertia makes it much easier to do things the same old way.
  • Embracing the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.
  • ​​People in general are risk averse. Nobody wants to risk what they have and where they have gotten.
So the critical task is not just innovating, but also fostering that innovation in a way that gains adoption. Without buy-in, it's simply too easy to abandon a truly great and innovative idea. I've experienced it in our business. 

For example, one customer, with the data center general manager acting as champion, bought and installed our product. 
A sudden management shift brought in a new DC GM and the product remained unused...and the potential for innovation was lost despite huge potential upside.   Another customer, on the other hand, installed the product and loved it. They asked us for more features, and they tweaked their infrastructure to get the most out of the solution.

Their feedback has helped us improve our product. And their enthusiasm was heartening too, as they told us how much better their work went. In the early days, adoption was a struggle, but the leadership asked us to do additional training and share tips and tricks. Eventually, everyone got on board. Older workers liked the improved ergonomics, and the ability to maximize the font size. Younger folks liked using familiar technology. Without the extra work, though, adoption might not  have happened.

Any innovation needs tweaking and final touches to make sure the user experience is 100% easy and smooth. That work can be done only by working closely with the end users, listening to their feedback and incorporating their suggestions.

When Steve Jobs had the initial iPhone prototypes built, he started using it. Scratches on the screen annoyed him—and the ultimate design was improved. An article in Business Insider told the tale this way:

Steve had been using a prototype iPhone for a few weeks, carrying it around in his pocket. When his lieutenants were assembled, he pulled the prototype out of his pocket and pointed angrily to dozens of scratches on its plastic screen. People would carry their phones in their pockets, Steve said. They would also carry other things in their pockets--like keys.

And those things would scratch the screen. And then, with Apple just about to ramp up iPhone production, Steve demanded that the iPhone's screen be replaced with un-scratchable glass, "I want a glass screen," Steve is quoted as saying. "And I want it perfect in six weeks."

Apple sourced the glass from Corning, an American company. To get product in time, Apple ended up working with a Chinese manufacturer to get a factory built, and to get a team of engineers to figure out how to make the new screens work. Within weeks, iPhones were rolling off the lines. "Three months later, Apple had sold 1 million iPhones," the article said. "Four years later, Apple has sold ~200 millions of them."

In this case, because it was a consumer product, the issues were easy to identify. However, if the company hadn't done their work, the iPhone may not have become a household name all over the world. In the business-to-business (B2B) sector, where a product is very specialized, this type of iterative innovation is less common.

In the B2B space, then, it's critical to have structure and process in place to get feedback from end users to support innovation and ensure proper change management to allow input to be incorporated. Without help, adoption can get stuck. This can take many forms, from a suggestion box or web site that collects feedback to longer user-input sessions. Usually, IT and business groups are moving these processes ahead. The engineers are smart but tend to make things too technical and complicated because for smart people complicated things are easy to do. Operations, meanwhile, adopts a Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS) approach that dumbs down everything. You can capture the best of both of these worlds by experienced operations guys or even consultants that have deployed many operational capabilities. They can look at the end product before deployment and provide feedback, discerning whether it makes sense for their users, before doing the department wide roll out. By addressing user feedback, this team can make the change management phase of the project easier and ensure smooth adoption.

Questionnaire

Lead with the millennials in your organization

This step is very important because the younger generation, especially the millennials tend to be a lot more technology savvy, not only they are technology savvy, but also technology dependent. Embracing innovation and creativity in a democratic manner gets millennial’s excited. Organizations can go a step further and reward innovation that solves problems in ways that results in better ways of doing work, in cost savings or in improving the workplace generally, making the workplace better in general. Let me offer one example that I experienced during a product introduction we did. A millennial supervisor on the evening shift of the warehouse made a slight change to standard procedure. Instead of walking next to his employees, who were pulling cases from reserve locations in their trucks, he instructed the operators to record themselves using our devices and app for 30 minutes. Later, he observed those videos and critiqued constructively to help operator employees do their job better. The operator employees were filmed performing in reality, without a supervisor breathing down their neck, and the supervisor was freed up to focus on other tasks. Identify such opportunities and reward creative use of technology to set an example that the rest of the organization can follow.

Shadow, help with empathy and resolve any issue that arises immediately

Any experienced IT project manager will tell you how important this is. If the newly implemented system works really well, employee adaption becomes a lot easier, because the employees trust the system. Once the system wins the employees’ trust and confidence, they embrace the system whole heartedly, often these employees would tell themselves, hey dumb me, the system is always correct, I might as well follow the system, that is why it is super important to immediately address and resolve the issues that are reported by the employees as quickly as possible. 

Celebrate small successes

Again, this is another pretty basic project management best practice, which seems very simple, but produces amazing results when implemented correctly. When you are executing as a team, it is all about the momentum, when you celebrate small success it builds momentum and people get in their zone and perform their best. The small successes lead to big successes, then such successes become contagious and infectious, the enthusiasm spreads suddenly a new energy is infused into the organization. 

Lead with the millennials in your organization

This step is very important because the younger generation, especially the millennials tend to be a lot more technology savvy, not only they are technology savvy, but also technology dependent. Embracing innovation and creativity in a democratic manner gets millennial’s excited. 
Organizations can go a step further and reward innovation that solves problems in ways that results in better ways of doing work, in cost savings or in improving the workplace generally, making the workplace better in general. Let me offer one example that I experienced during a product introduction we did. A millennial supervisor on the evening shift of the warehouse made a slight change to standard procedure. Instead of walking next to his employees, who were pulling cases from reserve locations in their trucks, he instructed the operators to record themselves using our devices and app for 30 minutes. Later, he observed those videos and critiqued constructively to help operator employees do their job better. The operator employees were filmed performing in reality, without a supervisor breathing down their neck, and the supervisor was freed up to focus on other tasks. Identify such opportunities and reward creative use of technology to set an example that the rest of the organization can follow.

Shadow, help with empathy and resolve any issue that arises immediately

Any experienced IT project manager will tell you how important this is. If the newly implemented system works really well, employee adaption becomes a lot easier, because the employees trust the system. Once the system wins the employees’ trust and confidence, they embrace the system whole heartedly, often these employees would tell themselves, hey dumb me, the system is always correct, I might as well follow the system, that is why it is super important to immediately address and resolve the issues that are reported by the employees as quickly as possible. 

Celebrate small successes

Again, this is another pretty basic project management best practice, which seems very simple, but produces amazing results when implemented correctly. When you are executing as a team, it is all about the momentum, when you celebrate small success it builds momentum and people get in their zone and perform their best. The small successes lead to big successes, then such successes become contagious and infectious, the enthusiasm spreads suddenly a new energy is infused into the organization. 

Establish a Feedback loop

This is again another basic project management best practice, when implemented correctly produces amazing results. Establishing an engaging feedback process and acting on those feedback swiftly is very powerful. I still remember back in my Analyst days, I worked with a Project Manager Dave, we had just gone live with a Warehouse Management System, the dust hasn’t settled yet, it was chaotic, the exceptions were not handled very well, but Dave instituted this practice of getting donuts for all of us every day in the evening, wherein he would start the feedback session with the donuts after the morning shift is over around 4 PM, sometimes these meetings would go on for more than an hour, but running those meetings, getting those feedback, fixing those issues immediately for 2 weeks, 14 consecutive days made all the differences in the world, not only that project was a huge success, but also the system was very well received and produced very good results for the operations team. 

Give the veterans some time, let them loose on their daily metrics for a week or so 

Whether we like it or not, humans are the most difficult ones to change. And older humans struggle a little more. Veterans having gotten to doing the things the same way they had done struggle a little more when a new change is implemented. Giving them some slack, empathizing with them and pairing them up with some millennials so they can get help and establishing a environment where they ask for help without feeling shy or hesitant helps them get through the process of change easily and quickly. 

When designing processes follow the KISS method, make sure operations folks have an equal say in process design

This is extremely important, because in many cases I have seen where IT folks tend to design processes also, as they are the ones that design and implement systems. There is a big difference between the people in the IT teams versus people in the operations teams that are doing the daily grind. There is a big difference between the expert that makes the car and the expert that drives the car. The expert that drives the car should be telling the expert that builds the car on how to build the car, how the seats need to be positioned, how the steering wheel needs to be positioned, how the dash needs to be laid out etc. In the same fashion, the people that execute the system on a daily basis need to be telling the people the design, build and implement the systems on how it needs to be built. If you let the IT people design the system, generally the IT people are smart so they tend to build them with complicated steps because for smart people it is easy to execute  such complicate steps, whereas when you are doing the daily grind where the most important metric is the throughput of the facility, KISS principle works best, which means the systems need to be dumbed down, so anybody can not only follow and understand, but also smoothly execute at its maximum speed, so the maximum possible throughput of the facility can be attained.

Establish reverse-mentoring programs leveraging millennial technology skills

Forward thinking leaders have already started doing this, especially in large organizations. CIO’s are buddying up with freshly minted college graduates so that they can help each other. While the experienced senior manager provides career guidance to the fresher, the fresher shows the senior manager the trend among the younger crowd. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and Donald Graham, CEO of the Washington Post, are a great example of a power mentoring  relationship as they both gain a great deal from their relationship with one another. Early on in his tenure at Facebook, Zuckerberg turned to Graham for advice on being a CEO and Graham received the benefit of Zuckerberg’s expertise on social media.

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3

SHARE PHOTOS SUPERFAST

Sharing of photos needs to be performed in a superfast fashion, so that you can submit photos to the parties that need them to resolve the claims issues ASAP so they trust you and agree that you and your team perfectly shipped the loads sooner. 

  • Download one PDF and upload to Retailer vendor portal – this is what all retailers want. Irrespective of any number of photos you have, you can download all of them in 1 PDF and upload them to the Retailer portal. Imagine doing this for 20 times once for each photograph manually, now all that is simplified, instead of doing 20 times the user has to do it only once. The PDF has both photos and the associated contextual data, along with that it also has the user that captured the photo, the date stamp, the time stamp and the GPS coordinates. All this info establishes the credibility of the photos and also the systems and processes in place to capture all this data, which add even more credibility when this is submitted as evidence to insurance companies for claims or even as evidence in a lawsuit situation.
  • ​Share photos through email, just input the email and hit send button, links to the photos are emailed to the addressee. All the addressee has to do is click on the link and
  • ​Self Service capability - Set up users in the system, so that users can log in and look it up themselves, no need for a phone call or an email. Users from the other end can log in and look at the photos and check the condition of the load even before the load arrives at their end for receipt. This is usually recommended for a long-term customer or a partner within the same org
  • ​Photos can also be shared by copying the link for just one photo alone
  • ​All the photos within a load can also by copied by clicking on COPY ALL and pasted to an email or other documents
  • ​​Also, with the tablet, users can share the photos from wherever they are instead of walking back and forth to their desk from the place where the photos are taken, so all the time that was spent on walking back and forth is saved.
  • ​Photos along with the contextual data can be shared with anyone and everyone even if they don’t have access to LoadProof. As long as the person has internet access, they will be able to view the photos 

Old Way

  • Warehouse Managers have to manually copy the photos to their email and send them to the receiver.
  • ​Alternatively end users can also copy the photos to a word document then add contextual data to the word document and then share the word document itself as one PDF document in an email

New Way

  • Much easier way to share, just put in the email address and hit send, the recipient receives a link and can easily look at all the photos just by clicking the link  
  • ​Share all the photos in one document as a PDF, instead of sharing photo by photo n number of times {where n is the number of photos}
  • ​Share just one or all the photos by copying the link and sharing the link in an email or in a document

Old Result

  • The emails with photos would not get delivered and get stuck in the email server, now the warehouse manager has to call the IT help desk to get the photos retrieved
  • ​Emails with photos would end up in spam folder
  • ​​Emails with photos would end up in trash folder

New Result

  • The emails with photos never get stuck, because the emails have only the hyperlinks, instead of attaching the photos themselves, hence they always get delivered 
  • ​There was never a delivery issue when the recipients are set up as users within the LoadProof system
  • ​Uploading pictures to the retailer portal was a breeze

Usability is a big deal, so pay very careful attention to it, it can make or break your Goal

Change management and innovation go hand in hand. It is comparatively easy to innovate, however getting the entire organization to adopt that change is trickier, even though we all know that change is the only thing that is constant. In an area like supply chain, where conformity is favored over individuality, changing things gets even more challenging. 
So the critical task is not just innovating, but also fostering that innovation in a way that gains adoption. Without buy-in, it's simply too easy to abandon a truly great and innovative idea. I've experienced it in our business. 

For example, one customer, with the data center general manager acting as champion, bought and installed our product. 
A sudden management shift brought in a new DC GM and the product remained unused...and the potential for innovation was lost despite huge potential upside.   Another customer, on the other hand, installed the product and loved it. They asked us for more features, and they tweaked their infrastructure to get the most out of the solution.

Their feedback has helped us improve our product. And their enthusiasm was heartening too, as they told us how much better their work went. In the early days, adoption was a struggle, but the leadership asked us to do additional training and share tips and tricks. Eventually, everyone got on board. Older workers liked the improved ergonomics, and the ability to maximize the font size. Younger folks liked using familiar technology. Without the extra work, though, adoption might not  have happened.

Any innovation needs tweaking and final touches to make sure the user experience is 100% easy and smooth. That work can be done only by working closely with the end users, listening to their feedback and incorporating their suggestions.

An Engaging UI UX is a Key ingredient for your Enterprise Supply Chain Apps. 

A very good UI (user Interface) and hence a very good UX (User Experience) is an  important component in improving the warehouse and distribution center productivity. 

In this day and age where Apple and Android have completely changed the user experience that is so easy to not only understand and use the app within seconds, but also figure out any new capabilities on an intuitive basis using hand gestures such as touches, swipes, pinches etc., it is very important to pay attention to the enterprise apps that are deployed in your Supply Chains today.  Particularly in the distribution center, there is significant time that is spent on training the end users. I’ve seen many distribution centers that are literally revolving  doors, where personnel come and go. All these personnel go through training for weeks to understand and to improve their proficiency in their work, so that is at least 40 hours spent per employee on training, that is approximately $10,000 at a fully loaded labor cost of $25 per hour. And nowadays on an average the warehouse is churn is 50%. As a warehouse manager if you are running a facility with 50 people and at the end of the year you lost 25 people, that dollars spent on training those 25 people, which is $10,000 per person, the dollars lost is $250,000. That is a lot of dollars to lose.

These kinds of dollars lost scenarios could be  significantly reduced if you choose a tool with a very good UI. The mobile technology is evolving and at the same time it is very important to choose the tools with the best UI because that will not only reduce your training time and but can also simplify the processes. For example, I had this customer where they have this laminated card given to every single operator where in all the keys such as the function keys, hotkeys and all the different keystroke sequences that they have to enter is printed. They have to constantly take it out and then refer to execute that function. This could have been simplified in the tool with a very good UI. There is no point in trying to hit at F15, F17, and F19, when you are all the way up there in the seventh level trying to pick that one product. Instead of trying to  remember that Function key we can simplify it so with much more meaningful description to the whole thing, instead of just hitting F19. If you put a back or skip in  the UI or something like that will be easy for the personnel to intuitively get it right and easy to remember. That’s why it’s very important to pay attention to the UI. For example, just think about iPad, when a grandma takes iPad and starts watching movies all by herself without referring to any user manual. 

The same way the babies take the iPad and have fun, play games etc. Having said that the UI/UX is important especially in this day and age where Millennials are  walking into the DC in troves. They’re used to this touchscreen technology and they grew up with these mobile devices, so it’s important to get the UI right. At the same time you should also significantly plan to reduce your training time which can result in a lot of dollars saved. Especially if you have a lot of temp workers coming and going and if your churn rate is high, this best practice will help you in cost savings and in increasing productivity. Thanks for taking the time to watch this video we’d love to hear your thoughts and please share your comments below.  If you look at it in depth, how to get this UI right, and if you start analyzing the psychology behind that, this what you find. Humans are attracted to beautiful  things, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, if it is beautiful, it gets quite a bit of an attention, then humans will engage and interact with it more. It is just how us humans are wired. So, if you make the application beautiful, use stunning pictures, use beautiful lines, use beautiful shapes, also symmetry is another property that enhances beauty, so making objects symmetrical also makes things beautiful, so humans will engage with it more. Also, another psychology is that “Attractive things work better”, It refers to users’ tendency to perceive attractive products as more usable. People tend to believe that things that look better will work better — even if they aren’t actually more effective or efficient. 

Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable. A positive emotional  response to the visual design will make them more tolerant of minor issues, and also first Impressions matter a lot too.

So that is why we took a lot of time to thoroughly analyze the UI UX of LoadProof and came up with very simple set of steps to do the following :

  • Super-Fast Photo Capture
  • Super-Fast Photo Upload
  • Temporarily holding of Photos when needed with ease 
  • ​User friendly tagging of photos with appropriate contextual data. 

In a quicker way, without requiring training, without having to read a complicated manual, without requiring any hand holding, everything is same as a consumer  app in your personal smart phone.

Questionnaire

What are some UI UX best practices to follow to get most out of the Photo documentation System?

Do not make the user write essays in this small screen with a tiny keyboard

Keep in mind the user is doing everything in a mobile device with a small screen and a tiny keyboard, so do not make the user write essays in this small screen with a tiny keyboard. If the process requires the user to write so much content while capturing photos, then the small mobile device is a wrong tool to use for this purpose. At least provide him with a tablet or redesign the process such that he uses a different tool, or this step is performed in his computer or this step is not performed as part of this process. 

Do not create long usernames, keep them to 8 bytes max

It is important to keep in mind that the user is doing everything in a small screen. Also, it is equally important to empathize with the user, because he is already doing a myriad other thing and now asking him to do one more thing is going to put even more pressure on him and distract him, so there is a chance that he is going to make a mistake while doing all these actions. So, it is very important to make it as easy as possible for him to do his job. That is why keeping the usernames shorter will make the life on the floor easier because it is still 2 less characters to type while doing this on a small mobile device with a tiny keyboard.

Do not collect a long list of contextual data unless until it is absolutely necessary

We have customers that collect just the bill of lading and we also have customers that collect 20 different contextual data elements. In the case of the former customer, they want to keep it very simple without affecting the throughput and for all of their scenarios capturing the BOL suffices because with that BOL, they can retrieve and share anything and everything they need. Where this latter customer that ships important parts that need to be shipped with express same day or overnight delivery service level, so that the part is delivered immediately the next day or the same day as a lot of dollars are being wasted as the entire team of very expensive tools and experts with high dollar hourly rates are waiting to get the job completed. 

Take advantage of the bar code scanner and the OCR scanner when inputting long string of data

In order to make the data capture not only so easy, but also error free, we have added both barcode scanner and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capability to the app. This is very important because the last thing you want is a tool that makes you do a lot of extra work or a tool that is so error prone due to fat fingering errors. In order avoid both of those scenarios’ users can easily users can invoke the barcode scanner that can scan multiple barcode symobologies such as I2 of 5 or Code 128 or UCC 128 or anything similar. The app also has the ability to scan and capture any text that is printed on a label or a document, so users don’t have to manually type them. 

Minimize the keyboard use as much as possible

The app also provides number keyboard versus alpha keyboards and also non keyboard alternatives to make the data capture so easy.

Try to provide multiple choice options that the user can choose from rather than write characters using the keyboard

The other important aspect that is not used often are the radio buttons and the check boxes. The radio button serves as a nice reply function for a multiple-choice question, whereas the check box functions as all the steps that are completed so personnel can mark of the steps very similar to a check list. It is important to take advantage of that when needed in order make the data capture step easy for personnel on the floor. 

If you think you are using the keyboard way too much, call us, let us help figure out ways not to use the keyboard so much

As always there are things that come up, so if you feel like you are spending way too much time capturing data, then call us we will share our secrets on the best practices we follow to make your data capturing much easier. 

When you are stretch wrapping the LTL pallet versus a FTL pallet, are you using the stretch wrapper with the same gauge? 

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4

SUPPORT SUPPLY CHAIN ENTERPRISE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

A Centralized Enterprise system that supports your entire Supply Chain Network, all locations, your org hierarchy, that is highly secure and provides access to all personnel that need to capture photos, retrieve photos & share photos is needed to document all your loads.

  • Supports Organizational Hierarchy
  • Corporate Level Users have access to all the sites within the entire corporate of the Supply Chain network
  • ​Network Level Users have access to all the sites within a specific network, which usually represents a specific line of business of a group of sites that belong to a specific customer
  • ​Site Level users have access to the photos that belong to that site only
  • ​Customer Account Level users can also set up by mimicking the sites as customer accounts 
  • ​Both Admin and non admin users can be set up at Corporate level, Network level and Site Level
  • Centralized cloud Based System
  • ​Accessible from anywhere through the browser
  • Upload Photos from anywhere through the app
  • Highly Secure 
  • All connections to the system are SSL enabled
  • Token based validation for all communication to the portal and the mobile app
  • Supports both iOS and Android Mobile Operating Systems
  • ​System of Record for your Enterprise for Photos and Videos. Similar to how the ERP system is the system of record for the Purchase Orders and Sales Orders, like that it is important to have a System of Record for Photos also, as these photos and videos are important and sensitive data that belong to your enterprise. Such data should not be stored in a user’s computer or their inbox or their Smart Phone. These photos and videos, which are enterprise data that are needed in case of a lawsuit or to provide proof to insurance companies should be retrievable by the key system and process owners in case of an emergency.
  • ​​As part of SOX – Sarbanes Oxley requirements for Public companies, these enterprise data need to be stored in systems that are supported by proper back up processes, storage processes, disaster recovery processes, data retrieval processes, mirroring etc. Just in case something goes wrong and the computer crashes or gets impacted by a flood situation or a thunderstorm or any natural disaster, the systems need to support retrieval of all that data.

Old Way

  • Photos were stored in the user’s computer
  • ​Photos were stored in the user’s inbox
  • ​Photos were stored in user’s smart phone
  • ​​Photos were stored in user’s digital camera
  • ​Photos were stored in either Google Drive
  • ​Photos were stored in Microsoft Share point within the local network
  • ​Photos were stored in a local folder within the local facility computer

New Way

  • Photos are accessible by users at the corporate level, meaning users at the corporate level can look at the photos at any site within the corporate. They can easily switch from one site to another site in the portal  
  • ​Photos are accessible by users at the network level
  • ​Photos are accessible by users at the site level
  • ​Controlled access can be provided to the users
  • Users with App access only
  • ​Users with Browser access only
  • ​User with both app access and browser access

Old Result

  • There was no centralized system at all, often photos were lost
  • ​Without a centralized system there was no way for logistics managers sitting at the corporate level to look at photos at the different locations
  • ​​The only way to look at the photos was to share them through emails, which means users will have to deal with all the issues with attaching large attachments to the email and getting them sent through the email system
  • ​There was a lot of time spent on sharing pictures, making sure the other party got it

New Result

  • Photos were shared with ease
  • ​Photos were never lost 
  • ​A lot of time was saved, that was previously spent in accessing the photos
  • ​​When sharing pictures were never lost, the sharing process was always successful, the recipient always got it
  • ​​There was a big relief among the warehouse personnel in case they received a chargeback email, they slept peacefully knowing that they always had proof to share it

Photos & Videos are very important Data that need to be cared for like any other vital enterprise data such as Purchase Order, Sales Order, Item Master etc.

Data is the new oil of the Digital economy. It has been said that data in the twenty-first century is like oil in the eighteenth century. I don’t agree with this 100%. Like oil, data has to be refined before it is used, and it’s only as valuable as the insights that are drawn from it. Further, oil is a limited commodity, and we all know that the deluge of data is getting bigger every day. And with the proliferation of sensors everywhere, especially in mobile devices, it is much easier to gather data  from business operations and also get much better insights from it.

We are data rich, but information poor, this is changing with the rise of AI, ML and the cost of computing power going down significantly experts are able to run several analytics models and cull out some deep insights from the data that is available.
According to a McKinsey Report [1] 
  • Companies have managed to generate 20% of their revenue from Data and Analytics products and services
  • Data experts are getting a seat in the C suite
  • ​Companies are incorporating something called “Data Culture”, adapting a Data and Analytics basis for all the functions in the organization, not just for decision making, but making data and analytics an integral part of everything of an organization,
  • ​​Above all, the high performers indicate that their leaders are creating both data and analytics strategies for the long haul. Meaning these organizations are making data a core part of employees’ workflows and mind-sets by educating them as part of a broader effort to build a strong data-driven culture. All the while, they are ensuring that high- quality data and modern technological foundations are in place to support these efforts at scale.

The Power of Photo and Video data

Now let us revisit the power of data in the current context, which is adding this Centralized Enterprise Class Photo & Video Documentation System for your Supply  Chain. There are a lot of things that can be done with this data in the form of photos and videos. 

One important application is this capability called Smart Contracts in the Block Chain arena, where ownership and payments to the service providers are automatically triggered based on receipt of the merchandise at a certain point in its journey. In a Supply Chain when a load is shipped, it could get transported by multiple parties (for example let us take an international multimodal shipment, where a container full of manufactured and assembled goods is shipped from a distribution center, then it gets transported from the DC to the departing port by a truck, then it gets transported from the departing port to the destination port in a Ship, then from the destination port to a hub near the destination through rail and finally from that destination hub to the final destination distribution center through another truck) that own the product based on the points where the hand off happens. During this journey different parties owned the goods and the ownership transferred and different parties have different insurance companies whom they insured the shipment with, which needs to be part of the smart contract and also once these parties complete their leg of the whole journey they could get automatically paid, by uploading the photo proof with data elements such as the end user that made the hand off, the end user’s driver’s license proof, along with that the date stamp, the time stamp, if it is a perishable or a produce merchandise, then possibly the temperature, then also the GPS coordinates where the hand off occurred, these companies that offer this service would love this opportunity to automate this step because that would help them get paid faster, which means better cash flow situation for their organizations and also some efficiency induced in the whole process to get paid. 

Also, if there is an exception that was reported, automatically provide all these photos that were taken at the hand off points of the other legs of the whole journey to other parties or the insurance companies involved in the Supply Chain community, so the exception can be quickly addressed, and the concerned parties are compensated accordingly. 

Also, during this pandemic, we saw how useful the no touch bill of lading was. A bill of lading or a shipping manifest is a legal document that is required by every transportation service provider, a truck or a carrier to carry it along with them to demonstrate to a law enforcement officer that they are hauling a merchandise that is legally allowed, or if it is a controlled substance they do have all the relevant documentation like a Drug Enforcement Administration certificate or anything else, the problem is this was always a paper document, that the truck drivers need to carry it along with them until the transportation is complete and also attach it to a proof of delivery document with the signature of the recipient. Now with this being paper, with them carrying around in their hands, was spreading the Covid 19 virus, so it made sense to carry it electronically and share it as well as get it signed on a no touch basis wither by emailing and or texting to perform all those steps. So, at that time sharing these documents as photos was quite useful. 

The other area where these photographs, videos and documents are useful are for better Supply Chain Visibility. By reading the contents of the different  documents along with the context and along with the GPS coordinates and the actors that are taking the photos several insights can be obtained on the on-time delivery of the shipments, missed appointments, even traffic patterns around the area where the delivery needs to happen and this whole repository can act as a massive reservoir of data, where even status of purchase orders can be inferred. These data will be highly useful in case of an exception that occurred due to some kind of an outage of a specific service that is essential for a normal functioning of the Supply Chain. Also now running AI and ML models on this data with additional information such as weather at that location at that time, interruptions to Supply Chains can be forecasted, against which operators within those Supply Chains can be better prepared to address any exceptions that might arise. 

So now realizing all these opportunities, the organizations that are currently installing systems and infrastructure to house such a data repository need to include  these photographs and videos within their data architecture so that they can nicely leverage the opportunities available with such a system and also can integrate with the other systems in order to maximize this data culture-based approach.

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5

INTEGRATE WITH OTHER SYSTEMS  QUICKLY AND EASILY

The Photo Documentation System needs to be very easy to integrate into other Supply Chain Systems such as Warehouse Management System, Transportation Management System, Claims Management System etc. 

  • Integrate with your internal systems
  • Warehouse Management System
  • ​Transportation Management System
  • ​Deduction Management System
  • ​Freight Claims Management System
  • ​ERP system
  • ​Any other Supply Chain System
  • ​Any other Enterprise System
  • Already Integrated with Mercury Gate My EZ Claims, Freight Claims Management System
  • ​This enables pulling of photos into Mercury Gate from LoadProof such an easy task, photos are pulled in a few seconds
  • These photos tagged with GPS coordinates, date stamp, time stamp and user id that are executed in a systemic process are even more credible
  • Highly Secure 
  • All connections to the system are SSL enabled
  • Token based validation for all communication to the portal and the mobile app
  • Two types of integration available.
  • The first one is to build a tightly coupled integration using the API, this means you can login from the other system using the credentials provided, just pick and choose the photos needed and push a button, the photos are pulled into your system
  • The second integration involves lesser effort. Pick a field and use a custom place holder field in your system and concatenate a fixed string that we give you to the chosen meta data field and load that into the custom place holder field. That will always give you the link for the pictures that are needed, you can click that link from any system and view the photos

Old Way

  • There was no integration available
  • ​The only way to tie the photos together was to create a folder in the local network drive, then zip that folder with photos and then share that zipped folder in an email 
  • ​The other option was to manually send the photos in an email separately and have the recipient look at the photos from the email

New Way

  • The photos are integrated such that from any system you can click on a hyperlink that is tied to an entity such as a load or a shipment and have that link open a new browser window, where in all the pictures are presented for viewing   
  • ​Also, there is another tightly integrated option where in users from other systems can even download the photos into their own systems

Old Result

  • Plenty of time was wasted in just doing this work manually matching up the photos with the Supply Chain entities that are sitting in different systems
  • ​Plenty of time wasted in sending emails back and forth with the right photos and working the issues that come along with sending such emails back and forth. Some of them are emails getting stuck in other inboxes due to size restrictions, emails ending up in spam folders, trash folders etc.
  • ​​As the photos are being shared on an adhoc basis, parties are questioning the credibility of photo proofs that are presented and the real purpose of the photo proofs are not thoroughly accomplished.

New Result

  • All the time that is wasted on sending emails back and forth is saved
  • ​Everything is so easy and simple 
  • ​So much pain in avoided
  • ​​As the proof is getting submitted accurately through a systemic process, the information itself is much more credible and proves to be a much more reliable evidence for any claim that is being made. 
  • ​​Incidents such as bad entities coming in the way and manipulating the photo proofs are completely avoided as the photos themselves are locked records once the phot proofs are loaded into the system

SAAS in Cloud is much easier, faster and cost effective to implement and maintain than OnPremise Enterprise Applications 

This is an important decision that needs to be made, while deciding between SAAS and On-Premise option. Even though it seems like everyone is embracing SAAS, but still there are enterprises that are looking at this as a big step. Traditionally the large enterprises have always harbored their data within their IT infrastructure with all kinds of security that encompassed multiple layers of encryption, protection, masking etc., with multiple levels of approval processes and hierarchy-based authorizations etc. So, it is a big step to break away from that culture and getting into a SAAS approach. SAAS has several advantages over the traditional on-premise applications that are listed below 
  • Helps make budgeting simpler
  • Easy to configure and use
  • ​No huge upfront costs
  • ​​Predictable costs
  • ​Shortens the implementation time for projects
  • ​Highly scalable, with cloud you pay only for what you use, you can even automatically upgrade to next plan when you exhaust resources in current plan
  • ​Although limited, customization is comparatively inexpensive
  • ​​Upgrades are mostly included, not charged separately
  • ​SaaS can be deployed even without the involvement of the IT staff
  • ​Better integration with other systems
  • ​Automatic data backup
  • ​Enhanced data security, many providers use SSAE 16 (SAS 70) audit controls

SaaS vs. On-premises Comparison [1]

Cost

The entry cost of both single and multitenant SaaS is fairly low compared to on-premises solutions. But the year-over-year cost of SaaS is high and businesses might end up spending more in the long run. SaaS pricing models are flexible, while upgrade costs are also pretty low. SaaS minimizes the costs related to internal resources and IT support as the provider is responsible for most things. The entry and operations cost of on-premises solutions is high, but on-going maintenance costs are low. Businesses also need their own IT infrastructure and human resources to create a new environment and provide support. In-house solutions also come with higher up-gradation and maintenance costs. 

Implementation

Both single and multitenant SaaS solutions can be implemented in less time compared to in-house solutions. That’s because users can get started right away after signing up for a subscription. SaaS solutions leverage the existing platform that the vendor has already implemented, provisioned and tested. On-premises solutions, on the other hand, take time, human resources and money, while they also have to be upgraded manually, whether software or hardware.

Customization

Customization of multitenant SaaS solutions is usually not possible as a large number of users have to share the same application instance. However, customization of single tenant SaaS is fairly easy if the app allows it. Onpremises solutions offer more flexibility in this regard and allow enterprises to customize almost everything. Better customization also relates to more control over how the information is processed, stored and presented, which is not something most SaaS vendor provides details about.

Maintenance and Support

SaaS requires very little to no IT dependency for app maintenance and support, which is mostly limited to validation review and customization. 

Since the provider takes the responsibility to ensure availability, security and disaster recovery, businesses don’t have to worry about the IT stuff. However, businesses have to trust the service provider with processing valuable corporate data. 

As far as on-premises solutions are concerned, enterprises themselves are responsible for everything, including deployment and maintenance of the software. The internal IT staff also has to ensure availability, but in return, businesses get complete control over their data and a much better sense of ownership. 

Scalability

SaaS solutions can easily be scaled according to growing business needs, while they can also be scaled down to minimize wastage of resources. On-premises solutions require long-term planning for scaling and are often not the best solution for growing businesses as the IT staff has to constantly struggle in the upgrade loop. 

Upgrades

On-premises upgrades are often costly and time-consuming, while the IT staff own the responsibility to plan, deploy and validate upgrades. SaaS upgrades are easier, iterative and require little involvement of the internal IT staff.

Security and Regulatory Compliance

On-premises solutions require additional time and resources for high-level security. High-end SaaS providers offer top-notch security and take care of supervision of the servers and network. The providers provide baseline validation for user review and enforcing regulatory requirements is fairly straight forward. In the case of on-premises solutions, the internal IT staff is responsible for validation and enforcement of the regulatory requirements. But since they have complete control over the environment, enforcing regulatory requirements is comparatively easier.

Conclusion

SaaS has many advantages over on-premises solutions, including low upfront costs, scalability and little participation from the internal IT staff. However, the cloud-computing technology might not be the best option for businesses that want complete control over their information and plan on deeply customizing the software. In addition to large enterprises, SaaS also works well for small and medium businesses that do not have large sums of money to invest in IT infrastructure and IT staff for maintenance and support. SaaS allows them to scale as they grow and frees them from the worries of having to manage everything manually.

SAAS or On-Premise for your Enterprise Photo
Documentation System? 

If your core competence is shipping products, moving products and you need an operational system, a repository to hold all your photo proofs as part of your operations so you can run a lean and mean organization focusing on your operations, then it makes sense to go with a SAAS based Enterprise Photo Documentation System. On the other hand if your core competence is making these photos and selling these photos then this will not be a good fit, as your core competence is the expertise in making those phots, you should look at an exclusive system or you may develop a system that is done in house primarily for your requirements and only for yourself, so any secret sauce that you may have that gives you an edge over your competition in making the stellar photos, then you need to have that in house system of your built with all those capabilities that help you dominate your segment of the market. 

Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads, Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

6

PROCURE A TURNKEY SOLUTION FROM A ONE 
STOP SHOP VENDOR

The Enterprise Photo Documentation system needs to be turned on in days, instead of taking months to implement it. You need a turnkey solution that provides everything in a pre-integrated fashion, which means you don’t have to take the pain & integrate it yourself. 

  • Fully Loaded Devices shipped in 15 days
  • ​Turn on
  • ​Connect to WIFI 
  • ​Start capturing photos
  • System is deployed in days as opposed to months. Any facility can be operational in 15 days and stop flushing the dollars down the drain and start saving in 4 weeks.
  • ​Full Loaded, Locked Down Devices that are ready to go
  • ​Devices are pre-loaded with the LoadProof App
  • ​Tablets are pre-loaded with the Loadproof App and the Locked down browser. So, users can not only take pictures using the LoadProof app, they can also access the pictures through the browser app on the tablet and share them with anybody that needs the pictures without wasting time walking back and forth between their desks and the dock door
  • Temp users
  • Not allowed to download unauthorized apps
  • Not allowed to visit unauthorized websites
  • Rugged Devices suited for Warehouse Environments
  • Maintenance Support – Replacement devices shipped in 5 days if the device is damaged inadvertently
  • ​With the Tablet users don’t have to walk back and forth between the place where they are taking photos and to their desk, as the photos can be shared through the tablet from wherever they are, all the time spent on walking back and forth are saved
  • ​Time to start saving is 15 days, once the order is placed, warehouse personnel on the floor can start collecting photo proofs in 15 days, which means they can start defending claims

Old Way

  • Capture photos using Digital Camera, then walk to the computer copy and paste the photos from the digital camera, then an executive assistant or another clerical person takes up all the photos and manually stores them in a folder with some complicated nomenclature to make it easy for retrieval
  • ​Capture photos using a personal Smart Phone, then email those photos to your Inbox, then copy and paste those photos from the inbox to another folder, then a clerical person takes up all the photos and manually stores them in a folder with some complicated nomenclature to make it easy for retrieval

New Way

  • You place an order and wait for 15 days to receive the fully loaded and locked mobile devices
  • ​As soon as you receive them, just turn them on, connect them to your WIFI and then start taking photos 
  • ​​Once you start taking photos, you are starting to collect proof for all the loads you are shipping in very good quality
  • ​From that day onwards start pushing back on the retail chargebacks, rejected loads, damage claims, submit effective freight claims and enable better Supply Chain Visibility

Old Result

  • The process was very complicated, where in the IT personnel bought different devices and then integrated them together, which took months to get the simple process implemented 
  • ​Also this process was consuming lot more dollars because the IT team had to reinvent the wheel
  • ​​Also the IT team had a lot in their plate, so getting their attention & time took a lot of time

New Result

  • Start saving in 15 days, the quickest time to deployment of this capability in all your facilities
  • ​No need to waste IT’s time, money and effort
  • Above all huge savings are accomplished in the quickest possible time
  • ​​No that an Enterprise wide end to end system is in place, it is lot more easy to provide credible proof that are captured, retrieved and shared following a systemic process, the photo proofs are much more readily accepted 

Buying from a Vendor that specializes in this domain is better than building it yourself

Today, IT technology is one of the biggest enablers of supply chain efficiency. Organizations, then, are aware that finding or creating the right capabilities is central to business success. When enterprises contemplate implementing complicated IT infrastructure, whether it is hardware, software, systems or anything else associated with such infrastructure, they are faced with a major decision: whether to buy this thing from a vendor or build it themselves. It is important to make the  correct decision, or else you might be setting up yourself for a disaster. Let’s consider the options by weighing the pros and cons of each approach.

SaaS vs. On-premises Comparison [1]

This approach involves an IT team with the right skillset and expertise. A project manager, one that has a proven ability to deliver in this domain, would be a critical element well.

Pros

  • This approach, properly managed, could achieve results at a lower cost
  • ​The availability of open source allows for further cost reduction.
  • ​Integrations, if properly managed, could be done easily.

Cons

  • All best practices that the industry segment needs won’t be available in your solution.
  • ​A key employee leaving can present a major problem.
  • ​Sustaining continuous improvement is challenging.
  • ​Staying on top of industry trends is difficult
  • ​​Industry expertise that are built as best practices are not available in this option
  • ​Homegrown apps often lack adherence to solid industry grade security standards
  • ​​In this era of disruption, organizations will lack the nimbleness and agility to adapt to fast changing technology trends.
  • ​Home grown apps do not comply with government required compliance standards such as PCI, Sarbanes Oxley, HIPPA etc.

Buy it from an external vendor

Finding the right external option starts with clearly setting the mission and the priorities of the project and developing a clear understanding of the problem that needs to be solved. A formal project charter, which has been thoroughly reviewed by all stakeholders in business and IT, allows organizations to get beyond saying they need a new warehouse management system (WMS), logistics management system (LMS), or enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. 

Further, an internal pilot will also help clearly define the desired end state. Next, the organization would need to engage a number of vendors solutions against the desired solution, then select and implement that solution.

Pros

  • All the best practices are available in this solution
  • Organization is less dependent key internal employees.
  • Talent is available in the market to support the system over time.
  • ​External vendors have the ability to stay on top of industry trends.
  • ​Even though you might build customizations, the vendor will continue moving the capabilities of the product forward.
  • ​Solid support options available in case of a crisis.
  • ​Adoption of new technologies, such as cloud, becomes easier.

Customization

  • All the best practices are available in this solution
  • Organization is less dependent key internal employees.
  • Talent is available in the market to support the system over time.
  • ​External vendors have the ability to stay on top of industry trends.
  • ​Even though you might build customizations, the vendor will continue moving the capabilities of the product forward.
  • ​Solid support options available in case of a crisis.
  • ​Adoption of new technologies, such as cloud, becomes easier.
The answer seems clear: We’ve hit a stage of technology where, most often, buying a solution is the right answer. Of course, there may be a moment when you need something out of the ordinary, or you need to keep it top secret and proprietary so making it yourself would appeal. Go ahead and name it if that’s the approach that is going to change the game and catapult you to a leadership position.

Start Saving in Chargebacks, Damaged & Rejected Loads, Freight Claims & Visibility, Today, for a Very Low Price

COST SAVINGS ANALYSIS FOR AN ENTERPRISE WITH PHOTO DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM

Assumptions/Key Decisions

  • Include time spent on activities – before and after – provide breakup for that 90 hours
  • ​The Enterprise’s Supply Chain has 5 facilities and all 5 are shipping loads daily
  • ​​Each facility ships 600 loads per month
  • ​Each Load is worth $10,000 
  • ​Fully loaded hourly rates of employees doing this work is $30 per hour

Savings due to implementing a Centralized Enterprise Class Documentation System for 
Photos & Videos for 10 facilities

# of Hours saved per facility per week
The following are the reasons for the time savings

  • Less time is spent on capturing photos
  • ​No time is spent on organizing and storing photos
  • ​​Less time is spent on retrieving photos
  • ​Less time is spent on sharing photos

90

# of Facilities 

5

Hourly rate of employees that manage these Photos 

$30

Total Savings in a year per facility

90 X $30 X 54 = $145,800

Total Savings across 5 facilities per Year

$145,800 X 5 = $729,000

Total Savings per Year within the entire Supply Chain Network 

$729,000

Savings due to Reduced Retail Chargebacks

Average # of Shipments in a month

600

# of Facilities in supply chain network

5

Average value of a shipment

$10000

Average value of all shipments in one facility in one year

$10000 x 600 x 12 = $72,000,000

Average $ lost (0.5% damages) due to retail chargebacks

$360,000

Average value of all shipments in one year within the Supply Chain Network across 5 sites

$72,000,000 x 5 = $360,000,000

Average $ lost due to rejected and damages claims submitted by customers (0.5% of Total)

$1,800,000

With LoadProof that dollars lost is reduced to 20%, hence the savings are 80%

The following are the reasons for the savings:

  • When there is an automatic deduction from the retailer, the Accounts Receivable (AR) Clerk is able to take photos from the system generate a PDF and is able to submit the PDF into the Retailer’s vendor portal 
  • By doing this the AR clerk is able to prove that the warehouse shipping team did a great job and also make her point that hey we did our job right and we have proof for that too, so it is not fair for us to pay for these chargebacks 
  • ​Also, the AR clerk is not spending hours and hours in collecting these photos rather is able to pull the photos from the System pretty fast 
  • ​Same way, the warehouse personnel are not spending hours and hours to collect these photos from different smart phones, different digital cameras, multiple folders etc., everything is retrieved from the centralized system in a superfast fashion resulting in all these gains 

$1,440,200

Savings due to Reduced Damage claims submitted by customers

Average # of Shipments in a month 

600

# of Facilities in supply chain network

5

Average value of a shipment

$10000

Average value of all shipments in one facility in one year

$10,000 x 600 x 12 = $72,000,000

Average $ lost (0.5% damages) due to damages claims submitted by customers in one year in one site

  • Customers submit a damage claim when the product arrives damaged at their facility
  • Now with the Enterprise Photo Documentation System, the Warehouse Manager is able to push back and say, hey this damage claim is not valid, as we have photos to prove that we shipped the product intact. 
  • ​​Also, the warehouse manager is sharing these photos with the recipient, hence he is able to deny that damage claim, saying that his team shipped the product perfectly, so it is not fair for him to pay for these damages 
  • Before the warehouse manager would say, hey sorry you know what you are a very important customer, we will just replace the damaged products for free 

$3,600,000

Average value of all shipments in one year within the Supply Chain Network across 5 sites

$72,000,000 x 5 = $360,000,000

Average $ lost due to rejected and damages claims submitted by customers (0.5% of Total)

$1,800,000

With LoadProof that dollars lost is reduced to 20%, hence the savings are 80%

$1,440,000

The dollars lost due to rejected loads and damage claims submitted by customers results in $1,800,000.
With LoadProof, that is reduced by 80%. Hence the savings are 80%.

Industry Numbers: The damage claims vary around 2% as per Industry standards. Here we are using 0.5% which results in savings of $1,440,000

Savings due to Reduced Damage claims submitted by customers

Average # of shipments in one facility in one year => 600 shipments per month x 12 months

7200

# of Facilities 

5

Average # of shipments within the supply chain network in one year across 5 sites 

36,000

Hourly rate of employees that manage these Photos

$30

Estimated # of shipments (2% of total shipments) that results in Freight claims within the supply chain network 

360

Hours saved with faster processing of freight claims within supply chain network (12 hours saved per freight claim)
Because now that the photos are readily available from the Enterprise Photo Documentation System, users are spending less hours, 12 hours less per load with a freight claim, all those hours that are not spent results in  savings. 

360 x 12 = 4,320

Total dollars saved = 4,320 X $ 30/hour 

$129,600

Total Savings/Year within entire Supply Chain Network due to faster Freight Claims Process

$129,600

The total savings with faster processing of Freight claims results in $129,600
Industry Numbers: Average number of Freight claims issued for Outbound shipments is approximately 2% of the number of shipments.

For this example, it is around 2% which results in a savings of $129,600 with faster processing of Freight claims

Quality Audit after Inbound Receipts – Direct Hard Savings

Average # of Shipments in a month 

600

# of Facilities in supply chain network

5

Total # of shipments in one month across the 10 sites

600 X 5 = 3000

Total # of shipments in 1 year across 10 sites 

3000 X 12 = 36,000

Average # of issues identified in Quality Audits = 2% of total shipments

0.02 X 36,000 = 720

Total hours spent in resolving those issues identified in quality audits – 10 hours per unit

720 X 10 = 7200 hours 

Total $ spent in the labor in resolving the issues identified in quality audits @ $30 / hour

7200 X $30 = $216,000

As the Quality issues are documented using Photos vendors understand the problems better and resolve them quickly resulting in reduced time spent on clarifying quality issues. This time of spending 10 hours per unit is reduced to 2 hours per unit, so the 8 hours are saved per unit.

Total Hours spent in resolving the issues identified in Quality audits using LoadProof 

720 X 2 = 1440

Total $ spent for in the labor in resolving the issues identified in quality audits @ $40/hour 

1440 X $30 = $43,200 

Savings = $216,000 - $43,200 

$172,800

Savings due to Reduced Rejected Loads

Average # of Loads in a month

600

# of Facilities in supply chain network

5

Average value of a Load

$10,000

Total Loads in 1 facility in 1 year

600 X 12 = 7200

Total loads in 1 year across the entire Supply Chain Network

7200 X 5 = 36,000

Average Number of Rejected loads is 0.5% across the entire network

0.05% of 72,000 = 360

$ Lost with Load Value in rejected Loads

360 X 10,000 = $3,600,000

With LoadProof 80% of $ lost in rejected loads is saved for the reasons below

  • Now with the Enterprise Photo Documentation System, the Warehouse Manager is able to push back and say, hey this rejection is not valid, as we have photos to prove that we shipped the product intact. 
  • Also, the warehouse manager is sharing these photos with the recipient, hence he is able to deny that rejected load, saying that his team shipped the product perfectly, so it is not fair for him to pay for these rejected loads 
  • Before the warehouse manager would say, hey sorry you know what you are a very important customer, we will just replace the damaged products for free 
  • Also, now that the loaders are taking photos, the other personnel in the warehouse are doing a better job packing and loading the products, including applying any load bars, covering product with blankets, as well as using any air pillows to prevent the product from tipping over resulting in damages 

All these add up resulting in these dollars saved

360 X 10,000 = $3,600,000

Additional Labor to fix Rejected loads

8 hours per load

Total Hours spent on rejected loads 

360 X 8 = 2880 

$ lost in labor with rejected loads (average labor rate = $30 per hour)

2880 X 30 = $86,400

Additional transportation cost/rejected shipment 

$800

Total $ of additional transportation cost

$800 X 360 = $288,000

Additional $ lost with rejected loads

$288

Total savings with additional transportation due to rejected loads

$266,400 (80% of $330,000)

Total savings with rejected loads = Savings from Reduced Rejected Loads + Labor Spent on Fixing rejected Loads + Dollars spent on hauling the load back and shipping the load again

$2,880,000+ $86,400 +
$266,400 = $3,232,800

Total Savings due to reduced rejected loads 

$3,232,800

Savings due to Reduced Rejected Loads

SL#

Dollars Lost on Various Activities Before & After Deploying Enterprise Photo  Documentation System

Before Deploying Enterprise
Photo Documentation System

After Deploying Enterprise Photo Documentation System

Savings

1

Manual Work done on
• Capturing & Uploading Photos,
• Retrieving Photos and
• Sharing Photos 

120 hours spent per week per facility
120 X 54 X $30 X 5 = $972,000

30 hours spent per week per facility
30 X 54 X 3$0 X 5 = $243,000

90 hours saved per week for 54 weeks for 5 facilities
90 X 54 X $30 X 5 = $729,000

2

Retail Charge backs issued by Retailers

$1,800,000

$359,800

$1,440,200

3

Damage Claims submitted by customers

$1,800,000

$359,800

$1,440,200

4

Manual Work done on submitting Freight Claims

72 hours spent per week per facility
72 X 54 X $30 X 5 = $583,200

56 hours spent per week per facility
56 X 54 X $30 X 5 = $453,600

16 hours saved per week for 54 weeks for 5 facilities
16 X 54 X $30 X 5 = $129,600

5

Quality Audit after Inbound Receipts

$216,000

$43,200