Family business at heart
We were very curious about how Loods A27 ended up with vPlan and, of course, how they use vPlan. So, the marketing team got in the car and left for Eemnes. Once we arrived at our destination, we were soon greeted by Birgitte Beekhuis, responsible for after-sales and marketing.
Birgitte talks about the business, a real family business, which she runs with her parents and other family members. "In 2016, we started Loods A27. I have been working here for a year and a half now. My father Arend is responsible for flooring sales and my mother is an interior stylist. My brother Gert-Jan is a furniture maker and parquet installer. Together with seven other colleagues, we strive to make every customer's house a home."
Challenges within the planning
Due to the considerable growth within the organisation, they received more and more orders. "We were working with an Outlook calendar; there was no longer an overview of who was going to deliver what and when. When orders shifted, chaos ensued. Questions such as: Should we arrange external parquet workers for next month? Are the hours sold consistent with the hours worked? How many materials and resources were used? But these questions often went unanswered. There was a need for a planning tool, but the options we considered were often too small: you either had planning, or time registration. Or right away the whole package including invoicing, but we do that in Snelstart, so I wasn't looking for that either."
Planning software that works with Snelstart
Birgitte continues: "So we were looking for a planning tool that integrates with Snelstart. We wanted to be able to easily and flexibly schedule orders from Snelstart to the right floor layer or delivery person. When orders shift, this should be easily resolved. In addition, we wanted employees to be able to view and complete work orders on the go and record their hours on them."
How Loods A27 successfully plans with vPlan
Birgitte explains how they use vPlan. "We create quotations and sales orders in Snelstart, all the customer data is put in there. As soon as the quotation is approved, the order automatically enters the vPlan backlog as a ticket. Within vPlan, we add additional information to the order such as floor plans, square metres and details. We then schedule the order based on available capacity. Within the timeline, I can see at a glance who still has space in the planning within which week."
"Flexibly shifting schedules when changes occur"
Birgitte is especially happy that, thanks to vPlan, they can now look further ahead. "You can't plan the laying of floors exactly ahead, but it's good to have an insight into what's coming up. During construction, we are last in line. We depend on the weather and construction progress. Therefore, up to two weeks in advance, planning is not final. Orders do get scheduled, but should the job be delayed, we can easily shift with vPlan."
Planning always in the right order
Planning does not start when the floors are delivered, Birgitte explains: "Prior to laying a floor, things need to be done. I record these various 'activities' within the order. I then plan the ticket in the planning board and separate tickets are created for each activity. This way, I can easily plan the activities at different times. When I move one ticket of an order, the whole batch then moves with it, which is ideal. By making the various activities dependent on each other within vPlan, everything is always done in the right order. This often went wrong in the past. For example, the floor layer had already driven to the site, but it turned out that the preparation had not yet taken place. Now we no longer have to worry about this."
Digital work orders on the way
The floor layers are also very happy with vPlan: "The guys on the road know exactly what needs to be done when. Everyone has an iPad with vPlan on it. They have all the necessary information to hand and complete orders. Hours are recorded, statuses are changed and work orders are signed off digitally. It couldn't be simpler, and it looks a lot more professional than a crumpled piece of paper with a scribble on it," Birgitte explains.
"Much more professional than signing off on a paper worksheet"
"Improved communication both internally and with the customer"
Birgitte is particularly pleased with the improved communication. "Everything is logged, so we know among ourselves exactly who did what, but we can also feed this back to the customer. When there is additional work or use of extra materials, this is recorded by the delivery driver in the vPlan ticket. So we in the office know exactly what extra needs to be invoiced with the order. Are there any details? Then it is immediately communicated to the office via the app. Photos are also always taken so we can see exactly what the end result is."
"Thanks to vPlan, we have insight into the available capacity and can tell customers their expected delivery time right away."
Communication to customers has also improved, says Birgitte: "Customers are automatically informed by e-mail about the progress of their order. These emails are sent automatically after a ticket's status changes in vPlan. We have linked vPlan with our mailing programme, Omnisend, via Zapier. This keeps customers automatically informed about delivery or installation."
Birgitte, thanks for the nice visit and your story!
