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Autumn 2007
Inventory system that tracks stock in transit
A stock management system that takes account of stock that is on board delivery vehicles has been unveiled by ByBox, the overnight parts delivery specialist. The appropriate name for the system is Vanventory. ByBox specialises in delivering spare parts to field staff via unattended box banks and drop boxes, and already offers a system called Thinventory, which takes account of stock that is waiting for collection in the boxes, and can reallocate it if necessary. Vanventory takes this approach a stage further by monitoring stock in transit. Central to the system is a mobile computing infrastructure, which is built round the handheld computers carried by mobile engineers using the system. These teams also carry GPS satellite tracking, a digital camera, omni-directional barcode scanning, a colour touch screen, GPRS wireless communications and Wi-Fi. New stock is scanned into the system when collected from the ByBox drop box network, and stock is scanned out when it is removed from the van and allocated to an engineer. There is also a function for reserving a part from mobile stock to prevent it being booked out on another job - a feature said to be proving particularly useful in emergencies. 
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