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Phi-Lean.ai – True Lean software automation

Industrial subcontractor

Customer orders entered without re-keying, and “where is my order?” answered within the hour

Purchase orders arrive as PDFs, sales administration re-keys them into the ERP, then spends part of the day answering customers asking where their order is. Two flows, two wastes, one remedy.

Target

< 1 h

target reply time to a status request

The scenario

A 60-person machining subcontractor with 150 active customers.

The flow, end to end

This use case, laid out on the Phi-Core architecture.

  1. What triggers it

    • Inbox & messagingPurchase order received by e-mail
    • Inbox & messagingA customer asking about an order

  2. The agents at work

    Phi-Core
    • Document ReadingReads invoices, orders, PDFs and photos, and extracts the useful data.
    • TriageSorts, prioritises and spots urgency, by your rules.
    • DraftingWrites replies, quotes and reminders, in your tone and your house style.

  3. You validate

    The sales assistant approves each pre-entered order in one click; discrepancies are spelled out for her.

  4. What comes out

    • Systems kept up to dateOrder pre-entered in the ERP
    • Drafts ready to sendAcknowledgement with the confirmed date
    • Drafts ready to sendReply to the customer with the real status of the order
    • Smart alertsPrice, part-number or lead-time discrepancy flagged

Today

  • Every purchase order is re-keyed line by line, with part-number errors.
  • Price or lead-time discrepancies are found at invoicing.
  • A good share of incoming calls and e-mails are status requests.
  • The assistant looks for the information in the ERP, then on the shop floor.

With Phi-Core

  1. A customer sends a purchase order as a PDF.
  2. The reading agent extracts the customer, part numbers, quantities, prices and requested date.
  3. Phi-Core checks them against the price list and standard lead time, and flags any discrepancy.
  4. The order is pre-entered in the ERP; the assistant approves it in one click and the acknowledgement goes out with the confirmed date.
  5. When a customer writes “where is my order 4512?”, the triage agent recognises the question and the number.
  6. Phi-Core reads the status in the ERP and prepares the reply, which the assistant approves or completes.

What we look at first

Before plugging anything in, we spend time with the people who do this work. That is where most of the value lies: a well-understood flow automates simply; a poorly understood one automates badly, whatever the tool.

  • The order formats of the main customers, and the part numbers that cause trouble.
  • The real standard lead time by part family.
  • Where status information lives, and whether the ERP really keeps it up to date.

What changes

  • No more re-keying, and fewer part-number errors.
  • Discrepancies handled at order entry, not at invoicing.
  • Customers informed within the hour.
  • Time given back to sales administration to look after accounts.

Plugged into your tools

The sales administration mailbox, an ERP that accepts automated exchanges (API or file import), the customer price list.

Safeguards

  • Nothing enters the ERP without approval.
  • If the status shown by the ERP is unreliable, that gets fixed first: the flow diagnostic tells us.
The Lean principle behind this caseThe method: Systems ThinkingThe system makes the performanceRead on phi-lean.com

Does your flow look like this one?

Describe it in a few lines: we will tell you where we would start, and what we would look at first.

Talk about my flow

Typical scenario, built to illustrate Phi-Core; it is not a client reference. The targets shown are design goals: yours are set during the diagnostic, from your real flow.

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