Case studies

24 case studies, grouped by problem category.

Conceptual illustration. The case is real; company details are disguised.

Inventory & Purchasing

When Stock Accuracy Depends on One Person
The stock numbers were available, but explaining how they changed meant searching from one date's worksheet to the next.
Limited Stock: Who Gets Less, and How Much Demand Goes Unmet?
When supply runs short, allocating stock leaves customers with fewer items, while the quantity they originally ordered leaves no record.
The System Predicts Demand, So Purchasing Is Planned Sooner
A purchase request has to be prepared for the next day while customer orders are still coming in and the quantities needed are still changing.
Requesting Stock from Purchasing over WhatsApp: Sent, but Not Trackable
The Depo admin has already sent the stock request over WhatsApp, but still has to remind Purchasing and find out whether the goods have been ordered or are still awaited.
Stock Goes Down: Normal Shrinkage or Loss Worth Tracing?
Depo heads adjust stock quantities because goods are damaged, discarded, or differ from the count, but the reason for each change does not yet become a record that can be reviewed together.

When App Costs Eat Into the Sales They Support
Sales through the app were falling, yet the server bills kept arriving and checking orders still took manual work every day.
A Third of Your Sales May Be Priced Wrong
Tomatoes that must be sorted one by one can still sell like ordinary tomatoes, because the extra work never shows up in the records.
Sales Can Cross-Subsidize, and the System Protects the Margin
Negotiated prices were already being used to ship goods, while their gap against cost was only traced after the transaction had run.
The Purchase Price Was Agreed. Why Was It Still Bought at a Higher Price?
Supplier quotes were compared every week, yet the agreed price still sat in a separate spreadsheet when the team recorded a purchase.
Make It In-House or Buy It Ready-Made? Start by Working Out the Cost of the Bundle
When an order for vegetable bundles changes, the requirement for every ingredient has to be recalculated before production can start.

Sales Grow, and the Admin Team Is Not Overwhelmed
Orders keep arriving from the app and the marketplace, but before any goods are prepared, the sales data still has to be downloaded and uploaded again into the operations system.

Production Data Was Recorded in Full Every Day, Yet It Produced Nothing
After weighing an item, the QC officer still had to walk to the board, find the right order line, and write the weight down with a pen before moving on to the next task.
Production Errors Happen, So Why Does the Boss Always Bear Them?
The complaint recap had reached the depo, but the production records still could not say when an order was prepared or how a shortfall came about.
Item Missing From the Basket: Why Does the Customer Find Out First?
The item list is printed, yet order changes still arrive while the customer's basket is being prepared for the morning delivery.
Delivery Notes and PO Attachments Printed in a Single Route Sequence
Route changes meant taking apart stacks of delivery notes again to match attachments and rearrange them in delivery order.
Has the Delivery Arrived? The Answer Still Has to Be Found in a WhatsApp Group
The goods have left, but news of arrival, receipt, and delivery problems is still scattered across WhatsApp group chats.
The Driver App Keeps Failing: Should Every Phone Be Replaced?
The old delivery app does not always run well on drivers' phones because of differences in specifications and Android versions.

The Surat Jalan Has Not Come Back, and Billing Waits
The delivery is done, but the returned Surat Jalan (the delivery note) still has to be tracked down before billing can be processed.
An Invoice Held Up Overnight by One Excel Upload
Sales data was complete by the afternoon, yet invoice creation still waited for an Excel upload the next morning.
“How Much Are We Owed?” Why Recalculate Every Time?
Sales were recorded and customer transfers had arrived, yet finding the outstanding receivables still meant gathering both sets of records and calculating the balance again.
Overdue Customers Could Still Order, Until the System Said No
Old invoices were overdue, yet new orders were still accepted and delivered because collections had not been connected to the decision to fulfil the next order.

Seeing Operational Problems Before Anyone Reports Them
Receiving, production, packing, and delivery were already moving, but their progress only became visible in the group when manual reports arrived.
Customer Complaints Are Recorded. Why Are Their Causes Still Hard to Trace?
Product complaints arrive in a WhatsApp group and are copied into follow-up records; when the cause needs investigating, the conversations and checklists are opened again.

An Employee Benefit Built from Products You Already Sell Every Day
Vegetables and fruit were already sold every day; the same goods became an employee shopping benefit through accounts offering employee prices and a Pay Later option.