Gamestec Leisure, a leading operator of gaming and amusement technology with around 40,000 machines installed in outlets throughout the country, has implemented a new parts supply system to ensure they keep working.
The company recently signed a contract with ByBox Ltd, a major force in the overnight distribution of parts and equipment, to collect service engineer orders from its 10 UK locations and those of suppliers, and deliver them through the night into the ByBox box-bank network ready for collection by the engineers from 8.00am the next day.
Signed after a pilot project run during August proved successful, and including progressive roll-out to Gamestec's 200 plus mobile engineers in the coming months, the contract is said to be valued at around £280,000 per year.
ByBox is well known for solving complex supply chain problems and the development of bespoke services that assist the distribution of parts and equipment to mobile engineers using its unique 18,000-strong box-bank network situated at over 1,200 locations around the UK.
Following a review of Gamestec's requirements as part of their wider investment to enhance their infrastructure and operational processes, the two companies devised a new system that would make it simpler and better for Gamestec's customers, by getting parts to engineers more efficiently, helping them to become more productive, and reducing the distance they have to travel to collect the essential and emergency parts they need to fulfil customer contract service agreements.
Using its iBox network and the BlackStripe returns facility, ByBox collects parts ordered by engineers from Gamestec and its suppliers and makes two replenishment deliveries a week to each Gamestec engineer throughout the country, returning unwanted, unused or replaced parts as part of the same process.
A second service collects and delivers urgent parts overnight for 8.00am next day collection five days a week from a box selected by the engineer based on its proximity to him or the customer's premises.
Key to service delivery is the new generation of iBoxes introduced this year, which are not only modular so they can be easily configured in a variety of different sizes to meet different customer needs, but also include an embedded RFID capability that provides a real-time audit of all parts passing through their doors.
For Gamestec, this effectively turns the ByBox network into a virtual warehouse in which they can see every item during every stage of its journey throughout the supply chain.
At the cutting edge of entertainment in the UK, Gamestec will also benefit from using BlackStripe, a simple but ingenious returns service that enables the engineer to attach a black stripe with a two-dimensional bar code to an order's original delivery label and place it in an iBox for collection by ByBox. The black stripe tells ByBox's scanning system the part is a return and then route it back to its point of origin using the outbound tracking number on the original label.
Commenting on the new contract, which strengthens ByBox' involvement in the leisure sector, Chief Executive Stuart Miller said: "We are delighted to welcome Gamestec to the network and believe our system will soon be delivering benefits that include better flexibility, improved accuracy and cost savings.
"We have expanded the network this year and introduced several new supply chain services that together make this system even more attractive and adaptable to a wide range of industry sectors.
"We are committed to working with each customer as an individual and to developing new ways that help them work smarter. As a result, and although we often work for several companies within the same industry, every solution is different.
"This key feature of our philosophy underpins everything we do and, alongside working relentlessly until we find a solution to every problem, is one of the main reasons Gamestec chose ByBox when it was looking for a better and more practical way to keep its mobile engineers supplied with parts," he adds.