Torque - Information & Technology, Collaborative Purchase Order Management

Information Technology
Collaborative Purchase Order Management

Eyes on the ball from the start

Many basic freight-tracking systems provide visibility from the moment goods are loaded onto a ship, aeroplane or truck. At Torque we recognise that many customers want more assistance further upstream in the supply chain, working directly with the factories that manufacture the goods.

Our Internet based purchase order management system allows your staff to work collaboratively with your suppliers including us and our overseas partners. An initial draft purchase order can be created and then expanded and updated continuously by all authorised parties from creation through to shipping. Access can be given based on the rules you wish to use.

Individual purchase order quantities may change according to trading performance. Orders may need to be broken down into air and sea shipments multiple times to ensure faster arrival. Our system allows this to safely occur with a full audit trail so that both you and your suppliers have confidence in the change process.

You can upload other information to your suppliers such as barcode or label requirements. They can signal despatch of gold-seal type inspection samples. The supplier can confirm when quantities are able to be shipped and you can authorise shipment online according to your business needs. The supplier can then make a freight booking online and subsequently load confirmed packing

note quantity information, particularly for industries such as fashion where agreed tolerances allow additional quantities to be shipped. This information then flows through to the warehouse as an advance shipment notification document so that warehouse personnel can be sure of what they are checking.

By giving all parties full visibility of the process, you can monitor orders not yet shipped or early orders and so enforce supplier and freight compliance, thereby detecting potential problems in time to take corrective action.

Fashion industry requirements are specifically covered with the ability to add exact SKU breakdown and quantities at a date much later than the initial style order. The system is also designed to handle colour, size and style matrix breakdowns, seasonal indicators and pre-retail processing instructions for the warehouse.

In addition to easy to use Internet tracking screens, exception based and standard reports can be automatically sent to your staff or business partners prompting appropriate action to ensure milestones are successfully achieved in the supply chain process.

Written instructions are also sent between the parties using the system, replicated by identical external e-mails. This way, all correspondence relating to a particular order can be accessed in one place.