Short delivery times, unique specifications, strict environment- and certification requirements: customers are asking more and more of ordered truck bodyworks. The fact that Dutch manufacturers are able to find a smart and sustainable solution for nearly every transport problem is seen at Goes-based Smartbox. This producer of lightweight truck boxes consists of about 20 employees and is rapidly taking over the European transport world.
Smatbox is constantly looking for new ways to offer their customers the highest payload with the most compact solution. The low weight and smart construction method of the boxes allows trucks to transport more cargo and at the same time consume much less fuel. As a result, they emit less CO2.
The Smartbox is available in diverse versions for different purposes. “We offer different variants of our products, for example in front wheel and rear wheel driven trailers. In addition, each car brand has different construction guidelines and different frames. Finally, Smartbox offers many more different options: varying heights, widths, placement of side doors, the possibilities are countless”, Robert-Paul Frenken (Design Engineer at SmartBox) explains.
The incredible amount of variants and options causes both dealers and salespeople to never be able to create the optimal composition for an order. The range of composition is simply too large. Previously were taken manually, through an order form. “The order form was never practical. A writing error could slip in too easily, resulting in long contact between us and the dealer and creating ambiguity.
The product configurator takes away this ambiguity and dealers can directly look up prices when creating an invoice, allowing them to fill it in together with the customer. Making revisions a thing of the past.” Elfsquad has turned out to be the tool to eliminate the bottlenecks mentioned above. Without error, and always filled in optimally suiting the customer’s needs.
By integrating Exact Online, the ERP system used by Smartbox, with Elfsquad, a tight workflow between Smartbox and their dealers arises: “The complete product is configured within Elfsquad. The dealer configures all of the options within Elfsquad, with the end customer. It is nearly impossible to make mistakes during this process, as Guided Selling creates clarity for dealers.
Thereafter, the full bill of materials of the subassemblies is fed back from Elfsquad to Exact Online. After which we can move on to the production phase.” This way Exact Online & Elfsquad enable a lot of optimization within the pre-production process. The benefits? A 0% margin of error in production orders and a good grip on production monitoring.
Do you, like Smartbox, want a tight production flow with a 0% margin of error and maximum grip? Request an online demo!
