Three generations of brass, and the last spreadsheet retired

Meet the people behind Bhandari Brass Works

• Suresh BhandariManaging partner, second generation
• Ritika BhandariHis daughter, joined after her engineering degree
• Gopal SinghFloor supervisor for twenty-two years

What was going wrong

The workarounds that got them this far

1. The stock spreadsheet

   Three versions on three computers, and the loading bay trusted none of them.

2. An off-the-shelf accounting package

   Good for tax, but stock, purchasing and payroll lived elsewhere.

3. A new clerk to type up orders

   Helped, but moved the problem rather than removing it.

Bhandari Brass Works on Intersink

Ritika creates her User ID, adds the firm as a business and gives her father and Gopal roles of their own. The factory channel comes first, with stock. Purchasing, the trade desk and the office channel follow over the next few months. The Wholesale app, currently in beta, is one they may add later for distributor price lists.

The apps in this story

A day in their life, some months in

1. 7:30

   Gopal checks the stock screen on the floor tablet. Brass rod has dropped below its reorder point, so he raises a purchase request from the alert.

2. 9:00

   Suresh approves the purchase order from his phone. The supplier gets it as a PDF.

3. 11:00

   A distributor calls with an order. Ritika logs it against their record in the CRM while they are on the line.

4. 14:00

   Goods arrive at the bay. The receipt note is matched against the order and the supplier’s bill.

5. 16:00

   The polishing machine is due for its service next week. The reminder came from the asset register.

6. 18:00

   A distributor asks what is outstanding. Ritika checks the ageing report in Accounting and replies before leaving.

What is different now

In plain words, because this is an illustrative story and there are no real measurements behind it.

What it would cost each month

What others could take from this

1. Fix the number everyone argues about first

   For the Bhandaris that was stock. Everything else leaned on it.

2. Bring the veterans in early

   Gopal helped set the reorder points. He knew them better than any spreadsheet.

3. Move one spreadsheet at a time

   Each one retired only when its replacement had run for a month.

Making things, and tired of the stock spreadsheet?