Purchasing refurbished gear makes sense both for individuals and for many businesses.
Many small businesses save money by purchasing refurbished technology, from IT hardware to medical imaging equipment. But today’s B2B and B2C consumers are demanding and won’t put up with refurbished equipment that isn’t completely up to scratch.
Today, there are businesses that are dedicated to refurbishing products and selling them to businesses and consumers, and to succeed, they must have rock-solid refurbishing processes that are absolutely consistent and produce products that satisfy. Consistent, high-quality refurbishment requires repeatable, documented processes that can be done efficiently, and automated workflows make it happen. Here are some of the advantages automated workflows offer for refurbishing businesses.
Marginal Gains Add Up Over a Year
In the world of automotive refurbishing, dealers make an astounding $50 for every dollar spent to automate reconditioning operations. The ROI comes from lower costs, gross improvement, and increased inventory turn rates. When workflow software is used to create workflows that structure, measure, and monitor every step in the reconditioning process, reconditioning is faster, smoother, less error-prone, and more profitable.
Simply using automated workflows to shave small amounts of time off the reconditioning cycle can add up significantly over the course of a year. In the used automotive industry with an average sale gross of $1,500 per car on a 100-car volume lot can gain two extra inventory turns per year through reconditioning automation, adding an additional $300,000 gross over a year’s time!
No Missed Steps, Fewer Errors
Some companies help combat the problem of electronic waste by refurbishing electronics and selling them to consumers. Many of the “raw materials” come from corporations that donate their used tech equipment rather than disposing of it. With IT equipment, it’s absolutely essential that all old data be wiped from storage devices, and that every piece of refurbished equipment undergo rigorous testing to ensure that it works properly before it is sold.
Automated workflows are perfect for this type of application. A prescribed series of steps ensures that no steps are missed, because workflows can be designed to halt when someone tries to advance before completing a prerequisite step. Moreover, certain steps can be designed to require approval before moving forward, further ensuring consistency and quality in the finished product.
Process Documentation Can Prove Invaluable
Whether a business reconditions cars, IT equipment, or x-ray machines, automated workflows do something that is difficult to do otherwise, and that is create complete documentation of every reconditioning project. With automated workflows, completed steps can be time-stamped, and various workflow steps can be traced back to individual, authorized workflow users. That way, if there is a problem, documentation exists that can help trace the problem to its origin, so it can be corrected.
Moreover, business and individual consumers can be confident that their reconditioned equipment has undergone a thorough, closely-monitored process, because they can be presented with a workflow report indicating every step that was taken during refurbishing.
Refurbished and reconditioned gear is an increasingly strong business sector, with individuals and businesses looking to save money and working toward more sustainable resources. The companies that are able to profit from selling refurbished equipment are the ones with strong workflows that ensure consistent quality.
PerfectApps is workflow software that can be used in any industry to create customized, automated workflows without the need for programming. Workflow steps can include extras like automatic notifications of relevant parties, immediate forwarding of completed steps to approving authorities for oversight, and automated collection of time-stamp, user, and other information to create reports and audit trails with a minimum of effort.
PerfectApps invites you to read through some of our many case studies to see how flexible and powerful this workflow software is. For businesses of all sizes, and in all industries, PerfectApps is the ideal partner to ensuring workflows are perfectly customized, thorough, and documented at every step.
