The First stores opened in London 1964. Habitat celebrated its 40th birthday on 11 May

2004.  Habitat currently operates 76 stores; 42 stores in the UK and the rest in other European countries.  The Habitat collection includes over 3500 products in amost 100 different product typologies of both furniture and home accessories.  Over 1m copied of the Habitat catalogue are printed each year in 13 versions and in 7 different languages.

Habitat's business depends on staying ahead of trends and constantly offering their customers new ideas and new design-led products. With 42 UK stores that are run to embrace rapid merchandising changes and new product arrivals and departures, stock taking becomes a mission critical process. Stock tracking, loss assessment and distribution have to work in synergy to deliver to the requirements of today's customer demands. Habitat therefore looked to find a new system that could keep pace.  The Habitat Loss Prevention Department had assessed the current stock taking methods and had identified areas that required a more accurate system. Significantly, stock was being lost through a lack of accurate data collection, this was then compounded by the slow speed at which discrepancies were detected and followed up. A store-level system that was linked into Habitat's distribution centres was therefore sought which could collect data at high speed, and transfer it into useable business information, so that any discrepancies could be dealt with in real-time. Habitat selected a system that utilised the latest handheld technology from lntermec. The system itself was supplied through lntermec channel partner Portech Systems.  Habitat purchased 80 Intermec M90 handheld computers, which are housed in camera-type cases and are used throughout their 42 stores in the UK. Each store has a PC with Portech software running a link to the main SAP system. The PC also has a communications cradle attached to it for swift and easy data transfer between the M90 and the PC.  The Intermec M90 is a fully functional handheld computer that packs a powerful processor and fits comfortably in the hand. Weighing just 245 grams, the M90 is extremely lightweight, making it suitable for repeated in-store use, but it is also rugged enough to withstand daily use in hardwearing retail environments. The solution makes stocktaking, price checking, goods in/out and order picking to name but a few easier than ever before. In addition, because speed is of the essence for Habitat, up to 4 Applications can run at any one time on the handheld terminal allowing multi-tasking and so improving productivity. Interruptions, for example to deal with customer queries, can also take place, with the store person returning to the point at which they left the stock take, unlike previously where the handheld would have to be recharged before reusing.

Portech Systems Ltd

501 The Greenhouse

Gibb Street

Birmingham

B9 4AA

UK

t: +44 (0) 121 624 2626

f: +44 (0) 121 624 0550

www.portech.co.uk

info@portech.co.uk

Instructions are sent to SAP (France) to produce product and stock take data.  Handheld is sent to the store.  The user on the PC imports the data from SAP and allocates fixtures to the hand helds.  The hand helds are used to count the stock in blocks of fixtures and then returned to the PC and the data downloaded. A report is automatically produced showing the counted stock.  Facilities on the PC include enquiries on which fixtures have been counted or uncounted and at which locations a particular product was found.  There is also an ability to modify acounted item.  At the end of the stock take (i.e. all  fixtures have been counted) a valuation  report is produced and also a file that is used to update SAP (The main system)

John Klinker, General Manager of Intermec Technologies stresses that it's the simplicity and affordability of Intermec's M90 that makes it so special; "The M90 has been specially designed to overcome the current over-complicated data collection problems within the market. The M90 quite simply offers complete automated data capture to businesses who want to optimise their IT to increase efficiency."  A stock take for Habitat is now carried out in the following way:

The new system gives Habitat a high speed and thorough stock take (fixtures not counted can be identified). Which means that the store is closed or inoperable for a shorter period. There is also a reduction in errors in data entry and a quicker update of the main SAP system. Errors can be identified readily and dealt with immediately. Where as prior to the system the stock take would be carried out on paper. This would be sent/posted to head office. The data would be entered in to the main SAP system and then errors identified. This could take up to two weeks by which time the stock would have changed considerably and back tracking would almost be impossible. With the new system the errors can be identified next day after completion of the stock take.

o Unitech PT630 Mobile Computer

o Intermec M90 Mobile Computer

Software

o DOS Operating System

o Turbo Pascal

o Data transfer via LAN connection

o SAP Integration