Inventory check performed by a single person in one hour – inventory management system for jewellery giant Bijou Brigitte

Thousands of hours spent on inventory check, dozens of people involved, and a drop in motivation for employees who do this tedious, repetitive work. We had to stop it! We created a system to conduct product inventory for one of the leaders in the jewellery industry – Bijou Brigitte. What did we achieve? How did the employees’ lives change? Read our case study.

The problem our client approached us with

To begin with, a few words about our client. Bijou Brigitte is a German company recognized as one of the leaders in the jewelry and accessories industry. It has more than 1550 stores in Germany and across Europe, and it employs about 3000 people. Inventory is an annual process in which a company is required to cross-check accounting data with the actual stock. 

This process is usually lengthy and involves many repetitive tasks. Therefore, it is not something that employees take on with joy. Concerned about their employees and team motivation, Bijou Brigitte decided to solve this problem. 

And there was a lot to be changed. Bijou Brigitte’s product range includes about 10,000 items in each store, so they wanted to make the company’s inventory process easier and faster. 

The inventory management system we developed 

As always, we started the project by establishing the clients’ needs and defining a common goal. The next step was to build a dedicated team that included j-labs’s engineers and a Delivery Manager. Importantly, the same people were involved in discussions with the client from the beginning. The other part of the team were Bijou Brigitte’s employees and a Product Owner.

We worked in the Team Extension model.
Our goal was to deliver an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) for further testing, i.e., an inventory management system based on Android.  

Until then, the inventory had been carried out by the store employees. Manual work is always associated with a high risk of error. 

To speed up the work and avoid errors, we created an application (in the form of MVP) based on Android. The store assistants received tablets with the application. This allowed for an automated process of transferring product data. Product data is cataloged automatically and managers can analyze the actual stock in real-time.

What did we achieve? The result of the inventory management system implementation

The result of the introduced changes was amazing. We reduced the time spent on inventory by 97%. What does this mean? It means that the employees gained time for more creative activities. 

We ran a simple simulation. The minimum wage in Germany is 9.60 EUR. Assuming you need about 5 people to work for 6 hours, the cost of an inventory check is 288 EUR. Compare this to a cost of an inventory carried out using our management system, which takes 1 hour – only 9.60 EUR. A saving of 97%!

Who benefits most from an inventory management system?

It’s not only the jewelry industry that has to conduct a warehouse inventory each year. It also applies to industries such as food, electronics, clothing, furniture, and automotive. It is worth using a dedicated solution that saves time and money and increases employee satisfaction at the same time.
 

Would you like to know more about a possible solution for your business? Let’s talk >>