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Mobile Workflow Helps Rental Company Solve Inventory Management Challenges

https://play.vidyard.com/fSfm5R8Ahge8C9c15bFhQ4?uuid=fSfm5R8Ahge8C9c15bFhQ4

Creating a mobile workflow with Samsung Galaxy S smartphones helped United Rentals enhance customer service and streamline their operations process at more than 880 locations in the United States and Canada.

With an $8 billion fleet of rental equipment, United Rentals serves construction and industrial companies, municipalities and government agencies. Their existing paper-based system was time-consuming for customers and employees alike. “We needed to put in a frictionless system that would ensure that the right equipment was in the right location at the right time,” says J.R. Taalman, director of operations excellence.

The company first considered ruggedized industrial devices, but found them expensive, slow and inflexible. They finally settled on Samsung Galaxy S smartphones, deploying more than 2,000 devices across the company. The Android-powered devices support a custom app that associates access 50-70 times per day to check equipment in and out (including photos), communicate with customers and navigate to job sites.

Moving from a paper-based system to a mobile workflow has allowed employees to deliver more equipment faster with a higher level of accountability in the system, leading to superior customer service. Equipment associates are now able to assemble 20 percent more equipment per day, and the decreased paperwork has enabled drivers to complete one to two more deliveries daily.

Watch the video below to learn more about how United Rentals used Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphones to improve customer service, streamline the operation process and reduce paper.

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Gary Wollenhaupt

Gary Wollenhaupt is a veteran of the transportation and logistics industry, with carrier-side experience in intermodal, rail and inland and ocean shipping verticals, managing corporate marketing and public policy initiatives. He's also worked as a reporter for a daily newspaper and in corporate and agency public relations. Follow Gary on Twitter: @gary_writes

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