Manufacturers’ Monthly spoke with BlueRock Digital director, Thomas Adams, to explore how the company advises businesses to drive growth, reduce costs, and streamline supply chains.
Founded in 2008, Australian advisory firm BlueRock has expanded rapidly, evolving from a focus on accounting
advisory to servicing a range of business and wealth solutions.
“BlueRock wanted to provide services to help other high-growth companies to scale, mature and develop,” said company digital director Thomas Adams.
Among its offerings is BlueRock Digital, an advisory service designed to help business owners tackle the complexities of the ever-changing digital and technology landscape.
“Having advisors like us that can speak to you, understand your business and identify opportunities gives a foundation for a business to grow,” said Adams.
A key offering of BlueRock’s Digital advisory is its implementation of inventory management software, a tool designed to enhance business efficiency and growth.
“It’s a platform that is very expansive and powerful in nature,” said Adams.
By replacing manual methods of inventory management – like spreadsheets and data entry – with automated solutions, Adams said the software can help businesses improve operational visibility and supply chain efficiency.
“We can help businesses understand their tech stack. We create a roadmap for the coming years and how inventory management software can help achieve it,” said Adams.
To provide the best version of the software to its customers, BlueRock is the implementation partner for software Cin7: Inventory Solutions, and other systems such as MRPeasy.
“We work with providers that offer solutions that are fit for our clients. We’ve got a large client base in the manufacturing and inventory warehousing sector that benefit from Cin7’s functionalities,” said Thomas.
The benefits of increased operational visibility
Adams explained that a key reason BlueRock advises businesses to utilise inventory management software is its ability to reduce costs and recover lost revenue for businesses.
“We’re able to add value to these businesses by providing guidance for them to reduce costs and recoup lost revenue,” said Adams.
Adams explained that the automated platform offers stock insights, enabling cost optimisation, accurate forecasting, and error reduction.
“These systems can optimise stock levels, so businesses are not holding too much or too little. They can also forecast demand and reduce storage costs,” said Adams.
Adams said another benefit of the automated platform is how it reduces the human error associated with manual processes.
“When you reduce manual errors, you get efficiency through your whole manufacturing line. There’s less delays and no downtime for machines,” said Adams.
These manual processes are also laborious and time consuming, something which Adams believes the software can eliminate.
“You can get cost savings on the human resource side by freeing workers up to be doing the manufacturing itself,” said Adams.
Another key benefit of the platform is its ability to minimise errors caused by rushed work or cutting corners.
“When you’re running a skeleton crew, you can reduce the number of hats that individuals wear. You’re less likely to get fatigued and make mistakes. This is relevant in manufacturing, where there is risk in operating machines,” said Adams.
In addition to its efficiency, Adams highlighted a valuable benefit of the platform in its ability to create a cleaner manufacturing process.
“You reduce the waste of excess products,” he said.
Aside from benefits to the business, Adams said that these systems can ensure a purchasing experience where a customer has full visibility of stock, backorder and shipping information.
Tailoring software for business needs
Not only can BlueRock Digital advise the use of inventory systems, but the company has also demonstrated its ability to customise them to client needs through a butchery case study. Unlike inventory systems that track items per unit, butcheries deal with products sold by weight, which presents challenges.
“If you order a pair of shoes online, your warehouse staff can pick one pair of shoes, but they can never pick 1.1 pairs of shoes,” said Adams.
Standard systems often block orders with mismatched weights, requiring manual adjustments to sales orders – a time-consuming process that involves voiding and recreating orders to match weights. To address this, BlueRock developed a solution that automates these processes, improving efficiency and ROI.
“We built an application that acts as a wrapper over their Cin7 system and allows that process to happen in the background,” said Adams.
“They run the application on a tablet, scan the meat, it comes at 1.1 and then they click that it’s picked at 1.1, and it sends it through.”
Looking ahead, Adams noted that technologies like AI, IoT, and machine learning will drive future inventory innovations, enabling small businesses to adopt advanced tools like those used by industry leaders like Amazon.
“I envisage us working through more solutions and doing more in the machine learning, algorithms and analytics space to help businesses run efficiently,” he said.
