Heineken Spain chooses Zebra for printing invoices and receipts

A division of Heineken Spain, Servicio Integral a Horeca (SIH), has chosen Zebra® wireless mobile printers for printing receipts and invoices generated by the deliveries, made by their distributors using portable terminals. The purpose is to improve the process and quality of the documents and save time and money. SIH which represents 14 companies across 22 locations, covers 300 distribution routes and has a 400 strong sales force.

The challenge

Previously drivers used either handwritten or printed carbon paper forms, making the creation of new documents slow and difficult. This caused a multitude of complaints due to errors or problems reading the documents.

The Objectives

The main purpose of the project was to speed up the distribution process and enable distributors to correct orders when making deliveries, preventing errors when creating the document and during the final invoicing process. In addition, SIH wanted to increase the quality of its printed receipts and invoices printed on mobile printers and reduce the cost of excessive paper consumption.

The Solution

Using Zebra QL 420TM and RW 420TM wireless mobile printers along with Symbol MC9060 terminals, orders can now be corrected during delivery. It is now possible to make changes and print on demand without wasting paper. Thanks to this new process, the distributor now has a record of all the work carried out en route during the course of the day. This is achieved by uploading data to the central system using a Symbol terminal.

Main benefits:

• High quality end user documents
• Flexibility – drivers can now print directly at customer sites
• Quickly generated receipts and invoices on demand (which avoids possible errors by handwritten information)
• Automatic route information processing at the end of each working day Paper cost savings
• Easy-to-use printer with quick paper change capability

Víctor A. García Ortiz of the Management of SIH Distribution, Information Processing Systems commented that: “Both the image of our company and our customers have benefited from the use of a high quality portable thermal printer that enables us to issue higher quality receipts and invoices without errors, thus speeding up the invoicing process and drastically reducing the administrative time involved.”

David Parras, Business Development Manager, Zebra Technologies Spain declared that “We’re very satisfied with the project and the results obtained and we continue to look forward to developing solutions for SIH and Heineken Spain.”

The future

Looking ahead SIH plans to provide its 22 locations (a total of 400 drivers) with this Zebra and Symbol technology solution by adding new terminal functionality. This will mean that delivery dockets can also generate bar codes and ensure even faster processing in SAP. Heineken also plans to implement a tracking system which will entail providing all its warehouses with this same solution.

Servicio Integral a Horecha (SIH)

SIH, a part of Heineken Spain, provides central services to distribution companies supported by Heineken Spain. This includes development and management of a central computer system. These companies are located throughout Spain and provide distribution services for Heineken brand names - such as Heineken, Amstel, Cruzcampo, Buckler, Kaliber - in the restaurant and hospitality retail sector. They also distribute third party products.