What gets done by hand today
- Discovering a stock-out when a customer asks.
- Supplier orders as a WhatsApp voice note, checked against nothing when the delivery arrives.
- Job cards on paper that reach the invoice desk a week late, minus the parts that were used.
- Planning the day's production and then the power goes off at 10:00.
- Generator serviced when it fails.
The six opportunities
| ID | Opportunity | How it works | Tool class | Effort | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O1 | Stock sheet with reorder alerts | Minimum levels per line; a daily message lists what to reorder. | Spreadsheet | Low | High |
| O2 | Supplier purchase orders from templates | Reorder list becomes a numbered PO sent on WhatsApp or email; deliveries are checked against it. | Document template | Low | Solid |
| O3 | Job cards and work orders on a phone | Every job has a card with photos, parts and hours; invoicing pulls from it. | Job-card app or form | Medium | High |
| O4 | Load-shedding-aware production and roster plan | The week's outage windows are pasted in once; power-dependent work is planned around them. | ZESA schedule + spreadsheet | Low | Solid |
| O5 | Delivery dispatch and confirmation messages | Driver, route and drop list in one sheet; the customer is told when the truck leaves. | Sheet + WhatsApp utility templates | Medium | Solid |
| O6 | Preventive maintenance schedule | Generator service, vehicle service and machine checks by hours or date, with reminders. | Calendar or sheet | Low | Solid |
Effort: Low = an afternoon with free tools; Medium = a week and a subscription; High = a project with outside help. Impact is relative to a typical 5–30-person business; run the ROI calculator with your own figures.
Worked example (illustrative)
An agri-supply shop stocks 400 lines. A weekly stock count takes two people five hours; stock-outs of the fast 40 lines happen most weeks. A stock sheet with minimum levels and a daily reorder message (O1) turns the weekly count into a cycle count of the fast movers — about 1.5 hours — and removes most surprise stock-outs. Three and a half hours back a week; the money is in the sales that were not lost. If ten lost sales a week at a US$15 gross margin become two, that is US$120 a week, which the calculator treats as recovered revenue.
- Load shedding is a planning input. ZESA's stated aim is to end load shedding by December 2026, and it has reported long stretches without it; until it is gone, paste the published schedule into the plan (O4) and put power-dependent jobs in the on-windows.
- Connectivity for a job-card app: choose one that works offline and syncs later. Mobile internet is the dominant access technology (POTRAZ counts 12.86 million mobile internet subscriptions) and it drops in the workshop at the back.
- Delivery confirmations (O5) are "utility" messages on the WhatsApp Business Platform — the cheapest paid category — and free if the customer messaged you in the last 24 hours.
Do not automate
Supplier selection and price negotiation. Automate the PO and the receiving check; keep the relationship.
Want a second pair of eyes on the numbers?
Get an automation assessment: we map your processes, run the ROI with your figures and tell you honestly what to automate first — and what to leave alone. Implementation, if you want it, is by AI Automated Solutions.