Since 2015, the Norwegian company ASKO has been using the deviation management system Agrippa Improvements. A cloud-based software application with major positive impact on quality and business development, costs, health, environment as well as safety.
ASKO is organized into 13 regional subsidiaries and ten Storcash stores for the professional market. The company invests significantly in warehouses and IT systems, and has a total warehouse area of 425,000 square meters. With 700 of its own trucks, ASKO is also one of Norway’s largest transport companies.
“With Agrippa Improvements, we have a simple and effective comprehensive solution for deviation reporting that helps us in our work with continuous improvements,” says Grethe Guttulsrud, who has been the quality manager at the parent company ASKO Norge since 2015 and has been with the group since 2010.
In her current position, Grethe works with long-term development of the system and follow-up of management systems, quality, certifications and deviations. The quality managers at Asko’s 13 subsidiaries are the people who take day-to-day responsibility for issues related to deviation management and the support issues related to Agrippa Improvements.
Input for operational development
All production deviations and deviations in areas such as cleaning, building technology, goods reception, IT, health, environment and safety, as well as deviations in warehouse automation, are reported in Agrippa Improvements. All reported deviations and claims are automatically sent to the right person for assessment and rectification. The deviations can be of many different types, such as incorrect or damaged deliveries, temperature deviations or a warehouse door or truck that needs service.
“The greatest benefit of the system is that it has become so easy for staff to report deviations, which in turn means that large amounts of data can be collected, analyzed and provide us with input for our internal operational development and our dialogues with various suppliers.”
Agrippa Improvements is used by all ASKO staff who work with goods handling. From receipt of goods until the goods are delivered to the customers. The group’s drivers also use the system as an app on their mobile phones. With the help of the app, all deviations and claims related to operations, health, environment and safety can be reported easily and quickly.
Close development collaboration
ASKO’s and Agrippa Solutions’ collaboration began in 2014 in conjunction with the construction of ASKO’s central warehouse for refrigerated goods in Vestby, Akershus. At the time, the project organization needed a system in which a multitude of planned activities could be gathered and monitored over the three-year period of construction. This was the starting point for development of Agrippa Improvements – a system that in 2021 was rolled out at all ASKO regional subsidiaries and which is also used by several other market-leading companies, including Europris, the Haugen Group, and 4Service.
“Over the course of a year, our employees report approximately 36,000 events in the system. The goal moving forward is that we, together with Agrippa, will become even better at using all the data to conduct deeper analyses as a basis for work with improvements,” says Grethe and emphasizes the closeness of collaboration with Agrippa Solutions’ staff and that they work well together in further developing the syste.
ASKO consists of 13 regional ASKO companies, 2 central warehouses and 10 Storcash stores for the professional market. ASKO NORGE AS is the parent company of the regional ASKO companies. The ASKO companies are dispersed from Lillesand in the south to Tromsø in the north. With 700 trucks on the road every day, ASKO is one of Norway’s largest transport companies.
Agrippa Improvements is a cloud-based software application for efficient deviation and claims management in the logistics chain and a proven quality system for large logistics flows. The system is simple, user-friendly and automated, and it can be integrated with any ERP and WMS system.
Agrippa Improvements – many smart features
- User-friendly mobile app for registering all types of deviations in the logistics chain.
- Capability to create predefined categories, tasks, and procedures for accurate and simple routines.
- WMS and ERP integrations that streamline claims and deviation processes and ensure quality and control.
- Tailored reports and analyses.
- Capability to modify activities based on your business to optimize deviation management.
- For health, environment, and claims incidents, there are predefined reporting phases. You can also edit and add your own procedures.