The Client

Maniilaq Association provides health and social services to residents of Northwest Alaska. A non-profit corporation, Maniilaq Association represents 12 federally recognized tribes located in Northwest Alaska. Through one hospital and 11 clinics, the association manages social and health services for about 8,000 people within the Northwest Arctic Borough and the village of Point Hope. Maniilaq coordinates tribal and traditional assistance programs, and environmental and subsistence protection services. With approximately 550 in its workforce, Maniilaq is also the largest employer.

The Challenge

Maniilaq’s existing inventory management system required each remote clinic/site to use handheld scanners when tracking inventory. At the end of each day, all of the scanners would be collected at the hospital to download the device’s data onto the main computer. Due to Alaska’s remote location, internet was spotty and unreliable. The process of transferring data over from the scanners to the computer took about an hour and a half each day, which totaled 7.5 hours per week, or 390 hours a year.

Maniilaq’s Central Stores Manager, Charla Kouadio, wanted a centralized solution that could be accessed from anywhere, at any time, including when working from home – which was of particular importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also wanted a solution that could be used with iPads.

The Solution

After researching their options, Kouadio chose an inventory management solution from Wasp Barcode Technologies. “The support we received from Wasp was phenomenal,” said Kouadio. “We were able to implement our inventory management solution in half a day.”

Kouadio particularly loves the low stock alerts/reminders that she’s able to set and forget. “We’re 33 miles outside of the Artic Circle so supply chain is very important to us,” she said. “Any delay in that could really be an issue for us. It takes me maybe 15-20 days to get a product in, so I love the reminders the system sends us to re-order items. Those are extremely helpful.”

The Result

As a result of implementing a Wasp inventory management solution, the Maniilaq Association was able to save 7.5 hours per week, or 390 hours per year, previously dedicated to manual data transfer. Additionally, their commercial team saves four hours per person at month end, on average.

The team completed an online training session via GoToMeeting where they were able to ask Wasp software experts any questions they had as well as learn about the software’s functionality. The team was also able to keep the recording for future reference, which was very useful when onboarding new employees.

Kouadio finds the system easy for new users to learn and use. “I hired a recent high school graduate and they were able to jump right into the system. They understood it because it’s intuitive and it wasn’t overly complicated. It’s very easy to learn,” she said.