From 40 Hours to 4: How We Automated Our Entire Parts Ordering Pipeline

Turning our appliance repair business's biggest headache into a competitive advantage—and how we can do the same for you.

At our family appliance repair business, we were drowning in parts orders. Our operations manager spent 8+ hours every day on repetitive tasks: clicking through slow supplier portals, checking tracking numbers, trying to consolidate shipments across multiple vendors. It was error-prone, expensive, and strangling our growth.

So we built a solution. Now that same process runs itself while we sleep—and we're offering that transformation to other businesses stuck in manual purgatory.

The Manual Reality

Every week, we processed 150+ parts orders across multiple suppliers. Our ordering data lived in scattered spreadsheets, emails, and browser tabs:

• Juggling multiple supplier portals (Encompass, Marcone) with no unified view
• Slow, clunky supplier interfaces that turned a 30-second order into a 5-minute ordeal
• Checking FedEx tracking for dozens of shipments, one at a time
• Missing consolidation opportunities when parts could ship together from the same warehouse
• Chasing down backorders with no visibility into when they'd actually ship
• No single source of truth for what was ordered, where it was, and who it was for

We were hemorrhaging money on duplicate shipping costs and burning out our team clicking through sluggish web portals. Traditional development quotes started at $75,000 with 6-month timelines.

The Architecture

We engineered a low-code automation stack that orchestrates multiple systems into a single, intelligent pipeline:

Layer	Technology	Role
Command Center	Airtable	Order tracking, technician management, real-time dashboards
Automation Engine	n8n (self-hosted)	24/7 workflow orchestration, API calls, business logic
Parts Ordering	Encompass API	Direct order submission, availability checks, status retrieval
Shipping Intelligence	FedEx Track API	Real-time tracking, delivery estimates, location updates
Alerting	Gmail API	Instant error notifications

The result: a system that thinks and acts faster than any human operator could.

What We Built

1. Zero-Touch Order Submission

Orders flow from our Airtable interface directly to our supplier's API—bypassing the slow web portal entirely. No more clicking through five screens to place a single order. What took 5 minutes now processes in seconds.

2. Unified Multi-Supplier Tracking

Encompass orders, Marcone orders, all in one place. Every technician sees their parts regardless of which supplier fulfilled them. Management gets complete visibility without switching between tabs.

3. Intelligent Shipping Consolidation

The system automatically identifies opportunities to combine restock inventory with customer orders shipping from the same warehouse. This single feature cut our shipping costs by 50%—saving over $2,000 monthly.

4. Real-Time Package Intelligence

Technicians and service managers see live FedEx tracking updates three times daily without lifting a finger. When a part is out for delivery, they know immediately. No more "where's my part?" calls.

5. Automatic Backorder Recovery

The system monitors backordered parts daily and updates statuses automatically when inventory becomes available. We shifted from reactive chaos to proactive management—without adding headcount.

6. Enterprise-Grade Error Handling

When orders fail (rate limits, API hiccups, invalid part numbers), the system catches them, logs the details, and alerts us immediately. We fix exceptions instead of hunting for problems.

7. Technician-Specific Views

Each technician sees only their orders and tracking info through secure Airtable interfaces. Management gets the full picture. Everyone has exactly the data they need.

8. Automatic Delivery Notifications

The moment FedEx shows "Delivered," the system notifies both counter-sale customers and our parts team. Customers know their part is ready; our team knows it's available for fulfillment. This eliminated 15-20 status-check calls per day.

The Business Impact

Metric	Before	After	Impact
Weekly Processing Time	40 hours	4 hours	90% reduction
Shipping Costs	$4,200/mo	$2,100/mo	50% savings
Data Entry Errors	8-12/week	0	Eliminated
Order-to-Ship Time	24-48 hours	Real-time	Instant
Customer Status Calls	15-20/day	0	Automated
Scalability	1 order/5 min	Unlimited	Removed ceiling

Why This Matters for Your Business

This isn't just about parts ordering. It's about any manual process eating your margin and limiting your scale:

• Multi-supplier chaos with no unified view
• Slow vendor portals you're forced to click through
• Real-time visibility gaps across your operation
• Shipping inefficiencies bleeding money
• Human-dependent workflows that can't scale

We built this for ourselves because we had to survive. Now we implement these systems for clients who need to transform operational chaos into competitive advantage.

The technology stack delivers enterprise-grade power at startup speed and cost. No $100K development budgets. No 6-month timelines. Just results.

Our Approach

Every business has unique constraints: specific suppliers, custom workflows, compliance requirements. This isn't a one-size-fits-all product—it's a methodology for mapping your operational reality onto a low-code architecture that fits like a glove.

We've already solved the hard problems: API orchestration, error handling, rate limiting, duplicate prevention, authentication management. The framework is proven. The customization is where the value compounds.

Ready to Automate Your Biggest Bottleneck?

Our family business went from a process that couldn't scale to a system that runs while we sleep. Our operations manager now focuses on strategic improvements instead of copy-paste drudgery.

What manual process is holding your business back?

We don't consult from theory—we implement systems we've battle-tested in our own operations. Whether you're in field services, distribution, manufacturing, or any API-driven industry, we can architect your escape from manual work.