What Design for Living is
An operations system for Design for Living, a Nairobi interior-furnishings showroom that sells from manufacturer catalogues rather than from stock. It is used by the showroom's managers, sales consultants, store keepers and accounts staff.
The full catalogue is held at zero quantity, so a customer quote or supplier order is never blocked by stock. Purchase orders print for the supplier with every cost removed, and staff without cost permission never receive cost figures at all. Each shipment is tracked from pickup through Nairobi customs to the client's door, and barcoded sample books are lent out with automatic due dates and an overdue monitor.
How Design for Living works
Overview
An internal operations system for Design for Living, an interior-furnishings showroom in Nairobi that sells from manufacturer catalogues instead of holding stock. It follows the client's own written system specification in four stages: a zero-stock catalogue and sample library, purchase orders, freight and delivery tracking, and sample loans. It is a sign-in-only tool for showroom staff rather than a public website.
Who uses it
- Showroom staff — managers, sales consultants, store keepers and accounts staff, each with a role that sets what they can do.
- Users with cost permission — the only people who see purchase costs, whether on screen, in print or in search suggestions.
- Administrators — manage users, suppliers, freight companies, branches and policy values such as the loan period.
Main modules
- Dashboard — the day's figures and alerts.
- Catalogue — every product held at zero quantity; stock rises only when a consignment clears the showroom.
- Collections — manufacturer catalogues with an expiry date; an expired collection can no longer be ordered or lent.
- Sample assets — each sample book and its cards, hangers and swatches, with printable barcode labels and a list of catalogues about to expire.
- Purchase orders — numbered in the client's own format on a July to June financial year, with separate supplier and costed copies.
- Freight and delivery tracker — shipment stages from pickup to delivery, plus a one-screen delivery status view with a live estimated arrival.
- Loan desk — checkout, returns, receipts and an overdue list.
- Clients, client orders and suppliers — the records behind every order.
How it works
Ordering from suppliers
- Pick catalogue lines and raise a purchase order. Finalising it issues the next number, and two users can never take the same one.
- Print the supplier copy, which shows only collection, item name and quantity. The costed copy is a separate print for permitted users.
Freight and delivery
- Enter shipment dates as they happen. The status moves through pickup, in transit, Nairobi customs, showroom, out for delivery and delivered.
- The linked purchase order and client order update with it, and the delivery tracker shows each client's status and expected arrival.
Sample loans
- Scan a sample book or swatch out to a borrower, recording their name, phone and email; the due date is set automatically.
- Watch the monitor: green for active, amber for due soon and red for overdue. A borrower with an overdue item cannot take another, and an item already out cannot be issued twice.
- Scan it back in and record its condition. Lost or damaged items do not return to the shelf.
Platforms and access
- Web application for showroom staff, behind a sign-in and hidden from search engines.
- Barcode labels print from any browser and scan with a standard USB barcode reader.
- Role-based access, with a separate per-user permission to see costs that is enforced by the system rather than only hidden on screen.
- An audit trail records staff actions.
