Morrisons staff claim new ordering pads dogged by technical issues

Morrisons staff claim the new tablets brought in to replace its pen and paper ordering system have been dogged by technical problems.

They have reported issues such as running out of battery life, poor wi-fi connectivity on the shop floor and difficulties in ordering single cases.

“Since we’ve had those useless order pads we’ve got gaps all over the place. Mostly single case stuff as no one seems to know how to go about ordering single case lines,” said one poster on an employee forum.

Another complained: “They are not reliable enough and the batteries don’t last long enough.”

The retailer revealed in July that it was using the tablets, made by Fujitsu, to replace its book ordering in a move it claimed would make the process easier and eliminate expensive mistakes.

The tablets were first trialled at the end of last year and have since been rolled out to all stores.

“The feedback from stores since the introduction of the tablets has been generally positive,” claimed a Morrisons spokesman.

“It is completely normal to experience minor teething problems when introducing technology such as this. The majority of the difficulties have now been resolved.”

In July, CEO Dalton Philips said Morrisons was the only major retailer in the world using a pen and paper system. By the end of this year, Morrisons will have spent £310m on its three-year ‘Evolve’ systems upgrade. “This is the most advanced building of technology systems in the world,” Philips said.