The client
This supply chain client is one of Ireland’s leading Manufacturers and distributors of water treatment chemicals. The company was founded in 1981 and has continued to expand its range of products, to provide an unequalled service to its customers; to give the best value for money.
The challenge
The WrxFlo Demand Planning system is for manufacturers who want to move away from an excel based inventory forecasting solution, to an automated cloud-based solution.
This client Operation’s Director wanted to plan future demand and predict what orders would be placed over the coming weeks/months i.e., review actuals, stock levels and forecasts. The team did not have any visibility on this which led to inventory shortages. Their main plan of record was an excel spreadsheet which captured the historical data. In order to maintain and use this spreadsheet, took a lot of time and patience.
What does it do?
- Plans factory material and component status in real time as customers place orders
- Predict when to order each component based on demand and lead time from suppliers
- Tracks where critical components are within the supply chain
- Plan and track demand within production and across departments
The solution
WrxFlo implemented the Demand Planning system which included:
- A component which plans factory material and component status in real time as customers place orders
- Ability to drill down several levels on a bill of material and the plan usage of components across multiple products
- Determines the correct delivery date to provide to customer based on supply chain status
- Predicts when to order each component based on demand and lead time from suppliers
- Predicts when and what each customer will order next based on their historical buying patterns and plan material based on the forecast demand
- Demand scenario planning – lead time sensitivity, seasonality
- Track where critical components are within the supply chain
- Determine for planners which orders to release to production to optimise the process
- Real-time Dashboard for procurement based on production requirements
- Plan and track demand within production and across department.
The solution connected their supply chain stakeholders, providing more control over inventory planning. It allowed the team to predict when the next order was due.
The dashboard gave the team details on customers, part groups, part ID’s, last ship dates, days between orders, quantities, next ship dates average days between orders, average quantities. The solutions enhanced the ability of demand planners to share real-time data and quickly react to changes in supply and demand.
The result
- An easy-to-use cloud-based system, designed specifically for the client
- The data collected is automated, and therefore eliminates human error
- Warning signs, flag the team when inventory is low ahead of time
- Uses historical demand, to predict future plans and uses lead-time sensitivity and seasonality
