Factors Group reduces inventory by $20M with Atlas Planning Platform
COMPANY: Factors Group
WEBSITE: www.FactorsGroup.com
INDUSTRY: Food & Nutrition
COMPANY TYPE: Privately Held
JOHN GALT SOLUTION: Atlas Planning Platform
Results
- Reduced inventory by $20M while maintaining customer service levels
- Implemented a 12 month rolling forecast to facilitate S&OP
- Reduced man-hours by 20+ hours per week
- Won “SDCE Green Supply Chain Award” for the new and improved supply chain
Company
Factors Group is Canada’s leader in natural health products distributing vitamins, minerals, herbal products and specialty supplements for over 50 years. The company sells to natural health stores, pharmacies and grocery stores internationally. Factors Group prides itself as a socially and environmentally responsible organization.
Challenge
With rapidly growing global business operations, Factors Group had developed into a complex multi-divisional company, making it impossible to manage the planning process in Excel spreadsheets. The company was unable to accurately produce inventory forecasts for finished goods or raw materials which resulted in stock-outs for some products and excess inventory for other products. This manual process was both time consuming and cumbersome, making it hard to report important business problems internally in a timely manner.
Solution
Factors Group partnered with John Galt Solutions to implement Atlas for demand planning and inventory management. Atlas was selected as the system of record and provides a multi-divisional platform while keeping the data in one central location. This allows Factors to start reacting in real-time to changes in demand and setting appropriate inventory levels. A phased implementation process made it possible for Factors to very quickly implement a strong demand forecast and add inventory capabilities and other functionality as their processes matured.
Benefit
As an immediate result, Factors Group saves approximately 20 man-hours per week on reporting alone. They can now forecast demand and optimal inventory levels 12 months in advance, giving the executive team valuable insights to make better long-term business decisions. The improved forecast accuracy made for fast ROI as it allowed Factors Group to reduce their on-hand inventory by $20M while maintaining customer service levels. Having less capital tied up in inventory allowed the company to allocate more resources toward supporting their growing global business.
Factors Group was even able to align their global supply chain with their over-all business goal of being a green and environmentally responsible organization. The new and improved demand plan allowed for a lean and effective end-to-end supply chain with minimal waste. This streamlined supply chain was recognized by Supply and Demand Chain Executive who awarded Factors Group with the Green Supply Chain Award for making green sustainability a core part of their supply chain strategy.
“We are now using the same platform for demand management and inventory management, making the dataflow very seamless, giving my [inventory] team full access and visibility to the demand plan”
Akbar Zuberi, Director of Global Inventory
