A rapidly growing tooling industry company was facing increasingly complex logistical and supply chain challenges.
The increase in catalog references and the need to ensure scalable order management were putting pressure on operational efficiency.
The challenge
The difficulty of aligning the commercial needs
of catalog products with logistical and operational requirements.
The presence of references purchased exclusively by certain partners,
leading to inefficiencies in stock management.
The need to define a new logistics model
to optimize the flow of goods movement.
The need to improve demand forecasting
to ensure a continuous and optimal flow of products.
The solution
To tackle these challenges and successfully complete the supply demand planning, the project was structured in three phases: assessment, design, and implementation.
Phase I: Assessment
The initial analysis provided a detailed view of the existing issues, with a particular focus on demand forecasting. Historical sales data, market trends, and seasonality were analyzed to identify recurring patterns and anomalies in stock management.
The main insights that emerged were:
34.9% of the references were purchased by a single partner,
generating inefficiencies and fragmented stock.
The lack of structured criteria for demand forecasting
led to frequent overstocking or stockouts.
Some critical items were often unavailable,
causing delays in deliveries and customer dissatisfaction.
Phase II: Design
With this information, the aBCD Consulting team developed a new model based on a more structured demand planning system integrated with logistics management.
Key actions included:
Implementation of advanced predictive models
for demand analysis, based on machine learning algorithms and historical data analysis.
Definition of priority categories for products,
distinguishing between essential, specialized, and low-turnover items, to optimize availability without increasing costs.
Standardization of product master data
to improve information flow between the commercial and logistics departments.
Optimization of stock
through the rebalancing of inventory and the centralization of critical references.
New warehouse layout,
with reorganization of spaces to reduce picking times and improve storage capacity.
Phase III: Implementation
The actions implemented included:
Reducing picking to two daily waves,
increasing productivity and reducing costs.
Centralizing high-turnover references
in strategic areas of the warehouse.
Creating dedicated flows for references purchased only by certain partners,
ensuring unprecedented operational efficiency.
Results
Grazie all’intervento di aBCD Consulting è stato possibile:
Commercial and logistics integration:
an optimal flow of products from production to distribution was ensured, effectively supporting the partners' demands and improving picking productivity by 35%.
Operational agility:
the supply chain is now able to respond more quickly to changes in market needs, improving the overall flexibility of the system.
Stock optimization:
the number of obsolete items was reduced by 27% through targeted inventory rebalancing and more efficient space management.
