Thursday, August 16, 2007

TCLogic featured in American Fastener Journal

Leading provider of inventory optimization discusses ‘Riding the Waves of Overseas Sourcing’.

TCLogic, a leading provider of inventory optimization solutions, was featured recently in the American Fastener Journal discussing the ‘ups and downs’ of overseas sourcing and how companies can ‘ride these waves’ for improved inventory management and optimization, ultimately coming out on top.

According to the article sourcing products from overseas suppliers can reduce costs. “More companies including those in the fastener industry are turning this direction to lower the costs of goods, reduce the amount of working capital needed to run the business, or simply find an available supplier for their products.”

“There are significant advantages to sourcing material from overseas,” the article explains. “And the rewards of overseas sourcing naturally come with risks. As companies begin navigating the waters of overseas sourcing, they can be successful by knowing what to expect and how to best manage those risks. Risks that include longer and more varied lead times, increased purchasing, changes in customer service levels, variable shipping components, and more.”

So how does a company that is sourcing overseas take into account the increase in variability on factors, including lead-times, higher volumes and stocking strategies, while improving their performance?

Thomas Uhrig, president of TCLogic, an inventory optimization software provider based in Indianapolis, sees the need for companies to improve their inventory management. “As companies deal with increased volumes of overseas products, they must do a better job of managing the rest of their inventory or potentially risk running out of warehouse space or, even worse, draining their lines of credit,” said Uhrig.

“Inventory optimization can be a very effective solution to come up with the right mix,” added Uhrig. “Companies utilizing inventory optimization software solutions are far more capable of maintaining higher service levels for their customers, but doing so without overstocking their locations. And they are much more able to work through the longer and varied lead times and increased volume that comes with sourcing overseas. The results they can see are better business results, especially in markets where their peers are struggling to compete.”

To view the entire article, visit the American Fastener Journal.

About TCLogic
TCLogic, headquartered in Indianapolis, is a leading provider of solutions for inventory optimization and planning. TCLogic enables distribution intensive clients to achieve an optimal balance between customer service commitments and inventory levels. Since 1997, TCLogic has helped manufacturers and distributors throughout the country solve their inventory dilemmas and achieve bottom line results. For more information visit TCLogic or call 800.945.4877.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Riding the Waves of Overseas Sourcing

The results are in. Sourcing products from overseas suppliers can reduce costs. More companies, including those in the fastener industry, are turning this direction to lower the costs of goods, reduce the amount of working capital needed to run the business, or simply find an available supplier for their products.

According to a recent CAPS Research study, entitled
Effective Global Sourcing and Supply for Superior Results, almost half of all goods will be purchased offshore by 2010. The study also indicated that total goods purchased from overseas sources represented 31 to 40 percent of all purchases in 2005.

There are significant advantages to sourcing material from overseas. The survey outlined that on average, companies with effective global sourcing strategies report cost reductions of 19 percent and a 12 percent reduction in total cost of ownership costs.

Mark Cloud, vp of sourcing for Wurth Service Supply, a fastener company located in Indianapolis, and one of 300 companies in the Wurth Group, a nine billion dollar company headquartered in Germany, indicates overseas sourcing is becoming extremely common in the fastener industry. “Many of our commonly used items are now only available through overseas markets, said Cloud.

Just as waves go up and down, there is another side to sourcing overseas. While unit costs may go down, the protective layer of inventory needed to buffer supply risk, longer global lead times and increasingly complex administrative processes can chip away at any working capital improvement.

With Rewards, Expect More Risks

The rewards of overseas sourcing naturally come with risks. As companies begin navigating the waters of overseas sourcing, they can be successful by knowing what to expect and how to best manage those risks.

First and foremost they should expect longer and more varied lead times. Every day counts working to have stock available for sale. While you can expect longer travel with longer distances, overseas sourcing can also add to other lead time components such as receiving and put away.

“We are seeing very different lead times with sourcing overseas,” according to Cloud. “Our domestic lead times for a special part may be about 12 weeks domestically, but we are seeing 24 weeks on average with overseas sourcing.”

In addition, more components, including oceanic transit routes, port capacity, customs clearance, and inter-modal transfers can make lead times more variable even when sourcing from the same overseas suppliers.

Next, expect the purchase volumes to increase. “Overseas manufacturers are geared today to produce a very high volume, that’s how they offer lower costs, and that’s the way they sell the product,” according to Cloud. “In some cases we may have to bring over our entire annual volume, creating one of the biggest challenges that we face.” Purchasing inventory in this manner can stress warehouse operations as well as working capital budgets.

A high customer service level, one of the most important goals for any organization, can be at risk. “When buying from overseas, you have to pay much more attention when confirming and expediting orders,” according to Cloud. “Because there are so many more opportunities for something to go wrong, considerations like longer lead times, administrative processes, customs clearing, all contribute to longer lead times and can affect our service levels.”

And, it can become even more challenging to maintain, let alone improve, high service levels to customers.

Better Inventory Management Required

So, how does a company that is sourcing overseas take into account the increase in variability on factors, including lead-times, higher volumes and stocking strategies, while improving their performance? Unfortunately, many times these issues are addressed with higher inventory levels.

The higher inventory levels are a result of utilizing traditional planning methods like days of supply and ABC analysis. While these methods were effective when supplier lead times and demand were more predictable and consistent, that is no longer the case in today’s global environment.

Sourcing overseas creates turbulent waters for attributes that impact how inventory is planned and how inventory performs. Attributes such as lead times, volume, and customer service levels become less predictable and are more difficult to manage with traditional planning theories.

An AberdeenGroup benchmark study released in 2006, entitled The Technology Strategies for Inventory Management Benchmark Report, and reported on Idustryanalystsreporter.com, finds that companies adopting new inventory management technology are able to better manage supply chain complexity and can reduce inventories by 20 to 30 percent while simultaneously increasing customer service levels.
The study also outlines that nearly 70% of the survey respondents say they have made or been asked to provide recommendations in the past six months to management on how to improve their inventory management technology. And fully 83% of companies say they have made or been asked to make process recommendations for inventory reduction strategy within the past six months.

Thomas Uhrig, president of TCLogic, an inventory optimization software provider based in Indianapolis, sees the need for companies to improve their inventory management. “As companies, deal with increased volumes of overseas products, they must do a better job of managing the rest of their inventory or potentially risk running out of warehouse space or, even worse, draining their lines of credit,” said Uhrig.

For planners this may involve purchasing other products more frequently, redistributing product amongst locations to obtain the optimal mix, realigning order points, safety stock, EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) or utilizing a postponement policy for purchasing new stock.

“Inventory optimization can be a very effective solution to come up with the right mix,” added Uhrig. “Companies utilizing inventory optimization software solutions are far more capable of maintaining higher service levels for their customers, but doing so without overstocking their locations. And they are much more able to work through the longer and varied lead times and increased volume that comes with sourcing overseas. The results they can see are better business results, especially in markets where their peers are struggling to compete.”


Sources:

CAPS Research
Industryanalystsreporter.com
AberdeenGroup
Tom Uhrig, president, TCLogic
Mark Cloud, vp of sourcing, Wurth Service Supply

Thursday, July 26, 2007

W.W. Williams Company augments their ERP and identifies savings of 26% in just 6 weeks

WW Williams Company is a distributor for Detroit Diesel Corporation and Allison Transmission. The Company offers the most advanced and innovative diesel engines and automatic transmissions in the market today and operates twenty-five full service customer support centers in eight states.

When you are serving corporate customers in the fast-moving transportation industry, you have to be fast-moving yourself. This is even more true when your business is supplying parts and repair services to corporate vehicles that must get back in service as quickly as possible. In this business environment, time is critical and customer satisfaction is directly linked to how fast you can perform. And when performance depends upon having the correct parts, you need to be certain your internal systems are up to the task. That’s why W.W. Williams wanted to augment their existing ERP system with improved inventory management and optimization.


Filling in the Holes in ERP

Although W.W. Williams has implemented an ERP solution that they are pleased with, there are some key business elements and performance metrics that are missing. In particular, their ERP system tells them when to order but does not satisfactorily set parameters such as safety stock, order points, and line points. Furthermore, they were concerned that they were most likely overstocking fast-moving items.

With this in mind, W.W. Williams decided to implement an inventory optimization solution. With more than $10 million in inventory spread throughout 17 different locations in seven states, finding a tool to help their busy staff was important. “We do not have many Buyers on our staff”, states Wally Williams, Operations Analyst at W.W. Williams. “Many of our Parts Managers act as Buyers, and they do not have a lot of time. That’s why we chose an inventory optimization solution; provides our people with good analytical capabilities.”

Minimal IT Involvement

Because the inventory optimization solution is web-based, it requires only minimal involvement from W.W. Williams IT department. With only a small and very busy IT staff, implementation would have been delayed many months. But with help from TCLogic, data integration and process integration took only three weeks worth of effort spread over one and a half months.

Starting with a Few Selected Items

To begin implementation, W.W. Williams chose three of their mid-west locations. Although there are over 54,000 SKUs in these three locations, only 2,700 items were selected to be optimized. These 2,700 items represented almost one million dollars in On-Hand costs.

The results have been impressive. Within six weeks, a reduction in On-Hand costs from $938,000 to $695,000 was identified, resulting in a $243,000 savings. Inventory turns were projected to increase almost three fold, from 3.5 to 9.

Developing Business Rules and ‘What-if’ Scenarios

One of the great features of inventory optimization is the ability to develop special business rules that can be used to better reflect the company’s business processes. In W.W. Williams case, this included the capability of building special rules to handle engine ‘cores’, where a ‘core’ consists of two cost factors – a cost for the engine block itself and costs for ‘non-core’ items. Demand history in the ERP solution is based on ‘non-core’ items, but the new solution optimizes based upon both costs. Views were also configured within the solution to show all ‘frozen items’ and the reasons they are frozen (‘frozen items’ is a special feature within the ERP system).

W.W. Williams especially likes the ability to perform ‘what-if’ scenarios before they export data back into their ERP system. “In this way, we can see the result that different business assumptions will have on our inventory without impacting our ERP system”, comments Williams. “That’s important because $1 items are just as critical as $500 items. If we’re out of a $1 item, it can hold up a service repair and cost us the same amount of time as a $500 item.”

Improving Service Levels and Establishing Metrics

One of the key parameters that W.W. Williams will be using to establish inventory levels is the targeted service level to their customers. With inventory optimization, they are now certain that they are maintaining the minimal inventory levels to achieve their targeted service levels.

The Company will also utilize inventory optimization to help establish key metrics for monitoring performance. They are beginning to track forecast accuracy, something their current ERP system does not do. They will also institute metrics on item availability and plan on using ROI+ to monitor vendor performance over time.


To inquire more about inventory optimization, please contact TCLogic

WANT TO SURPRISE YOUR CUSTOMERS WITH UNBELIEVABLE SERVICE?

Knowing what to stock, when, and how much in order to meet customer requirements is difficult to determine with a large population of SKU's. Adding the variability of demand, supplier lead times, financial constraints, business objectives, vendor requirements, etc, across thousands of SKU's, creates a nightmare for inventory planning. So how do best-in-class organizations effectively manage one of their largest assets and provide high service levels? The answer can be provided through inventory optimization. This online educational breifing will introduce how incorporating inventory optimization can provide inventory intelligence that reduces the investment in inventory while achieving best-in-class service levels.


Click here  to send an email to receive the link for this pre-recorded breifing.