P
lanning Success story
changes in demand that might be caused by a big tender or a lost account. That information goes into Demand Solutions Feedback and then in DS Forecast Management for the global demand manager to review.
Harmonisation
Trinity Biotech makes test kits that are used in the clinical laboratory and point-of-care segments of the diagnostic market to detect infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, blood coagulation and autoimmune disorders.
were able to remove $3 million from the manufacturing pipeline based on the global inventory view that Demand Solutions delivered,” said Mark Gregory, Trinity Biotech ‘s CIO and project executive. “Reagent inventories have been reduced by 40 per cent, product obsolescence reduced by 80 per cent and customer service levels increased, exceeding ROI targets set out at the start of the project.”
Gregory continued: “With a view of our global inventories combined with improvement in the accuracy of our sales forecasts, we have been able to reduce our
manufacturing/supply plans without negatively impacting customer service levels. By avoiding initial manufacture, we have avoided the cost of production, the cost of inventory, the cost of temperature-controlled storage, and the cost of scrapping out-of date test kits. It has been a highly successful project for us.”
More visibility and control
Trinity has developed a monthly planning process during which it looks at sales, stock on hand, and the requirements from its distribution centres. “Before we installed Demand Solutions, the distribution centres just placed a purchase order and if the stock was available they got it,” explained Gregory. “Now we have a lot more visibility and control and we manufacture based on their sales
www.logisticsit.com March 2011
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT 33
forecasts, net of local inventory. If they have a high forecast and are not using their stock, we ask why.”
The forecasts are reviewed by the product managers for each line, and those managers talk to sales to check on requirements and
Large distributors who depend on Trinity Biotech for a substantial part of their sales are also feeding numbers into the forecasting. Trinity completed its implementation of Demand Solutions within just 20 days with the assistance of Demand Solutions consultants. “As we had already harmonised our ERP systems in the group the project implementation was very straightforward,” explained Gregory. “The biggest challenge was cleaning up our products databases to ensure product code harmonisation.” And the next stage? The company intends to extend the use of Demand Solutions to bring further products into the forecasting and replenishment planning process.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56