Furniture and appliance retailer, The Relyant Retail Group, required a strategic inventory management system that would improve control of stock levels at its Beares, Geen & Richards, Furniture City, Appliance City, Lubners, Savell and Fairdeal chains around the country.
The group decided to implement Ability - Inventory Optimisation which is developed by Ability Solutions, a leading provider of supply chain optimisation solutions. "We chose to invest in inventory optimisation software to enable the group to centralize and enhance its inventory ordering and delivery systems," says Relyant`s IT director, Doug Wishart. "These are currently managed manually at branch level for each company in the group."
While the branches assist with forecasting, Ability is used centrally to determine the inventory items that must be ordered and distributed to branches nationwide. This ensures that both normal sales and showroom stock is delivered in the correct quantity and at the right time, and will prevent some stores running short of sale items while others are over-stocked.
Wishart says there are plans to implement a central system across all companies in the group to take further advantage of the economies of scale offered by centralized inventory control. This will enable the group to monitor excesses and shortfalls more effectively.
"The consolidation of inventory ordering processes at head office level, combined with forecasting input from the branches, will give Relyant a strong competitive advantage in terms of reducing both stock levels and costs," says Wishart.
"Ability provides the group with the ability to view its actual stock turnover figures on an item-by-item basis," adds Wishart. "This helps management to order goods that sell well and cut orders on slow-moving stock."
According to Wishart, Ability will also improve Relyant`s supplier lead-time management, allowing the group to build variances in delivery times into their safety stock levels.
The implementation of Ability also means that Relyant is better able to respond to changing market conditions as it moves from a quantity driven to a forecast driven ordering system. In the past, the group would have ordered a fixed quantity of stock each time an order went through for a particular item. With the new system, the right amount of stock can be ordered to serve customer demands over a fixed period of time.
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Ability Solutions is a leading provider of supply chain optimization solutions. We help companies accelerate their profitability by providing specialist solutions that address the dynamic needs of businesses in the New Economy. Ability`s flexible, scaleable and robust solutions address the complex problems distributors face as they seek to drive profitable growth. Ability`s solution set includes the Ability - eCommerce Fulfilment, Ability - Inventory Optimisation and Ability - Financial Management solutions.
Ability provides targeted solutions intended to guarantee its customers` ability to realize a rapid return on investment as a result of streamlining their supply chain process, improving their operational efficiencies, effectively managing their suppliers and increasing customer satisfaction. Ability has offices worldwide, with headquarters in Atlanta, GA.
Ability - Inventory Optimisation
Ability - Inventory Optimisation provides organizations with the ability to minimize inventory holdings, at the same time as ensuring optimal inventory availability. It is a next generation decision support solution that results in a marked improvement in customer service levels, while also ensuring an equally significant reduction in working capital. By using state of the art algorithms to map demand against the complexities of real world supply chain variables, Ability - Inventory Optimisation enables the setting and realization of strategic inventory goals. It gives management the ability to realize accelerated profitability by driving their business strategy into each and every fulfilment decision thereby streamlining supply chain processes and helping companies to manage their suppliers and customers more effectively.
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