How Streamline saves Whalen Furniture $56,000/month in excessive stock costs
Key Results:
- 90% time spent on daily routine was reduced (What took a day and a half to do, now takes only seconds to update with Streamline)
- Inventory had dropped by 36%
- Saved about $56,000/month in excessive stock costs
About the client
Whalen – lifetime of beauty and service furniture for your home and office. Whalen Furniture plays a leading role in designing and manufacturing a spectrum of product categories. It was founded in 1991 in San Diego by Ken Whalen. The Company offers bookcases, desks, file drawers, modular walls, curio with files, computer roll tops, and storage cabinets. Whalen products blend innovation, style, quality, and timely delivery and have developed a loyal customer base in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.
Challenge
The main pain points of Whalen Furniture’s team that led them to look for a supply chain solution were as follows:
- Lack of upfront costs and contracts.
- It was impossible to forecast the order of raw materials and predict the manufacturing of finished goods without a clear understanding of orders quantity and customer demand.
- Too much time spent working in Excel. “We were like firefighters, not supply chain managers.”
- Absence of full-time tech support. Supply chain planners looked for a solution that easily connects to their ERP system, so they will be able to test and set up everything smoothly.
- Expertise in supply chain optimization. Whalen Furniture looked for a dedicated person who knows the manufacturing business while consulting supply chain IT solutions.
Project
During the trial period, Whalen Furniture was able to test the software using Excel files with data exported from their ERP system to Streamline. The showed outcomes were satisfied, so the team decided to go forward with the Streamline and implement it for the whole company. The most appealing feature for Whalen Furniture’s team was the ability to assign channels (customers) to the items offered by Streamline.
“It has multiple types of connections. We were able to test the software using Excel files with data exported from our ERP system. Once we decided to go forward, the database connection was easy to set up.”
Outcomes
Whalen Furniture has seen the results in the first month after Streamline implementation. Streamline reduced a 90% time spent on daily routine. An employee spent about a day and a half updating Excel spreadsheets that had 60 items. He only focused on one of five divisions. The other divisions did not have his level of data because they had many items, and it was too cumbersome to use Excel. We were like firefighters, not supply chain managers. What took him a day and a half to do, now takes only seconds to update with Streamline. He can spend the rest of the time analyzing the Streamline data. The other divisions use Streamline and do not know how they managed without it. Whalen Furniture inventory had dropped by 36% with Streamline. The company has been able to eliminate two auxiliary buildings rented month-to-month. That has saved about $56,000/month in excessive stock costs for them.
Do you want to test Streamline on your company’s data?
Further Reading:
- How to deal with supply chain processes during the Coronavirus outbreak
- Why switch from Excel to inventory planning software
- Must-read: Smart Supply Chain Management solutions for business processes optimization
- Cross-Functional Alignment in Supply Chain Planning: A Case Study of Sales and Operations Planning [PDF]
- Demand & Supply Management: Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment
Still relying on manual work in Excel for planning?
Automate demand and supply planning with Streamline today!
- Achieve optimal 95-99%+ inventory availability, ensuring you can meet customer demand consistently.
- Attain up to 99% forecast accuracy, getting more reliable planning and decision-making.
- Experience up to a 98% reduction in stockouts, minimizing missed sales opportunities and customer dissatisfaction.
- Cut excess inventory by up to 50%, freeing up valuable capital and storage space.
- Increase margins by 1-5 percentage points, boosting overall profitability.
- Enjoy up to 56 times ROI within one year, with a 100% ROI achievable in the first three months.
- Reduce the time spent on forecasting, planning, and ordering by up to 90%, allowing your team to focus on strategic activities.
