Agusta Westland

Well-respected in the production and support of rotary wing aircraft worldwide, AgustaWestland has more than 50 years experience in the aerospace industry.

ThyssenKrupp Aerospace

Apollo (now ThyssenKrupp Aerospace) is one of the world’s largest suppliers of high-value metals, with sales exceeding £120 million a year. The Company holds over £35 million in inventories world-wide, with three primary sites in the UK as well as six other international locations. Apollo had just completed their SAP rollout, and discovered a lack of planning ability. There was limited visibility of demand and supply data, and data in SAP wasn’t as clean as it should be. There was also a lack of uniform working practice across their three UK sites. “The Barloworld Optimus Inventory Management System, Optimiza, proved to be the perfect complement to Apollo’s existing SAP Programme. We’ve seen a dramatic service improvement within two years, with Birmingham rising from a low of 65% to over 96% by early 2003” says Supply Chain Manager Jacqui McCarthy.

BOC Group

BOC Group’s logistic service provider arm - GIST - takes distribution network analysis in its stride. Established over thirty years ago, it has 5,500 employees, with operational networks covering western and central Europe, and ventures in the Far East and North America. But while complex spreadsheets provided a means for analysing distribution networks in the past, GIST came to the software market looking for a product with more power and flexibility. After considering a number of alternatives, GIST chose CAST, attracted by its flexible modelling without being too 'data hungry'. Following an initial training course, the software was first used for GIST‘s flagship customer, Marks and Spencer. Since then, many other supply chains have been modelled: including a gas cylinder filling and delivery network in South Africa, for which the strategic level use of CAST enabled GIST to consider many more network strategies than had previously been possible.

Christy Towels

UK towel brand-leader Christy had massively transformed its forecasting accuracy using Barloworld Optimus’ leading edge demand management tool Optimiza Demand Planner (ODP) offering multi-level, multi-channel forecasting - but a switch to global sourcing threatened a return to Square One...

Gazelle

Toplogic is a partner of Barloworld Optimus and a value added reseller of the Optimiza inventory optimisation software in Holland and recently installed the system at Gazelle. Royal Gazelle is now a leading manufacturer of bicycles in The Netherlands. They now produce about 400,000 bicycles per year and the collection of bicycles changes each year. The introduction of the new models puts more and more pressure on supply chain management and the number of parts used increases. In addition to this, the lifecycle of the various parts is getting shorter. Hans Dooper, Logistics manager at Gazelle, says: “We looked for focused software with a user friendly interface that could meet our need for forecasting and management by exception. Moreover visibility in the supply chain was crucial.” “In addition to the implementation, TopLogic provided consultancy on inventory management and enabled us to use the Optimiza system effectively and get the required supply chain visibility. The installation and use has been very successful: availability increased from an average of 73% mid 2006 to over 90% by the end of the year. Additionally there is more focus on avoiding excess stock. We are very satisfied.”

IMI Norgren

Norgren is a major international company, with decades of experience in coordinating large-scale customer projects across national boundaries. Norgren guarantees availability of pneumatic products and local support anywhere in the world, via a global service network consisting of a combination of 75 of its own market companies and independent distributors. ‘Prior to Optimiza being chosen as the European inventory optimisation system, each European market company managed their own inventory in isolation with no central visibility, collaboration and co-ordination’ says Guy Dunkerley, IMI Norgren European Logistics Director. ‘ The implementation of Optimus’s methodology and Optimiza system has resulted in significant improvements to the efficiency of Norgren’s supply chain, namely: Norgren’s UK stock was reduced by over €1.5m (26%) between August 2002 and February 2003. Availability remains in line with target levels. Other countries implemented later have seen reductions of between 9% & 14% to date, with inventory continuing to decrease. Forecasting is now accepted as an essential component in managing the company’s inventory.

Melles Griot

A world-leader in the design and manufacturer of products that enable the practical application of light, New Yorkbased Melles Griot is no stranger to innovation. For over 30 years, the company has supplied the elements that create light, control its efficient use, and position photonic devices for a diverse range of industries including biotechnology, semiconductor manufacturing, photonics research, and image recording. With such an extensive array of products and wide global reach, Melles Griot must manage an inventory with over 13,000 stock-keeping units, many of which have very erratic demand profiles. Denis Lee, Director of Operations, Melles Griot Optics Group, said: “The Barloworld team delivered the solution on time and in budget easily accommodating our unique requirements. Optimiza is now fully integrated into our business processes and provides detailed support in forecasting future sales, identifying true excesses and making better use of our Baan ERP system.” “The financial rewards and process improvements have been significant and allow us to focus on what is really important to our business,” said Bill Polito, Chief Financial Officer of the Melles Griot Group. As a result of the successes achieved in this project, Optimiza is now being implemented in Melles Griot’s Photonics and Laser Groups, in Europe and California respectively.

SAB Miller

With an integrated network spanning 60 countries and five continents, SABMiller plc is one of the world's largest brewers, bringing to the market such well-known brands as Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Pilsner Urquell and Miller Genuine Draft. When SAB purchased Miller Brewing Company, there were synergies to be explored and overlaps to be overcome to maximise the impact of the pairing. A potential 200% increase in the licensed customer base meant that a number of depot infrastructure options had to be considered. SABMiller scoured the software market for existing systems and found CAST to be the only off-the-shelf solution that met its requirement. SABMiller explains: "On first viewing we felt that CAST would address our needs, and our experience has confirmed that view. The software is exceptionally user-friendly and flexible. We have been able to achieve all we planned to do, and more. It took a couple of months to become proficient in using the software, but now we are able to model one region of our operation in approximately one fifth of the time that we needed previously."

Sainsbury

A household name in UK grocery shopping, Sainsbury's serves 30,000 products to over 16 million customers a week from 752 stores. With a commitment to shoppers, Sainsbury's understands its obligation to provide the right stock at the right time and price. To that end, the locating of its Regional Distribution Centres is of paramount importance. Sainsbury’s initially purchased CAST to perform strategic analysis on its distribution network, to ascertain the optimum number and location of RDCs for the future. They have since used CAST to identify the potential locations of intermediate warehouses, to find future opportunities to improve their primary distribution network and, crucially in the highly competitive supermarket industry, to help identify where financial savings are possible.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

When worldwide pharmaceutical group Teva Pharmaceutical Industries opted for Optimiza Demand Planner to tackle some industry-specific demand planning issues, results proved instant and remarkable. Since then, the company has worked closely with ODP developers Barloworld Optimus to stretch the forecasting tool into the ‘information warehouse’ for all its product management purposes as the group pushes to become recognised as world leader in its field...

WYKO

With the Far East now dominating the supply scene, the challenge is now one of predicting future good needs up to six months in advance. Add to that the restrictions of minimum order quantity and the constraints of containers, trade merchants, such as WYKO, perform a delicate balancing act on a day-to-day basis. As the UK's largest supplier of industrial goods and services of its type, WYKO wanted to reduce stock in its national distribution centres and improve service to its branches, overcoming a traditionally manual process. Optimiza allowed WYKO to take back control of its inventory management, giving it the ability to manage its stock effectively. Now, Optimiza has become a key part of WYKO’s daily process and an integral factor in the company’s growth.