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STOP SA is a company specializing in the production and distribution of personal protective equipment. Since 1978, it has been a leader in the Greek market with a focus on providing safety, through high quality equipment, training and support, to every employee.
The challenge
The company has a particularly wide range of products. Thousands of species, with most being characterized by complex information such as colour and size. The volume of data is very large, making it very difficult to accurately forecast demand. Therefore, the decision on the quantity of the order to suppliers was particularly difficult to determine. Company employees spent a significant part of the day reviewing data from previous years in order to order the optimal quantity for each of the items, in the appropriate combination by color and size. Time pressure and the volume of data often led to ordering less than the required quantity and as a result, the company could not meet the demand and therefore lost sales and reliability to the customer. Conversely, in some cases, the order included larger quantities than demand, thus increasing the costs of maintaining stocks.
The solution: the Verus+ Forecast Tool
To solve this issue, Verus+ developed the Forecast application, which Stop has been using for 18 years to forecast demand and place orders with suppliers. Through the app, the user can calculate within minutes the ideal quantity to order for thousands of products. In the past, this process took days of work. Plus, Forecast automatically generates the quantity to be purchased, making realistic forecasts very close to reality.
How it works - Full integration with Soft1 ERP
The application performs calculations on data that it automatically draws from Soft1 ERP, such as previous year’s sales, last months’ sales to calculate possible growth/recession, as well as seasonal sales (sales fluctuations in the same period in the previous year). At the same time, it removes the quantity already placed on a supplier’s order and displays the date it is expected to be received in the warehouse. It adds the blocked stocks from customer orders and finally removes those that are in the warehouse (accounting stock and/or WMS stock). Αντλώντας τα παραπάνω δεδομένα αυτόματα από το Soft1 ERP, η εφαρμογή υπολογίζει σε λίγα μόλις λεπτά την ποσότητα που πρέπει να παραγγείλει η εταιρεία για το καθένα από τα χιλιάδες είδη.
The predictions are accurate 80% of the time, a confidence level achieved by complex statistical analysis models. After generating the results, the user can easily change the forecast value for each stock type. For example, the company may have acquired an important customer in the last month who buys large quantities in addition to the usual demand. The software calculates the quantity based on actual past data. However, in cases where such significant changes in business conditions occur, the user must evaluate the results and make a decision by combining business information that is not clearly captured in the ERP.
The buyer adds to the bottom of the Forecast the items he has checked for order quantity, while calculating the total cost compared to the minimum order amount set by the supplier. Once the entry of the items has been completed, the user can automatically create an order document in the Soft1 purchasing circuit or export the data to excel for further processing or sharing with other systems.
The results
So now the company knows the optimal stock to order. It does not lose sales due to lack of stock, nor does it increase costs by overstocking its warehouse.
Previously, the company assigned its employees for days to calculate the order quantity for thousands of items in color and size. With Forecast, the process is completed in minutes, allowing employees to focus on tasks that are of greater value to the business. This increases productivity and saves the company time and money annually.
Another important benefit is the minimization of the preparation time of stock order documents. Η Stop, δεδομένων των υψηλών καθημερινών πωλήσεων, χρειάζεται τακτικά να παραγγέλνει μεγάλες ποσότητες αποθεμάτων. Before Forecast, the user had to spend several hours of work to enter each item on the document and send it to the supplier. Now, this process is done automatically with Forecast and Soft1 ERP.
Overall, by adding Forecast to its operation, the business always maintains optimal inventory, while at the same time, it has significantly reduced staff costs in calculating its inventory quantity and ordering from suppliers.
Contact us!
Want to save time and money by forecasting demand with Forecast? Or do you have a specific need that is not being met by the market? In any case, Verus+ can offer the right solution. Contact us to analyze your needs and propose the right solution that will transform your business.
