A leading Electric Utility implemented Smart IP&O in just 3 months and now uses the software to optimize its reorder points and order quantities for over 250,000 spare parts. During the first phase of the implementation, the platform helped the Utility reduce inventory by $9,000,000 while maintaining service levels. The implementation is part of the company’s strategic supply chain optimization initiative.
Theirs is a highly demanding market often requiring engineered-to-order systems with exceptional performance and rapid delivery cycles. Kratos pursued a hybrid planning approach, combining sales planning by its business development team with statistical forecasting from Smart Software.
Using Smart IP&O, BC Transit was able to forecast the financial impact of stocking decisions. They are able to balance capacity against criticality and the cost of inventory. They have been able to reduce the number of orders, determine optimal order quantities, and deal with variability of lead time – especially long lead times.
Read how Prevost Parts, the parts division of Canadian bus manufacturer Prevost Car, uses Smart to more effectively distribute parts for the North American motorcoach and transit bus markets. Learn why Prevost selected Smart over SAP’s demand planning application and how it has reduced inventory and transportation costs while improving customer service.
Metro-North’s prime objective is to move people in a timely manner. Service outages resulting from imbalanced inventory – too much of some things, not enough of others – required a new approach. Learn how MNR applied Smart to improve planning for intermittently demanded service parts, increasing service levels while reducing inventory.
Read how Bedoukian Research, a manufacturer of specialty chemicals used in fragrances and flavors by customers worldwide, is using Smart’s intermittent demand forecasting technology to improve inventory management and consistently achieve targeted customer service levels.
Rev-A-Shelf, the leading US Manufacturer of home storage accessory items, uses Smart to optimize inventory and meet its 3-day shipment guarantee despite fluctuating supplier lead times.
Forum Energy Technologies’ Valve Solutions Division transformed its demand planning process, improved its responsiveness to changing market conditions, and addressed the thorny problem of intermittent demand planning using Smart. Learn how.
Big Ass Fans, the best-selling large fan manufacturer in the world, encountered a problem: how to reliably plan production to meet demand. BAF was experiencing a gap between bookings forecasts vs. shipments, and this was impacting revenue and customer satisfaction. BAF turned to Smart Software for help.
Procon, a leading pump manufacturer, transformed its supply chain with Smart IP&O. Smart platform’s collaborative tools, advanced analytics, and smooth integration with Procon’s ERP system led to accurate forecasts, optimal inventory levels, and heightened customer satisfaction. Procon’s three-year partnership with Smart Software reflects ongoing support, adaptability, and a platform that continuously meets their specific needs.
Accurate forecasts are central to ImpressArt’s business model, the linchpin in its supply chain that ensures product availability through its strategic channel partners. Jeff Wolter, CEO of ImpressArt, explains why forecasting is so important, how he came to select Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization as Impress Art’s forecasting and demand planning system, and how better forecasts are helping their business.
Seneca Companies, an industry leader in automotive petroleum services, adopted Smart Software to model customer demand, control inventory performance, and drive replenishment. Field technicians embraced its use, and total inventory investment decreased by more than 25%, from $11 million to $8 million.
Minnesota Metro Transit deployed SmartForecasts to handle intermittent demand for equipment parts at the public transit system. Nucleus Research found that the inventory optimization application reduced parts inventory, emergency transshipments, and purchase requisitions while increasing perfect-order levels, resulting in higher equipment uptime for the transit system.
Rose Brand selected demand and inventory planning software from Smart Software as the foundation for a methodical planning process. This enabled them to effectively implement Min/Max inventory planning, setting optimal Minimum On-Hand values and order quantities.
Learn how Montreal Transit Corporation’s, one of Canada’s largest Transit Organizations with an operating a fleet of 1,680 buses and 84 subway trains, utilized SmartForecasts as part of a revamped inventory management process to improve service levels and drive down inventory.
Testimonials
“With Smart Software we are now able to more effectively communicate with our CM partners, despite the lack of forecastability in our business, and simultaneously reduce material cost and shorten lead times.”
“Whatever the request, we need to meet our next day service commitment – Smart enables us to risk adjust our inventory, to be sure we have the products and parts on hand to achieve the service levels our customers require.”
“One of the things I like about this new tool, beyond intermittent demand forecasting and the service level-driven approach, is that I can evaluate the consequences of inventory stocking decisions before I implement them. With other systems, I’d have to make individual changes in the production environment and then wait to see the consequences over time. Vendor-managed inventory is frequently discussed with our suppliers, and I view service level-driven demand planning as an essential element of a successful VMI program.”
“Smart’s collaborative tools, advanced analytics, and seamless integration with our ERP system led us to improved accuracy, optimal inventory levels, and enhanced on-time deliveries. Our partnership with Smart Software has been remarkable, evolving over three years with continuous support and delivering exactly what we need. The tools empower our sales team, contributing not just to forecast accuracy but also to elevated customer satisfaction and on-time deliveries.”
“Smart IP&O enabled us to model demand at each stocking location and, using service level-driven planning, determine how much to stock to achieve the service level we require. By running and comparing different scenarios we can easily define and update optimal stocking policies for each tech support rep and stockrooms.”
“The software allows us to identify parts that are outliers and then set the service level we want to offer our customers. With that information, we can decide how much of that part we want to have on the shelf.”
“Hooker Furniture has substantially improved its inventory performance through the use of Smart IP&O. It is an essential tool for our Sales and Operations Planning process, helping us align inventory with customer demand. We are more able to identify trends, pick up on changes in demand, and adapt our plans accordingly. The software is user friendly, easy to learn and navigate, and has helped us optimize our inventory and increase turns.”
“Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization is the critical tool we use to manage our forecasts across a large and dynamic set of Products/Parts, multi-national sites, and complex supply chains.”
“Smart is the only one out there that has really licked the intermittent demand modeling challenge. We get accurate information and more importantly at the lowest dollar. Without Smart, I think we would have seen a continued growth in our inventory and not necessarily gotten any greater benefit for service.”
“I studied all the best practices from numerous sources and found that Smart’s approach was addressing everything. Smart is helping me save time and automate the inventory planning process, which ultimately is helping me scale our business. We now have a great inventory planning and forecasting process generating measurable value that can be plugged into whatever ERP we choose.”
“Smart IP&O allowed us to transform our manually maintained stocking levels to a service level-based model that drove significant improvements in fill rates while optimizing total inventory on hand. The accurate forecasts of stocking levels provided fact-based data that allowed us to strategically phase the consolidation effort where warehouse space was at a premium”
“Smart’s service level planning methodology has led to productive conversations between sales and supply chain and given us a platform or common ground from which we base our discussions.”
“If we do not have an item in our stores, our customers will go somewhere else to get it. With the improvements to our forecasts and inventory planning that SmartForecasts enabled, we have been able to reduce safety stock by 20% while also reducing stock-outs 35%. This has helped us grow our sales 15% in the past year. This ability to manage our inventory better contributed to our recent decision to expand our business to new locations.”
“The intermittent demand forecasting capability has been very useful. We’ve gone from forecasting our slow-moving items by hand with poor results to automatically generating highly accurate stocking level estimates. During a time of sales growth, we’ve been able to reduce finished goods inventory by 4%, raw materials inventory by 5% and decrease late shipments from 16% to 3%.”
Selected Customers
MRO & Aftermarket Spare Parts
Manufacturing
Distribution
Contact Us Today for More Information
If you request a demo, one of our specialists will show you how Smart can help, using your own inventory data!