ARMOR

The Challenge:

CENTRALIZE SALES FORECAST PLANNING

Altkin aimed to centralize sales forecast planning and involve both sales teams and supply chain departments of the different sites in the “lift” of information.

Goals included:

• Improve the reliability of sales forecasts, within a very competitive and volatile market

• Reduce inventory levels while maximizing customer service levels

• Optimize the work of the Demand Planner, allowing for more time on value-added tasks

• Use the results of the analysis of sales forecasts as the first stage of their S&OP process

• Implement the solution within six months

The Solution:

S&OP PROCESS (SALES & OPERATIONS PLANNING) FOR A GLOBAL VISION

Altkin used an external consulting firm to help them develop a structured S&OP process. “We had a fragmented vision of our business,” explains Brichet. “We previously had an informal S&OP process in place. The basis for this was our internal information meetings, a collection of Excel files and detailed analysis. Our executive team wanted to involve all the departments in the product development cycle: sales, marketing, supply chain, manufacturing and general management in a structured S&OP process. Allowing us to define an operations and sales strategy based on the expertise of each stakeholder and using centralized data. A truly collaborative project!” QAD DSCP  provided a key component in the new S&OP framework.

The S&OP process was initially set up for Altkin laser ink products. “We involved the Sales Manager in the project at the outset and conducted a transfer of responsibility from the supply chain to the sales department. It was essential for the sales team to take ownership of both the process  and tools.” says Brichet.

The five steps of the S&OP process include:

• Planning of new product launch

• Transmission of requirements planning to the demand planner so that  he could integrate it into the existing plan

• Program management - production manager based information (new and existing)

• Conflict management - first level between demand and resource management impacts on production plans or finances, changes made by management

• Monthly reviews by each department: purchasing, finance, marketing, sales, production, etc.

“This process today allows us to have a single global view of our business, a complete overview and therefore a better daily management. This was not possible previously. We know how to adjust our strategic plan to match operational needs. We guarantee, in fact, synergy of the sales planning, inventory management, production planning and ultimately our customer service level.”

This was a crucial factor for Altkin as it is now deploying the S&OP process to the other businesses within the group.

“We overhauled all of our processes, including our information systems. We homogenized our ERP,” explains Brichet. “Our executive team was heavily involved in the project from the outset. We set up a team from across the business: IT and business management, sales and supply chain in order to ensure consistency between the different needs and expectations from each department.”

The flexibility of QAD DSCP was also a crucial factor in the success of the project. Demand Planning now satisfies all the functional needs of Altkin. Last but not least, the training was rapidly able to make the sales force completely self-sufficient in the use of the tool. “Our sales team are now also demand planners. They help us to enrich our centralized database. The ergonomics and ease of use of Demand Planning has facilitated this rapid adoption.”

The Benefits:

ALTKIN HAS A WIDER AND CLEARER VISION OF CUSTOMER DEMAND

The B2C (business to consumer) division of Altkin which operates on extremely short cycles, has an accurate forecast. Within the B2B (business to business) the match between the independent and dependent needs (market knowledge and inventory management according to needs) is sustainable. This accuracy across all areas of the business enables Altkin to have a global service level of 95%.

“Within a few months we achieved real stability and were able to rely on our sales forecasts and inventory management,” says Brichet. “Knowing that Altkin shipped 600 packages every day and nine tons of products, we realized significant improvement for our logistics team.”

Information is shared by the various sites within the group in a collaborative way. This allows Altkin to enrich its database and to improve its sales forecasts over time. “The reports that we get through Demand Planning enable us to monitor the evolution of our forecasts, that was much more difficult before.” he adds.

“The flexibility of Demand Planning will allow us to adapt continuously to the evolution of our business and the development of the company,” explains Brichet. “Product life cycles are becoming shorter, the renewal of printer models is constant and rapid. We need to be responsive in developing our new products, knowing that our product development takes place across multiple sites.”

“To summarize, the Altkin strategy is very simple: provide the market with useful products that are part of a sustainable development. This requires that we put in place the right tools to enable us to focus on our core business: the design of innovative products. More importantly, it is necessary that these solutions support our business strategy. With QAD DSCP, we feel this has been achieved,” concludes Brichet.

*Altkin was formerly known as ARMOR Print Solutions