By implementing Netstock, Aero Healthcare can can measure supplier performance resulting in fewer stock-outs and happier customers.
The key driver for Aero Healthcare was to improve on their OTIF (on time, in full deliveries) and to get the right stock on the shelf at the right time, reducing stock-outs and improving their customer fill rates.
“By implementing Netstock, we have been able to achieve this,” Karen Cable, Operations Manager at Aero Healthcare.
“We are keeping our key customers happy by delivering their orders on time, and we managed to reduce our back-orders from 277 to 20. We were also able to show our new customers our OTIF statistics which made them comfortable to commence business with us. This was the best ROI we could have hoped for.”
Aero Healthcare provides emergency services, medical professionals, and first aiders with dependable quality and innovative medical consumables. Aero Healthcare manufactures and imports a range of brands to offer a complete product portfolio to their customers. Their customers consist of the police and fire departments, as well as retail pharmacies.
Before implementing Netstock, Aero Healthcare exported data from their Orderwise ERP into Excel, where they attempted to manage their forecasts manually. Having over 1,300 SKU’s this soon became a mammoth task, and they found they were consistently running out of stock. By not having data, such as supplier lead times, or having inventory policies that look at safety stock levels and item classification, there was no reliable or scientific way to determine their replenishment needs.
The key driver for Aero Healthcare was to improve on their OTIF (on time, in full deliveries) and to get the right stock on the shelf at the right time, reducing stock-outs and improving their customer fill rates. “By implementing Netstock, we have been able to achieve this,” says Karen Cable, Operations Manager at Aero Healthcare. We are keeping our key customers happy by delivering their orders on time, and we managed to reduce our back-orders from 277 to 20. We were also able to show our new customers our OTIF statistics which made them comfortable to commence business with us. This was the best ROI we could have hoped for.”
“There are many things I like about Netstock, and having used many other demand planning solutions over the years, I can confidently say that for me, Netstock is by far the superior product.
Some of the functionality that has really impressed me includes:
- Netstock allows you to forecast in different ways based on sales parameters. It won’t just give one forecast across the entire product range as some other systems do.
- With the Netstock Dashboard, I can run reports in a nanosecond, quickly see our out of stocks, potential stock-outs, and manage these critical issues first.
- I’m able to place orders really quickly, and I like that it calculates safety stock based on each product’s supply risk taking into account the actual lead time and not whatever you have plugged into the system. Netstock will calculate, for example, that I’ve put in a hundred days lead time for a particular supplier coming out of China, but it knows, on average, this supplier takes 150 days. It forces me to place a PO [purchase order] earlier, or we can choose to hold enough stock on-site to allow for that delay.
Part of the Aero Healthcare product portfolio includes, amongst others PPE, breathing apparatus, and tubes. At the start of COVID-19, this area of the business exploded overnight. The demand increased substantially, and they had to get supply very, very quickly.
“The upsurge in demand was great for our bottom line, but we had to ensure that this ‘abnormal’ demand wasn’t being recognized over the months or years that followed. This is where Netstock really shines as you can choose to ignore those ‘unusual’ months by manually adjusting your forecast, adding in policy overrides so you don’t bring in too much safety stock.”
“Besides the superior features and functionality of the solution, the Netstock team has been incredible to deal with. Their customer onboarding is thorough, and the ongoing support we have received has been top class,” concludes Karen.
