Deslee Mattex improves forecasting and reduces stock-outs

Deslee Mattex’s product range is seasonal and market-driven. The fabric color & decor choices change all the time, and their range differs year on year. Deslee Mattex had no platform to calculate their sales forecasts and tried to predict their orders using historical data and spreadsheets. But with each season being different and essentially new items being introduced all the time, it was impossible to forecast with any reasonable accuracy. New items are challenging to forecast, and the potential to over-purchase or under-purchase due to the lack of sales history is a common problem. There are numerous ways to treat new items so that you can produce more accurate forecasts, but their systems and processes couldn’t manage this level of sophistication. With the added complexity of seasonal demand fluctuations together with new item complexities, their spreadsheets soon proved problematic and hugely inefficient.

They had no visibility of their supplier’s performance to help them with their lead time calculations, so stock-outs resulting from late deliveries and incorrect orders being placed were a regular occurrence for them.

“Since the implementation of Netstock, our stockouts have decreased considerably. We have been able to use customer forecast inputs to refine our forecasts to greater accuracy” This, in turn, works through the BOM, allowing us to procure the correct inventory at the right levels,” explains Ronald Schlosz, Procurement Supervisor.

Deslee Mattex now experiences little to no stock-outs and are alerted to any potential ones early enough to be able to react and resolve. Additionally, their fill rate has improved to just below 100% on most of their stock items. They now have full visibility of their slow or redundant inventory thanks to the sophisticated matrix used in Netstock for item classification, and can implement a plan of action to reduce or use these.

“If you want to have the right stock in the right quantities, reduce your excess and slow-moving items, manage new items, improve lead times, identify potential shortfalls, all while reducing your working capital, then you need Netstock,” concludes Ronald.