Swartland finetunes inventory management with customized SYSPRO/Tempo solution

Drastically improved reliability and availability of stock

Customer

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Introduction

Established in 1951, Swartland has become one of the largest suppliers of products to the building industry. Its products include wood and aluminum windows and doors as well as PAR timbers, garage doors and XPS insulation board. The company operates eight manufacturing plants and runs two depots, seven branches and more than 42,000m2 of warehouse space across all major South African centers.

The Business Challenge

Swartland needed to give its manufacturing plants visibility of stock, sales orders and customer demand, with live data updates for accurate calculations. To achieve that objective, the company needed to manage its stock levels, ordering and production in real time throughout the operation.

SYSPRO Solution

Swartland appointed SYSPRO partner Lancea Konsult to develop Tempo, a stock level app which is integrated into SYSPRO. Tempo maintains a stock buffer through the use of cover days and lead times to calculate optimal stock levels based on stock movements. It provides a single view and automatically suggests replenishment based on buffer penetration.

The Outcome

The SYSPRO/Tempo solution has enabled Swartland to identify and quickly respond to changes in the market while drastically improving the reliability and availability of stock across its national footprint.

“Essentially, Tempo has enabled us to identify and respond quickly to changes in the marketplace. It has also drastically improved the reliability and availability of stock at all our branches.”
– Erika van Niekerk, ERP Manager, Swartland.

A philosophy of optimal stock management

One of Swartland’s strategic objectives is to manage its stock optimally using Theory of Constraints principles. This means that rather than applying the typical Material Requirements Planning (MRP) time-phased approach, it uses color-coded buffer levels in specific zones that create priorities indicating when each item should be replenished and to what level.

Prior to implementing Tempo, one of the challenges faced by Swartland was an inability to make quick decisions to accurately replenish stock and meet demand throughout the supply chain. Decisions were made in isolation without a complete and accurate picture of supply and demand.

Erika van Niekerk, ERP Manager of Swartland, says: “With the Tempo stock app, the buffer levels are self-adjusted based on the historic trending of the item, and the buffer creates a visual representation showing where action is needed. This makes it simple for the users and enables us to manage vast quantities quickly.”

Tempo was developed specifically for Swartland by SYSPRO partner Lancea Konsult. Van Niekerk commended Lancea Konsult for its excellent support, inventory and warehousing experience, and commitment to helping Swartland achieve its goals.

Danie Grobbelaar, Director of Lancea Konsult, explains that the enhanced inventory management is made possible by the implementation of Tempo into SYSPRO.

“Tempo’s ability to post and retrieve data from SYSPRO simplifies the entire process. The solution provides an interface to users that is easy to understand and also provides visibility into the stock levels on line level by using a color-coded buffer display.”
– Danie Grobbelaar, Director, Swartland.

SYSPRO’s Business Objects simplifies the process of retrieving data in real time and enables transactions to be posted back into SYSPRO once they have been actioned in Tempo. SYSPRO provides all the necessary data, including stock levels, purchase orders, sales orders, jobs and warehouse transfers, to enable Tempo to calculate the buffers and create replenishment suggestions.

Tangible business benefits

Tempo’s ability to display and calculate live stock levels in buffers enables Swartland to automatically replenish and maintain stock with buffer penetration. This helps the business adhere to its Theory of Constraints philosophy while simultaneously meeting its goal of optimizing stock levels.

In addition, Tempo enables Swartland to quickly identify bottlenecks in the supply chain and offers safety stock adjustments, stock transfers, purchasing and production suggestions to address those issues.

“We can then look at a Stock/Time graph in Tempo to see if the suggestion will fix the constraint or whether we need to add extra production capacity or adjust order quantities. It also allows us to see if it is a seasonal problem and if so we can set up a seasonality buffer to increase stock up to a certain date and then automatically decrease thereafter,” van Niekerk says.

“Essentially, Tempo has enabled us to identify and respond quickly to changes in the marketplace. It has also drastically improved the reliability and availability of stock at all our branches.”

Achieve business success with SYSPRO ERP

SYSPRO is a leading, global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provider, specializing in key manufacturing and distribution industries. SYSPRO’s ERP solution empowers customers to take the next step – whether it is expanding into new territories, adding new product lines, transforming business processes, or driving innovation.

Swartland finetunes inventory management with customized SYSPRO/Tempo solution

Drastically improved reliability and availability of stock

Customer

Introduction

The Business Challenge

SYSPRO Solution

The Outcome

A philosophy of optimal stock management

Tangible business benefits

Achieve business success with SYSPRO ERP

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