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Tag: supply chain planning

Toolstation Selects Software to Revamp Inventory Management

Posted on by David Priestman

Toolstation, one of the UK’s largest suppliers of tools, accessories and building supplies, is revamping its inventory management. With over 25,000 products available online and in over 590 stores nationwide, Toolstation has partnered with Slimstock, a knowledge partner and provider of the supply chain planning platform Slim4, to boost product depth across its multi-channel retail operation.

Laying the foundations for operational excellence

As a strategic brand within the Travis Perkins Group, Toolstation continues to invest in its supply chain, building upon its service standards. The latest partnership with Slimstock will lay the foundation for a more efficient and connected supply chain planning operation.

Jonathan Rendall, Head of Supply Chain at Toolstation, states: “With great service, top trade brands, and nationwide convenience, our customers can count on us to get the job done. But to ensure fast, reliable service in-store and online as our operation scales, we need an integrated and scalable supply chain framework.”

The right tools for the job

Toolstation will adopt Slimstock’s advanced supply chain planning platform, Slim4, to address challenges around forecasting, inventory management and replenishment. As part of the transformation project, Slimstock will also support Toolstation in empowering the planning team through upskilling and enabling improved cross-functional collaboration.

By streamlining processes, improving visibility and automating planning workflows, Slimstock will underpin Toolstation’s goals to:

• Improve product availability and deliver a seamless customer experience across every channel
• Improve operational efficiency to accelerate business growth
• Navigate increasing operational complexity, unlocking greater value for customers

“This initiative marks a real commitment to ensuring we satisfy every customer, every time. Slimstock will play a pivotal role in unifying our operation, driving efficiency as we better position the business to meet its promise to thousands of customers across the UK,” adds Rendall.

Following an extensive review of the market, Toolstation selected Slimstock to support its ambitious supply chain transformation. Slimstock’s industry experience and robust implementation process were decisive factors.

Rendall concludes: “We needed a partner who could offer not only a proven technology solution but also work with us to create more effective processes. The strong chemistry between the Toolstation and Slimstock teams throughout the selection process assured us that Slimstock is the right partner to deliver value to our customers.”

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Food Producer to Implement Supply Chain Planning Solution

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Finnebrogue, one of the UK’s leading and award-winning food producers, has selected RELEX Solutions, a provider of unified supply chain and retail planning solutions, to optimise supply chain planning across its four production sites. By implementing RELEX Supply Chain Planning, the family-owned business aims to improve production efficiency and maintain optimal inventory levels through demand sensing and planning, master planning, and production scheduling. RELEX partner, Supply Chain Company, will support the project with implementation services.

Renowned for its premium sausages and revolutionary ‘Naked Bacon’ and ham, made without nitrites, as well as its cutting-edge plant-based production facility, Finnebrogue is a leader in crafting exceptionally tasty and sustainable food from its operations in County Down, Northern Ireland. To further its commitment to operational excellence and sustainability, Finnebrogue is implementing an end-to-end supply chain planning software solution.

The goal: to create a unified, data-driven planning platform that reduces food waste, increases efficiency, and enables smarter decision-making across its operations in County Down. With over 500 SKUs and a diverse product portfolio, RELEX will support planning across Finnebrogue’s four sites – including its sausage and burger factory, bacon facility, cooked mushrooms and value-added, and its dedicated plant-based site.

“As a business driven by innovation and a passion for creating better food, we wanted a partner that could match our ambition,” said Dermot Hawkins, Operations Director, Finnebrogue. “With RELEX, we’re moving away from the limitations of complex spreadsheets and bringing demand, production, and materials planning together onto one integrated platform. This will improve efficiency, reduce risk and waste, and give us the insights we need to make faster, smarter decisions. RELEX’s proven expertise in food manufacturing made them the clear choice to support our journey toward more sustainable, streamlined operations.”

By adopting a machine learning–based demand planning solution with integrated demand sensing, Finnebrogue will gain a more accurate and real-time understanding of shifting demand patterns and consumer behaviour. This improved visibility will enable quicker responses to fluctuations, resulting in fewer lost sales due to improved product availability, better inventory turnover, and reduced waste, an especially critical benefit given the company’s focus on fresh products.

Additionally, advanced master planning and scheduling will allow Finnebrogue to optimise production across all four sites, ensuring efficient resource allocation and tighter alignment with actual demand. Together, these capabilities will enable the organisation to transition from spreadsheet-driven planning to a single, streamlined, and optimised planning environment, significantly improving overall operational efficiency.

“Supply Chain Company is delighted to bring our expertise to this project and support Finnebrogue in achieving their goals. Together with RELEX, we’re confident this collaboration will set a new standard for supply chain planning in the meat industry,” said Henk Jan Rijkse, Director, Supply Chain Company.

“We’re proud to welcome Finnebrogue, a company that shares our commitment to innovation and sustainability to our family,” said Stefano Scandelli, General Manager, Manufacturing Business Unit, RELEX Solutions. “Our unified platform will provide Finnebrogue with the visibility and control needed to optimise their entire value chain and also strengthen their position as a leader in sustainable food production.”

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FuturMaster and PlaniSense Join Forces

Posted on by Keith McKinley

A strategic merger in the supply chain software industry has been announced, between FuturMaster and PlaniSense. Three months after its acquisition by Sagard NewGen, FuturMaster, supplier of SaaS Supply Chain Planning and Revenue Growth Management, has acquired PlaniSense, a specialist in scheduling and production planning.

Thanks to this partnership, FuturMaster integrates PlaniSense’s advanced scheduling capabilities directly into its Bloom platform, offering a market solution that covers strategic planning, process optimization, and real-time scheduling. This combination delivers enhanced precision, increased responsiveness, and complete control over the supply chain, ensuring greater operational performance for manufacturers.

A Major Breakthrough for the Industrial Sector and Its Clients

This merger also embodies a shared vision. By bringing together artificial intelligence, digital twins, and algorithmic excellence, FuturMaster and PlaniSense aim to create a powerful ecosystem that pushes the boundaries of industrial optimization. Companies in the food, luxury, automotive, and distribution sectors could benefit from an integrated, scalable, and high-performance solution, enabling them to: reduce costs, anticipate disruptions, and maximize operational reliability.

Among the companies that use FuturMaster and PlaniSense are Heineken, L’Oréal, Forvia, LVMH, and Bel. The new platform is deployed in over 90 countries, providing businesses with a proven infrastructure tailored to today’s market challenges.

A Global Ambition Driven by Accelerated Growth

With nearly 40 employees and strong technological expertise, PlaniSense is now part of FuturMaster. This acquisition aligns with an ambitious growth strategy, strengthening the group’s presence in Europe, North America, and Asia. In 2024, FuturMaster and PlaniSense jointly welcomed 25 new clients, confirming a trajectory of continuous growth. Supported by Sagard NewGen, FuturMaster continues its international expansion while accelerating the development of innovative solutions.

By joining forces, FuturMaster and PlaniSense provide a more comprehensive response to planning and operational optimization challenges, giving businesses greater control over their supply chains.

Leaders Committed to a Shared Vision

Nazim Nachi, CEO of PlaniSense, states: “The alliance with FuturMaster represents a strategic and natural alignment between our complementary products and teams. We are confident that this collaboration will offer our clients an expanded range of solutions, allowing them to address their Supply Chain management needs even more effectively. Together, we aim to transform the industry by redefining performance and innovation standards.”

Yacine Zeroual, CEO of FuturMaster, adds: “We are very pleased to welcome Nazim and his team. The complementarity between the FuturMaster group and PlaniSense is even more evident as we know each other well and have already built a successful partnership. This merger is a decisive step in realizing our ambitions. We share a common value proposition: transforming complexity into a competitive advantage. Together, we provide businesses worldwide with an unparalleled offer in terms of performance, completeness, and agility.”

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Concurrent Planning – Know what’s going on

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Concurrent planning and execution can be achieved with the right supply chain software. David Priestman spoke to Tom Rhoads, Global VP of Sales for Kinaxis.

“Focus on quality in order management,” Rhoads declares. “Higher level customer orders require multi-tier inventory management and multimodal TMS. We provide one solution, highly secure with a single code base.” Logistics departments are very lean these days. They need many ways to communicate, in real time. Kinaxis has about 300 customers, many of them third party logistics (3PL/LSP) operators like DSV, Ceva and Geodis, as well as household names like Unilever, P&G and Ford. “We’re number 1 in planning,” Rhoads states.

“Now that memory is cheap we can do a lot more computing than before, so we can be fast and powerful. The speed of connections is key for customers,” he tells me. Kinaxis’ software platform can manage six modes of freight transport, including barge and parcels. The company’s proprietary concurrent supply chain techniques give users end-to-end orchestration capability across time horizons, business processes and organizational boundaries.

Trust in sharing data

“We help customers optimise orders in real time and maximise supply chains by decomposing an order into multiple shipments, from sourcing inventory, using different modes of transport,” Rhoads explains. “They can then take on their own micro supply chains and manage them holistically. We monitor visibility.” Companies should embrace sharing supply chain data, he advises.

Tom Rhoads, Kinaxis

But, as we all know, logistics is a movable beast and things do not always go to plan. There are black swans. What then? “Once a plan is published it’s outdated,” Rhoads accepts. “How can we adapt is the question. The product is already en route, perhaps on a ship. Our execution system can adapt via rapid response planning. Customers can automatically make a new plan, including changes, re-routing, new locations and then synchronising that.”

Create accuracy

“With labour disputes, cyber-attacks and the escalation of conflicts in global hotspots like Eastern Europe and the Middle East all threatening the movement of goods globally, businesses have never had a greater need for supply chain solutions that enable them to prepare for and respond to unexpected disruptions,” Conrad Mandala, senior vice president of global partner organization at Kinaxis, said. “The investments we are making in our PartnerLink program will strengthen our position to capitalize on this demand and deliver on our global growth objectives by ensuring our partner ecosystem has the tools they need to help customers achieve supply chain resiliency no matter what risks appear on the horizon.”

Supply chains need to reduce waste, eliminate buffers and keep costs down. “Just-in-time is the perfect world,” Rhoads informs me. “Consumers want instant gratification, so we must know where inventory is, in real time, optimise sourcing and fulfilment. It’s not about knowing or predicting with regards to inventory. It’s about scenario planning in advance, with pre-defined highways of alternative routes. 80% of our customers automate everything. It’s glass box, not black box – know what’s going on!”

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Manhattan Redefines Supply Chain Planning

Posted on by David Priestman

Manhattan Associates has announced Manhattan Active® Supply Chain Planning (SCP), the industry’s first unified business planning platform that enables bi-directional collaboration between supply chain planning and execution systems. This groundbreaking solution enables planners to evaluate all operational factors in real-time, and align all systems, inventory, and resources to a common business objective, such as reducing total landed cost or increasing speed to market.

With traditional supply chain planning, inventory, labour, transportation, and warehouse operations are planned and optimised in isolation. This approach yields fragmented strategies that often conflict with one another and lack feedback from the execution team.

Manhattan Active Supply Chain Planning is the first and only solution unified with supply chain execution to eliminate systemic and operational silos, unlocking enterprise-wide optimisation for the entire inventory assortment and all the resources required to flow it through the supply chain. From inventory and labour to distribution and transportation, all elements are synchronised and harmonised in real-time, seamlessly united under a single plan.

“The ability to coordinate with solutions like OMS, WMS and TMS is a gamechanger. Now inventory, labour, and transportation planning can be considered together to ensure the optimal outcome to benefit the organisation as a whole,” said Scott Fenwick, senior director of Product Management for Manhattan Associates. “It simultaneously considers all these factors to smooth operations and deliver exceptional experiences at the lowest cost.”

Supply Chain Planning

Manhattan Active Supply Chain Planning harnesses the power of AI to combine external data sources with internal patterns to produce more accurate and actionable demand forecasts. This innovative solution is capable of ingesting and rapidly processing vast amounts of syndicated data from external sources, such as influencer activity, industry-specific data sources, and localised data, all of which can influence and shape demand.

Manhattan Active Supply Chain Planning completes the company’s vision of a truly unified supply chain commerce ecosystem. Manhattan is uniquely capable of delivering this fully unified solution because of its technology platform architecture. All Manhattan Active solutions are cloud-native, microservice API applications, engineered to be extensible and evergreen, with regular updates every 90 days. Built on the proven Manhattan Active Platform, Manhattan Active SCP is the most modern, scalable, and adaptable supply chain planning solution on the market.

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Businesses Unprepared for Next Global Crisis 

Posted on by David Priestman

New data from Board International, a leading global provider of Intelligent Planning Solutions which help organisations plan smarter, enabling actionable insights and better outcomes, reveals that despite nearly every global business executing some form of planning transformation attempt since 2020, 90% (Supply chain planning professionals: 88%) report it failing to some degree.

Good intentions aren’t enough

Three years on from Covid-19 caused widespread economic and social disruption, the new Board Planning Transformation Benchmark Survey asked 2,450 decision makers across the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Australia and Singapore how they are faring in light of a series of economic ‘unprecedented’ events. Just 13% (Supply chain planning professionals: 11%) said they were unaffected by events, such as Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.

As a result, 85% (Supply chain planning professionals: 89%) of businesses say planning is now taken more seriously across their organisation; 76% (Supply chain planning professionals: 82%) have seen budgets for planning transformation and planning teams increase; and 94% (Supply chain planning professionals: 95%) are being asked for a more strategic approach to planning by their boards and / or investors.

The report highlights that 90% (Supply chain planning professionals: 88%) of transformations failed for one reason or another. A lack of technical capability within the organisation is cited as the top cause of failed transformations by over a quarter (Global: 26%; Supply chain planning professionals: 29%) of decision makers. Lack of investment in skills (Global: 23%; Supply chain planning professionals: 25%) and scarcity of team resources (Global: 22%; Supply chain planning professionals: 21%) came in close second and third places.

Antiquated practises

In addition to skills gaps, the data reveals wide usage of inefficient planning practices are preventing progress. When asked what tools they use to plan, nearly all (Global: 98%; Supply chain planning professionals: 98%) of the decision makers responded that they do some of their planning on spreadsheets like Excel – a tool built in 1985. And planners are taking on average 27 hours (Supply chain planning professionals: 27 hours) a week to model different scenarios for their business.

The need for a new approach is made clear when asked how ready decision makers feel to navigate the next ‘globally significant’ event on the horizon. When asked if they felt ready to cope with continued supply chain disruption (Global: 29%; Supply chain planning professionals: 26%), rising interest rates (Global: 22%; Supply chain planning professionals: 20%), another pandemic (Global: 32%; Supply chain planning professionals: 32%), or a recession (Global: 34%; Supply chain planning professionals: 35%), around a said they were not.

Marco Limena, Board CEO said: “With all the uncertainty that we see in the world, business leaders need to recognize a new reality: the era of continuous disruption is here. Those seven words are meant as a wake-up call for organizations to continuously adapt and find new capabilities and efficiencies to deal with today’s challenging environment. Continuous planning is an imperative, and the good news is that companies that advance their digital capabilities can steer their business at the speed of change and gain a competitive edge.”

About the survey:
2,450 decision-makers across the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Australia and Singapore in the financial, supply chain, or retail and merchandise planning functions in businesses with 500+ employees were surveyed online between the 26th of January and the 2nd of February 2023.  Of these 849 are supply chain planning professionals. The findings for this subset are noted in brackets.

Beauty Company scales up Demand Planning

Posted on by David Priestman

In the context of volatile demand and price increases, deploying a unique and common collaborative demand planning platform became a priority for Brand Evangelists for Beauty (Be for Beauty). The company, in order to scale, needed to maintain service levels and control costs and has gone through an exponential period of growth over the last couple of years.

Be for Beauty was created 5 years ago by Colette Laxton and Mark Curry. Over the last couple of years, the company has faced strong growth. Their main brand, The INKEY List, has created 4.5 million skin and hair recipes and now counts for over 5 million customer interactions and products being sold in 32 countries. With more than 40 awards and the number 1 followed skincare brand on TikTok, rapid global growth has led to an increase in product SKUs accelerating the need to build and share accurate sales forecasts to maintain service levels but also to control costs.

Be for Beauty was heavily reliant on spreadsheets to create, enrich and collaborate on the forecast. These became too complex to use and maintain, therefore they identified the need for a robust and scalable demand planning solution to secure and industrialize their sales forecasting process, thus enabling them to scale.

FuturMaster’s Bloom Demand Planning platform was selected to improve demand planning effectiveness and efficiency. It is a flexible solution that can support Be for Beauty on its global rapid growth journey. With FuturMaster’s comprehensive list of Health & Beauty clients, the software vendor has been recognized for its knowledge, skills, and expertise within the industry, and identified as the ideal long-term strategic partner to support Be for Beauty’s exponential growth.

Suzanne Coulton, Chief Operating Officer of Be for Beauty said, “We found the FuturMaster team really took the time to understand the challenges we were facing as a business and proposed a great best-fit solution that will both improve our forecasting accuracy and streamline our operations process through efficiencies.”

Matt Hughes, FuturMaster Sales Director, commented: “We are thrilled to have been selected as a demand planning partner by Be for Beauty. Working across so many territories with so many product lines, as they continue to grow The INKEY List and the other brands under their umbrella, Be for Beauty will require a comprehensive demand planning solution far beyond the remit of spreadsheet packages.”

“With FuturMaster’s scalable solution and our far-ranging experience of working with health and beauty clients, we will be able to provide Be for Beauty with the support they need as they continue their exponential growth.”

Created in 1994, FuturMaster is a software vendor focusing on Supply Chain Planning, Integrated Business Planning/S&OP and Trade Promotions X (Management and Optimization) solutions. Our mission today is to enable our customers to leverage complexity and hyper volatility to turn them into a competitive advantage. Our uniqueness lies in a combination of technology, data, and business expertise. We leverage our Bloom platform and build best-fit solutions with which our customers achieve success and get an edge over their competitors. More than 600 customers in 90 countries trust FuturMaster.

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