Food manufacturer needs better recipe for inventory planning​

Picture this...

You’re a PE-backed food contract manufacturer that has scaled aggressively through acquisition activity. You have mouth-watering numbers: 39 manufacturing operations, total revenue of ~$3B, and EBITDA of ~$250M. But you also have a less appetizing figure: ~$230M of your working capital is tied up in inventory. You need to improve your inventory planning and management.

You turn to Accordion.

We help identify the missing ingredients in your inventory model, and start building a better operating model by:​

• Understanding your current inventory issues: ​
  • Interviewing key stakeholders to document current operating process, data and system capabilities, roles and responsibilities, and pain points​
  • Touring select plants to deepen understanding of on-the-floor concerns​
  • Conducting a deep dive analysis of the raw material, work in progress, and finished goods inventory​
  • Determining current level of inventory days on hand (DOH)​
• Building an optimized inventory system: ​
  • Developing order cycle optimization model to reduce inventory DOH​
  • Improving inventory model across quality holds process/policy, forecast planning and accuracy, and 3PL locations​
  • Prioritizing plants and SKUs for order cycle optimization pilot​
  • Creating a prioritized roadmap to achieve future state targets across 4 initiatives

Your value is enhanced.

You’re now cooking with gas:​

• You have an inventory optimization program with a targeted solution to reduce inventory by $37M through order cycle optimization, standardizing quality policies, and improving forecast accuracy/planning. ​
• You’ve identified opportunities to drive EBITDA enhancement by ~$10M through network optimization by reducing the need for overflow 3PL warehouses (including labor, material movement charges, and shuttle/transportation). ​
• You’re ready to start a phase 2 execution/pilot program to optimize the order cycle process across 6 plants.