industry
Manufacturing

Preparing an inventory optimization pilot program to match a food contract manufacturer’s hunger for growth

Key result:
  • Established inventory optimization program roadmap with target of $37M
  • Reduced inventory by $10.5M in pilot
  • Reduced days of supply from 33 to 20
Value levers pulled:
  • Inventory optimization assessment & roadmap design

Picture this

You’re a $3B Food Contract Manufacturer who has grown aggressively through acquisitions and has 39 manufacturing operations in the US with additional international operations. With an EBITDA of $250M, you have $230M+ of working capital tied in inventory—including raw materials, work in process, and finished goods.) You need to optimize your inventory program. ​

You turn to Accordion.

We assess the processes that plan and manage inventory for the US operations to identify improvement opportunities and develop a plan to address them, including:

  • Diving into inventory improvement opportunities with functional stakeholders in corporate and operating plants
  • Assessing the current state through interviews with corporate, supply chain directors, and plant managers; Documenting current operating processes, data & system capabilities, roles & responsibilities, and pain points; Touring plants; Analyzing the raw material, work in progress, and finished goods inventory; Determining current level of inventory days of supply (DOS).
  • Designing the future state by developing an order cycle optimization model to reduce inventory DOS; Evaluating additional inventory improvement opportunities across quality holds process/policy, forecast planning & accuracy, and 3PL locations; Developing a prioritized roadmap approach to achieve future state targets across 4 initiatives; Prioritizing plants and SKUs for order cycle optimization pilot.

Your value is enhanced.

You get a roadmap for the 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 also now have 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.)

The order cycle optimization pilot results in a targeted inventory reduction of $10.5M, reducing DOS from 33 to 20 days, and further identified non-pilot SKU inventory reduction opportunity of $15M (for total inventory reduction of $25.5M.)

Enhanced value:

You reap multiple benefits, including:

  • Established inventory optimization program roadmap with target of $37M
  • Reduced inventory by $10.5M in pilot
  • Reduced days of supply from 33 to 20

Interested in Accordion? Let's talk.

Our contact form is currently blocked by your cookie preferences. Please change your preferences to continue.