Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- Canada
Product
- Blue Yonder’s forecasting and replenishment capabilities
Tech Stack
- RF technology
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Rexall is a Canadian retail pharmaceutical company that has been experiencing growth within the industry. However, the company's reliance on older technology and processes was impacting its profitability, efficiency, and competitive agility. The store replenishment process was initiated at the store level based on the results of daily physical inventory counts that leveraged handheld RF technology. Store managers had limited visibility to future store-level demand pattern changes, item cannibalization, safety stock requirements or days coverage prior to placing these manual orders. This resulted in frequent demand-supply imbalances. Additionally, purchase orders to vendors were conducted via non-EDI channels with patterns and volatility that resembled the patterns within the stores, causing similar imbalances with the DCs.
The Challenge
Rexall, a Canadian retail pharmaceutical company, was facing challenges due to its reliance on older technology and processes. The store replenishment process was initiated at the store level based on the results of daily physical inventory counts that leveraged handheld RF technology. Store managers had limited visibility to future store-level demand pattern changes, item cannibalization, safety stock requirements or days coverage prior to placing these manual orders. This resulted in frequent demand-supply imbalances. Additionally, purchase orders to vendors were conducted via non-EDI channels with patterns and volatility that resembled the patterns within the stores, causing similar imbalances with the DCs. As such, the organization sought to establish an advanced planning model that would eliminate the extremely labor intensive and manual replenishment process.
The Solution
Rexall implemented Blue Yonder’s forecasting and replenishment capabilities to provide an automated decision support platform to perform advanced planning activities and to improve Rexall’s operations and ultimately its bottom line. The entire project was completed in 30 weeks. To date the solution controls the replenishment operations for 317 stores corporate store locations across Canada. Now, all non-direct to store products are replenished leveraging Blue Yonder solutions. The entire replenishment process has been revamped across Rexall’s network to utilize a centralized, newly defined recommended order process, whereby stores are provided a daily list of recommended purchases. The recommended orders that are derived from a combination of store-level demand forecast, promotional input and timephased inventory positions is compared and approved by the store for replenishment.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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