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Business
Intelligence Solutions -Q4bis™
Clients
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www.goldenbay.co.nz
Today's
Golden Bay Cement had its origins in the earliest New Zealand cement
manufacturing ventures in Northland in the 1870s. Following the
closures of the Tarakohe plant in 1989 and the small Lee Valley
plant in 1998, the company's manufacturing operations have been
concentrated at Portland, 8 km south of Whangarei.
From
Portland bulk cement is distributed to Golden Bay Cement's eight
Customer Service Centers around New Zealand, and then trucked to
customers.
The company's supply ship, MV Golden Bay, maintains silo levels
at five ports around New Zealand. Cement is bagged at various Service
Centers for export and domestic customers. The National Support
Office, which also serves as a centralized order and distribution
center, is in Auckland.
Since April 1988 Golden Bay Cement has been 100% owned by Fletcher
Challenge Ltd, one of the largest New Zealand domiciled international
companies. The Golden Bay Cement Company Ltd, Firth Industries Ltd,
Winstone Aggregates Ltd, and Hume Industries Ltd comprise the Concrete
Group of Fletcher Building
Q4bis Implementation
Inventory
Management with Q4bis is a strategic new way of thinking. Its primary
use is to reconcile data within a client's ERP system so those products
being sold matches changes in inventory. By comparing the inventory
and sales modules you get an accurate picture of what is happening
within the business. It can also be used to track inventory movements
between depots, by looking at the document type as captured by JDE,
and use this information to derive the movement history. Tracking
movements between depots, reconciling total inventories and current
stocks by location and comparing with national and regional sales
business leaders get an accurate read as to not only the sales performance,
and stock levels but the efficiency of the initial stock provisioning
and what production is required to satisfy their customers.
Quotes:
"We
find many errors in our data due to no formal reconciliation processes
historically. (Q4bis) saves a huge amount of time and provides a
"real" reason for errors driving a lot of value for the
business. Cement is an extremely difficult product to manage, lots
of drift in inventories levels due to temperature, settling, flow
rates, weighs differently, (PST's) Q4bis helps narrow down discrepancies."
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www.bridgestone-firestone.co.nz
Bridgestone/Firestone
New Zealand (BFNZ) was formed in September 1998. The formation of
the company followed the merger of two of New Zealand's largest
tire companies: Bridgestone and Firestone.
BFNZ is the leading Tire Manufacturer and Retailer in New Zealand,
selling tires under both the 'Bridgestone' and 'Firestone' brands.
Tires are sold and serviced through Firestone Direct outlets and
Bridgestone Authorized Dealers. There are currently over 200 Retail
Outlets in New Zealand who sell and service Bridgestone and Firestone
tires.
In
addition to our extensive retail and service network our Christchurch
New Tire Plant produces car and light truck tires for both the
local and international markets. Firestone in the USA and Europe
has invested heavily in research and development meaning the
Christchurch New Tire Plant has always had, through technical
management agreements, access to the latest research and development
in tires and truck re-treading. Since Firestone USA's merger
with Bridgestone Japan this technology base has expanded. BFNZ
also operates three retread factories
Q4bis Implementation |
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In
order to manage inventory and help drive production schedules we
started by measuring opening and closing stock, accurate to the
day before current day. Then we measured month cover by taking sales
volumes for last 12 months for each product then divided by 12 -
giving us a flat lined, but rolling, monthly inventory count. Dividing
that by closing stock figure for each product provides a measure
of stock requirement for expected sales, measured in months of stock
available. This is factored by individual targets for each product,
measured in months, these change depending on usage and lead-time
and are set by the business. Therefore restocking triggers can be
set and usage measured. Stock location is also provided, as is in-transit
stock.
Quotes:
"Executive
views, summary information for decision base for inventory, warehouse
space. Provides a snapshot and a history. 5 or 6 people have access
to this information. Value is an information tool, provides global
inventory position, view by products family not available from core
systems. Q4bis is fast and very easy to use. Management's next internal
project is forecasting, however, utilization of (PST's) Q4bis has
taken them a long way towards their needs in this area already."
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www.winstoneaggregates.co.nz
Winstone
Aggregates is New Zealand's largest manufacturer and distributor
of aggregates and sand for road making, ready mixed concrete, concrete
product industries, and to building and civil engineering customers.
Winstone Aggregates operates quarries and manufacturing plants throughout
the North Island and in Christchurch and Cromwell.
Their
reputation for customer satisfaction and the consistent performance
of our products relies on their people, their manufacturing plants,
and the systems they operate. Their quality system includes IANZ
Certified Laboratories operating in Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton,
and Wellington.
Q4bis
Implementation
Winstone
Aggregates uses Q4bis to measure raw materials (grades of rock)
by product, product family, and location. Once they process the
raw material they get a refined product and a wastage product. Then
they translate the measures of the original raw into the new refined
product, plus wastage and measure these. The refined products can
then be converted into two or more others. Utilizing Q4bis provides
management a high level overview of the inventory held and the sales
volumes.
Quote:
"The
expected value is that with 20 different sites, each with different
products and categories, each with difficult to measure, slow moving
stock, we will instantly know levels of stock by location. JDE does
not provide any query based reporting, so we turned to PST's Q4bis.
Q4bis also allows Sales to very quickly find what stock is where,
what volume, and what associated products are in the same location
to reduce transport costs. This should allow us to carry less stock
overall. Currently we have $6M stock of which $300,000 has less
than 2 stock turns per year and is designated slow moving. The solution
is being rolled out to the sales people presently targets this $300,000."
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www.medtronics.com
Medtronic
is the World® leader in medical technology providing lifelong solutions
for people with chronic disease. They offer products, therapies,
and services that enhance or extend the lives of millions of people.
Each year, 2.5 million patients benefit from Medtronic's technology,
used to treat conditions such as heart disease, neurological disorders,
and vascular illnesses.
Q4bis
Implementation
Q4bis
is mainly used to track all implant products such as heart valves
and pacemakers and their expiration dates. Products on consignment,
as are in hospital warehouses. Medtronic's uses Q4bis to analyze
how much money in warehouse locations, what stock about to expire,
and what needs to be written off. They use the system today to set
and monitor budgets for each location. They also monitor sales stock
in sales rep's cars and manage a large inventory in other unmanaged
locations. Most of the Medtronic's money is in the field-awaiting
sale.
Quotes:
"Optimize inventory holdings on consignment, saves Medtronic's
money and allows to provision for write-offs. Every product has
an expiration date and a size (child through adult) however if the
products are not installed by a certain date they are written off
at a cost to the company. Q4bis is used to balance stock holdings
between locations and as a fast method of information retrieval
from JDE. Prior to this system all this information was tracked
manually and was very inaccurate."
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