Founded in 1830 in the Swiss Jura, the Baume & Mercier house is now a subsidiary of the international industrial luxury group Richemont, dominating the watchmaker industry. The Baume & Mercier trademark is present in over 100 countries, in the USA, in Italy, In France, in Asia, etc… and is based on a retailer network. The brand is famous for the creation of its Hampton range, icon of the trademark, but also for the Diamant, Riviera or Classima executives ranges, all symbol of tradition, style, quality and traditional know-how.

To achieve an IT synergy within the Richemont group, the Baume & Mercier company had to change its planning system though they were satisfied. The Piaget experience (another brand of the Richemont group) in the field of central forecasts rapidly convinced the Baume & Mercier house of the importance of a powerful and collaborative tool for demand management. So in July 2006 the watchmaker specialist has chosen DynaSys,the Supply Chain Management specialist, thus in charge of the implementation of its n.SKEP ® Demand Planning solution.

“The implementation of the DynaSys sales forecasts tool by Piaget reinforced our choice, explains Carole Hadorn, Planing Manager at Baume & Mercier. The forecasting accuracy is an essential aspect of our strategy. With steel products, huge volumes to manage as well as a very marked sales seasonality, it is important for us to position the need in a right way compared to forecasts. However, the Supply Chain problematic is not exactly the same within both companies, given that Piaget whishes to implement its Supply Chain before and after production.”

“As for Baume & Mercier, we are faced to few industrial constraints as well as less expensive stocks, and our sales are operated by our retailer network. So we decided to concentrate firstly on the central forecasts aspect, in order toextend later on to our twenty subsidiaries.” The Swiss sites of Fribourg and Geneva, the mother company, are the first ones to be concerned. “It is essential for us to implement he n.SKEP ® tool in a perfect way before thinking about its implementation throughout the subsidiaries, hence the importance of perfectly using the tool before moving on to next step,” adds Carole Hadorn.

“One of the main aims for Baume & Mercier is to ensure forecasts accuracy”, comments Ariel Weil, CEO at DynaSys. Our customer was interested in our tool because of its performance, user-friendliness, durability and ergonomics. The global Supply Chain n.SKEP ® range offered by DynaSys is easy to use and enables a transfer of competences at the launch of the project. Further there is a slight particularity for this project, as the n.SKEP ® Demand Plannning solution is implemented in parallel within the Piaget and Baume & Mercier entities, taking into account their respective problematics und thusrequiring a huge flexibility amongst the DynaSys team. He concludes: “We are proud to share our expertise and values with both of these prestigious brands, part of the Richemont group and great names of the watchmaker and jewellery market.”