Thanks to the constant technologic and functional evolutions brought to the global n.SKEP ® solution by DynaSys, the Supply Chain Management specialist is now able to meet the requirements of retail and trade companies, in terms of planning collaborative solutions. Trade is a very specific and mature business segment, particularly characterized by increasing pressure on margins with huge data volumes to manage in return.

The DynaSys company is aware of the specific problems these firms are now confronted to, and therefore launches its vertical solution n.SKEP ® Retail Planning covering the whole Supply Chain process of the trade and retail segments, from the generation of forecasts and management of promotions, to stocks and procurement planning.

IIndeed, firms active in trade and massive distribution are faced to important stakes, especially while optimizing procurement and stocks. They often buy in containers and have no time to restock in case of shortage, because procurement lead times are too long. Moreover it is important to proportion stocks and manage them in an optimal way. Finally promotions management is also a decisive factor: in this business segment, promotional operations concern products sold all the year or specific products. So forecasting and anticipating at the right time becomes essential.

“When we talk about problems of stores forecasts, it is important to take into account the phenomenon of stores referencing and stockpiling, difficult to forecast,” adds Cédric Hutt, DynaSys Product Manager. “For example when a product is referenced within a new range or in a new store, it is necessary not only to forecast sales increase, but also to manage the demand of the store that wishes to constitute a stock before beginning with the sale of this reference.”

n.SKEP ® Retail Planning is a powerful, flexible and collaborative solution, enabling retail and trade companies to guarantee a better product availability by improving the service rate within stores, while diminishing stock coverage tremendously.

So in March 2006, BUT International (logistics subsidiary of the BUT group) has chosen to implement the collaborative solutions n.SKEP ® by DynaSys for demand forecasting, including detailed promotions management, procurement planning and management of the constraints encountered by the suppliers, as well as optimization of the distribution network and stocks management.

“By implementing the n.SKEP ® Supply Chain Planning solutions, the objective was to automate the low added-value tasks, thus enabling to reduce stocks on platforms, to improve the answers to stores and to franchisees, to rationalize and to optimize procurements, to guarantee reactivity as well as an optimal service rate throughout the year, and an intra-group communication between the marketing and procurement teams, as well as stores networks”, confides Jean-Henri Vivier, Logistics CEO by BUT International.

“Moreover we notice that the retail and trade business segments really need to work in a collaborative way. Numerous so-called ‘one shot’ operations are regularly launched and there is a single purchase order for the product passed, due to the lead times. So it is important for the subsidiaries of a same store to work together between the sales and procurement boards, in order to agree on the right quantities and to get a clear visibility on coming events”, concludes Cédric Hutt.