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Gs Yuasa Header

“We now have the tools in place to keep up with emerging trends and monitor the performance of each item within our assortment. Subsequently, we have improved availability while reducing both excess and obsolete stock.”

Kevin Morris

General Operations Manager | GS Yuasa

Gs Yuasa Kevin Morris

GS Yuasa optimizes its approach to inventory management.

As the world’s leading manufacturer of lead-acid batteries, GS Yuasa’s broad assortment encompasses everything from high-performance automotive and motorcycle batteries to reliable industrial and leisure power products. From their manufacturing facilities located in the UK and the Far East, GS Yuasa supply an international network of distributors with the widest variety of products available in the market. As the complexity of their operation continued to grow, GS Yuasa turned to Slimstock to help better align their assortment with the market’s ever-changing demands.

Given that many of the items within GS Yuasa’s assortment are subject to complex seasonal patterns, product life cycles and extensive lead times of up to 4 months, keeping the inventory under control can often prove an incredibly challenging undertaking for Kevin Morris and his team. “The end consumer will simply not wait if the item they require is out of stock; therefore, ensuring our distribution partners can offer consistently high levels of availability is of paramount importance,” explains Kevin Morris, Inventory and Logistics Manager at GS Yuasa.

Proactive Mangement

“Before implementing Slim4, we relied on spreadsheets to manage the inventory. While this provided an overview of the inventory situation, reviewing the data in this way could often prove a cumbersome undertaking. As a consequence, we did not have time to analyze the data effectively.”

With Slim4, GS Yuasa is now able to monitor the performance of its inventory far more closely. “We now review forecast accuracy daily, which in turn allows us to manage exceptions before they can have an impact proactively,” explains Kevin.

Greater Insight

With a greater overview of the inventory situation, GS Yuasa is better positioned to manage excess stock. Kevin explains: “Because we simply did not have the tools in place to monitor the performance of each item within our assortment, excess and obsolete stock could quickly build up at a great cost to the business.”

Thanks to Slim4, Kevin and his team now have complete visibility over their inventory, and as a result, GS Yuasa now has much tighter control over their operation. “With Slim4, we can keep up with emerging trends and seasonal peaks, and as a result, we can ensure our assortment is well aligned with the demands of the market,” adds Kevin.

With the assistance of Slim4, a considerable amount of the workload has been automated, allowing Kevin and his team to focus more of their time managing other areas of the business. Kevin explains, “The advantage of this was particularly evident in the run-up to winter, our busiest period, where we achieved availability in excess of 99.9% across our A-line items while simultaneously reducing the need to make urgent orders.”

While Slim4 has already delivered considerable time savings and cost reductions, Kevin goes on to conclude: “With help from Slimstock, I am sure we will be able to optimize our stockholding and improve our assortment accuracy even further.”