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Marco van Schadewijk
Logistics analyst | Zijerveld Cheese
Zijerveld has implemented Cheese Slim4 to get a growing range of perishable cheeses to the customer on time every day. Results: less waste and stable planning. “Slim4 has also greatly improved the collaboration between supply chain and commerce,” says logistics analyst Marco van Schadewijk. “Everyone works with the same figures, and we can now systematically continue to improve the forecasts.”
Zijerveld Cheese supplies cheese and cheese concepts to supermarket chains, specialty cheese shops and catering wholesalers. It offers an assortment of 2500 different types of cheese. After being cut and packaged by the company, those varieties break down into 13,000 SKUs. There is a lot of pressure on availability – ‘ordered today, delivered tomorrow’ – and customers have high best before requirements.
“We hardly receive any forecasts from customers, so we have to base our purchasing and production planning entirely on our historical data,” says Van Schadewijk. “We always did this with a self-developed application, but at a certain point that no longer worked. That is why we have implemented Slim4.”
The first results are encouraging: planning has become more stable, and shrinkage has decreased by 15%. “The basis is in place, but there is a lot more in the pipeline,” he emphasizes. “Our people have to learn to understand the system and start steering on exceptions. For example, we can also fine-tune the order quantities even further to reduce the warehouse’s storage and handling costs.
With Slim4, the company is also ready for S&OP, a consultation structure in which all departments arrive at one joint sales plan. “What you see now is that purchasing, commerce and finance work with different forecasts. That is over with S&OP; then everyone works with the same figures, systematically optimizing the forecasts. This immediately leads to better availability and even less waste. And that’s not all: if you know what’s coming your way, you can also better plan the activities in the warehouse and in production.”
Slim4 is a tool for inventory planners, but it positively affects the entire company, the logistics analyst notes. “Supply chain and commerce have started to work together more closely. With Slim4, planners can focus on exceptions and have the time to coordinate with sales what the causes and possible solutions are. Previously, they did not get around to this, and they were already happy when they had all the orders out at the end of the day.”