Cealco case study

The CEALCO purchasing center is the most prestigious purchasing group for heating and plumbing in Spain. With 46 associates, it has always been characterized by its innovative and pioneering character in areas such as benchmarking, logistics and the management of relationships with both its associates and its suppliers. Since 2006, the Granollers regulatory platform has managed its stocks with Slimstock’s Slim4 software as a complement to its ERP Navision. Silvia Camps, Manager of CEALCO, explains the results in this testimony.

“Every purchasing group is the union of many common interests, synergies and projects for the future. If there is also a regulatory warehouse destined to provide service to the associate, the relations between them and the group intensify ”, affirms the CEALCO Manager, Silvia Camps.

As a purchasing center, Cealco faces a very specific problem. “The irregularity of the demand that our 46 associates have to face justified the fact of sharing stocks, since it was much more profitable for everyone to maintain a common stock of items – both high and low turnover – than to store them separately. . However, over the years and the growth of the group, it was no longer so clear what we should have in our warehouse. The point is that we have associates all over Spain, and that means that there are some articles that may be interesting for certain associates, but which may not be interesting for others ”affirms Silvia Camps.

“Our concern was to be clear about what items we should store and in what quantity to be able to serve the associate satisfactorily. That is to say, anticipate the demand. When a regulator fails in these circumstances, you fail doubly because, in addition to a client, you fail a shareholder. Slimstock’s inventory optimization and demand forecasting software, Slim4, has allowed us to determine which are the 3,000 references to stock and assign the service levels for each item, automatically determining the safety stocks to maintain ”, explains the Manager. 

Apart from optimizing its stock, CEALCO has benefited from the management information it has obtained by working with Slimstock. “The system allows us to properly manage the assortment, negotiate well with suppliers and make decisions at the managerial level, such as defining priority product lines, discontinuing certain items and controlling obsolescence. It also allows deciding on strategic purchases or completing orders to reach minimums in order to obtain competitive advantages in each purchase “.

Camps claims the rollout was quick and smooth, and user training took just 5 days. He acknowledges, on the other hand, that he had no doubts before the project: “We already knew the benefits of Slim4 from the 8 associates who already worked with him. In the first year, we started to manage 50% more delivery note lines, reducing our excess stock, improving rotations and, above all, the service to the associate. In the year of Slim4’s introduction, with a 40% increase in turnover, the stock did not increase (excluding strategic and one-off purchases). Slimstock has allowed us to make the right decisions. “