Industrial Commodities Inc. (ICI)

When ACUMEN Corporation’s customer, Industrial Commodities (ICI), a leader in the highly competitive food additives marketplace, started looking for the right ERP system, they looked for the best partner and the best software to implement to man-age their 21 individual warehouses.

Ultimately, they selected SAP® Business One with VALOGIX® Inventory Planner based upon software functionality, tight integration of the products and ease of use, along with the expertise and track record of ACUMEN.

Rick Crowder, VP and General Manager says, “My partners and I have built our successful and growing business on delivering the very best service to an in-creasing number of customers around the country. And that service is based on having the right inventory available when their customers need it, and to have it delivered economically from the closest warehouse.”

Because their systems lacked integration and real-time information, they were unable to maintain proper inventory levels at their warehouses, resulting in lost sales, overstocks and stock outs as well as decreased customer satisfaction

“Eliminating hundreds of spreadsheets has saved us more than 15 hours a week—saving money and allowing our staff to concentrate on other areas of the business.” — Rick Crowder, VP and General Manager, ICI

Systems that Meet Business Needs

ICI had several key issues: stocking fast moving products to allow for rapid order fulfilment, overstocked with slow moving items, seasonal trending caused erratic demand, making it difficult to accurately forecast

Valogix identified many areas in which ICI could achieve a fast ROI safely. Meaning, the changes would not impair good customer service.

The areas that Valogix helped identify are:

• Duplicate items in individual warehouses (allowing for transfers rather than new buys)
• Identification of slow-moving products and,
• a 10% reduction in inventory in less than 6 months

And the savings don’t stop there—in addition to inventory reductions, ICI has been able to cut costs and realize significant productivity gains.

With SAP and Valogix, ICI has been able to eliminate hundreds of spreadsheets previously used to track sales and purchases in each of their warehouses. Eliminating spreadsheets saved more than three hours per day of tedious manual effort, saving money and allowing their staff to concentrate on other areas of the business. And finally, customer satisfaction has increased due to having the correct mix of items in the right locations when needed.