How Ribble reduced working capital through SKU level analysis

From their beginnings in manufacturing solely in the UK, Ribble has embraced internationalisation of their supply chain, sourcing parts and components from a range of suppliers in the Far East and assembling the final products in the UK. While this helps manage cost and offer a better customer price point, it adds layers of complexity, juggling thousands of components from a range of suppliers, all with fixed manufacturing schedules and different lead times. This made it hard for Ribble Cycles to offer the service and range they were known for without holding huge amounts of stock and tying up working capital.

By analysing supplier performance at the SKU level, Zencargo were able to help the commercial teams build in appropriate windows for orders, ensuring that the team could use more cost-efficient modes of transport. All initiatives also had to balance cost with agility and service to take in the full business context. For this reason, Zencargo had to make ocean freight as efficient as possible, reducing any unnecessary delays so that the ordering team could maintain as short a cash cycle as possible and effectively respond to changes in demand. This also helped the team improve their use of working capital, placing more frequent, smaller orders based on reliable lead time data.

With increased visibility and control as well as agile freight execution, Zencargo was ableto reduce stock held, release working capital and improve lead times, making Ribble’ssupply chain their competitive advantage. Over an 8-month period, Zencargo reduced Ribble’s use of airfreight from a peak of 78% of freight mix to 29% and reduced cost per shipment by over 50%. With improved planning, we increased coordination on manufacturer completion dates, which enabled more efficient freight consolidation across suppliers, eliminating the use of LCLs. Over a 10-month period, Zencargo reduced ocean lead time from 54 days to 38 days.