How SLG used PO and shipment data to gain a comprehensive view of supply chain costs

How SLG began driving operational improvements

“We were operating on a container-by-container basis. The team were treating each individual container as its own mini-project to try and get the best quotes for each box, rather than looking at the full supply chain.”

Guy Melbourne, Head of Logistics, SLG Brands

Understanding true cost to serve

At first, SLG Brands struggled to understand their complete costs, thanks to poor visibility at origin, lack of product data for forecasting, and limited PO management.

Poor product data integrity meant SLG Brands were also hard-pressed to forecast how many containers they would need, and how much product would fit in each. This made benchmarking performance more difficult, especially with a changing product mix.

Making visibility of progress easy

Through Zencargo’s online platform, SLG Brands can track SKUs and POs across the shipping process, while getting a transparent view of how Zencargo is progressing each order.

To streamline the PO management process, SLG’s ERP system was connected to the Zencargo platform via API, so that every PO the buying team creates is automatically linked to the platform and directed to the Zencargo team to manage.

SLG and Zencargo collaborated on a number of data health initiatives, including building out the product catalogue with accurate information on dimensions and weights. This has allowed the Zencargo team to offer services like loading plans and reliable container forecasts that help maximise container utilisation. And when a new product is added, its SKU data is automatically imported into the Zencargo platform.

Trusted data, driving operational improvements

With all POs and shipment data combined on the Zencargo platform, SLG Brands now has a single source of information that’s up-to-date, complete and accurate.

Importantly, the information is easily digestible. With the platform as their foundation, SLG Brands can produce more accurate forecasts and better track how they have performed against KPIs. This straightforward visibility also makes it clearer where further improvements can be made.

And with this more automated process, SLG Brands’ supply chain team now has more time to ‘sweat the small things’, and thanks to their data health initiatives, the trust they and the rest of the company have in their analysis is growing.

Already, the team is working more closely with the product designers to create more cost-effective packaging, which will also lead to better sustainability outcomes.

If lack of visibility is affecting your supply chain performance, contact our experts to uncover how our platform can help.

“With visibility in the Zencargo platform, SLG has more reliability and confidence. This frees our team to predict outcomes and drive operational savings.”

Devinder Chana, Director of Supply Chain, SLG Brands

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