Richard Crnjanski, Supply Chain Director at Worldwide Euro Protection explains the reasons that led him to choose Colibri for its French (Sacla and Euro Protection) and Hungarian (Ganteline) subsidiaries.
The Group:
Worldwide Euro Protection is a major actor in the creation of personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for distributors in more than 40 countries. The group counts more than 10 000 customers and 350 employees for more than 120 million Euros in revenue.
Why look for an APS tool?
Before Colibri, there was no Sales Forecasting tool used, and the requirements calculations were made in Excel using average monthly sales or budget figures given by people not invested in operations.
It quickly appeared that to increase the stock quality in term of availability or values it was necessary to get more accurate sales forecasts to enrich the requirement calculations. Moreover, some products were seasonal (with specific forecast problematics) and with long replenishment delays between 4 to 6 months it was necessary for the group to be able to project further.
The choice of Colibri
Richard Crnjanski knows really well the APS market as he used 3 different ones and implemented another one during previous professional experiences. After conducting a quick benchmark, it has been decided to implement Colibri.
Here are the reasons that convinced him in the choice of the solution:
- Speed of the implementation process (less than 4 month of project)
- Affordable price, a strong asset for a SME such as Euro Protection.
- To have a pre-packaged solution and a fixed asset was also a plus: it allowed to focus on what was important and to easily embark the teams that were less mature and experienced when it came to sales forecastings.
- The web model and the ergonomy of the interface that eased the utilization for the beginners users of an APS.
The Project
The project lasted 4 months, without any complications. The initial scope included 2 French subsidiaries (about 5500 references) with the ambition to include the Hungarian subsidiary in a few months (7000 references).
The longest part for Euro Protection was to manage to create the proper hierarchy as that had never been done before. A more extensive project has been conducted to determine which articles needed to go through Colibri and which ones did not.
Since the first December (Go Live date) 5 employees have been using Colibri. They will be joined later by other users from the commercial department and the Hungarian subsidiary.
