How Protective Packaging Ltd can help you achieve a reduction in stock holding
When operating in challenging economic conditions, there is often a sharper focus on supply chains to tighten their belts and reduce stock levels to free up cash for other areas of the business. Reducing inventory levels of raw material and packaging stocks can be a challenge, as you don’t want to risk running out of stock of a key raw material, which could cause downtime for your operation or a loss in sales.
So what are the factors that should help you determine how much stock to hold and what is the correct safety stock level for you?
Lead-time
Ensuring you source products from suppliers with short lead times is critical in reducing inventory levels. A shorter lead-time means a shorter time period where you are predicting sales or usage levels compared with being able to see actual sales or usage. At Protective Packaging Ltd we pride ourselves on our short lead times which are industry leading. With healthy levels of raw materials on site and a flexible and adaptive production planning team, we are well placed to respond quickly to orders. For several customers we also work on a call off basis where we have agreed to hold stock of finished product awaiting their go ahead to arrange their next despatch / delivery date. This is another way we are able to set ourselves apart from the competition and help our customers to reduce their inventory levels.
Forecast accuracy
How accurate are you able to predict the sales or usage of your item? If you have a regular or consistent level of sales or usage then you can have more confidence in holding a relatively “low” level of stock. If your sales or usage tends to fluctuate more and is harder to predict, it would be more prudent to hold higher stocks of to cover in the event of a period or spike in usage. The image below demonstrates where a faster period of usage has resulted in stock running to zero before a delivery is received.
Turning around urgent orders in record lead times is one of our strengths here at Protective Packaging Ltd, so you can always rely on us to rectify where another supplier may have let you down, or if you need to expedite an order for an earlier delivery date than originally required!
Replenishment cycle
How often can your supplier arrange a despatch, or what is their replenishment cycle? With some suppliers only despatching to certain areas or countries perhaps once per week, or for example filling up a container once per month, if you were to catch them at the wrong moment, your lead time may be in extended in order to fit in with their replenishment cycle. With this potentially adding to your lead-time, it means you will need to account for this in your safety stock.
Protective Packaging Ltd are able to arrange same day despatch for domestic deliveries, and next day despatch internationally 5 days a week in collaboration with our logistics partners. This again demonstrates our ability to despatch orders quickly and with us there are no unnecessary delays in getting your products despatched promptly after production is completed and our quality checks made!