Goals: to boost customer satisfaction through high shelf availability, more time for customer service, and reduced costs in the supply chain.
Retail chain Jula AB has chosen RELEX solution to manage and optimize replenishment for its stores and central warehouse. Jula offers a broad range of DIY products at competitive prices to home owners, DIY enthusiasts, craftspeople and small business owners such as farmers and builders. The company has more than 50 stores in Sweden, Norway and Poland and employs around 2,000 people.
After a thorough review of its processes, development objectives, and existing IT systems, Jula’s management decided that its enterprise resource planning software didn’t provide the necessary functionality to deliver the ambitious goals that the company had set for its supply chain management.
Purchasing Director Magnus Sigurd explains Jula’s needs: “Managing the flow of goods is absolutely central to Jula’s business. Our ability to minimize out-of-stocks and optimize inventory levels while maintaining a cost-effective flow of goods is one of our competitive advantages. The supply chain challenges we face are often complex and success comes from getting many interacting factors right. One of our priorities is to have good systems and process support tailored for the sort of rapid product flows and frequent changes you typically find in retail.”
Jula started looking for a new system last summer and the search continued until the end of the year. Magnus Sigurd said: “Because this choice was absolutely critical for Jula, we needed to ensure that we settled on the solution that was really the best for us. At the outset we were in touch with more than ten suppliers and, during the process, we screened out all but the absolute best. Our final choice of RELEX was arrived at for several reasons. It was particularly important that whatever supplier we chose could offer a complete and flexible solution with excellent support for controlling both seasonal products and promotions. We also gave a lot of weight to references and customer recommendations and those we got from RELEX’s clients were extremely positive. Lastly RELEX had a demonstrable track record of delivering rapid and successful implementations. ”
Jula started implementing RELEX solution in February. Magnus Sigurd sums up Jula’s ambitions for the project thus: “By improving the flow of goods we want to achieve high shelf availability, free up time for customer service in the stores, and increase our cost effectiveness – and the ultimate goal of everything we do is, of course, to produce satisfied customers!”