- 4,000+Products with stock levels set location by location
- A to DProduct class set separately for each location
- By locationVendor lead times, not one figure per product
The problem
Questions NetSuite's own reports couldn't answer
ProSource sells a large product range through several locations, and what moves quickly in one branch can sit on the shelf in another. Its reporting needs were too complex for NetSuite's native reports, so finance and operations pulled data out by hand. Every answer took manual work and arrived late.
Buying had the same problem. One stock level or lead time per product can't describe a business where each location has its own demand and its own vendor timing.
What we did
One place to report from, and stock planning by location
A data warehouse in Azure
We replicated ProSource's NetSuite data into a data warehouse in Azure, giving the business one place to report from.
Reporting suites for finance and operations
On top of the warehouse, we built Power BI reporting suites for both teams, each focused on the numbers that team runs the business on.
- Sales analysis Sales tied back to the general ledger, then cut by customer, salesperson, department, item and ship-to.
- Profitability Landed costs sit against each sale by cost category, so margin reflects what the sale actually cost to deliver.
- Inventory On hand, available, committed, backordered, on order and in transit for each item at each location, next to its stock settings.
- Below-min view Items that have fallen below their minimum, so buyers can see what needs attention.
Dynamic min and max for each location
Each product now has its own minimum and maximum at each location. The minimum is recalculated from that location's sales history, weighted between last year and this year, multiplied by the vendor lead time for that location, plus safety stock. The maximum is set dynamically as well, through the reports. Buyers can force a floor for a product where they know better, and the system records the previous minimum and flags each change.
ABCD tagging by location
Products are tagged A, B, C or D for each location rather than once for the whole company. A product can be a top seller in one branch and a slow mover in another, and the tag reflects that.
The results
Live numbers and stock levels that follow demand
Both teams moved from pulling manual reports to live visibility into their numbers. Sales and profitability can be analyzed in far more depth than NetSuite's own reports allowed, and stock levels now follow each location's demand and vendor lead times instead of one number for the whole company.
