We manufacture packaged foods—think sauces and dressings. Our supply chain was a nightmare of expired ingredients, late deliveries, and angry retailers. We had three people in procurement, but they were buried in spreadsheets. Every week, we’d expedite at least five orders because we ran out of a key raw material. The cost of emergency shipping alone was $12,000 per month.
We didn’t need more people—we needed better signals
The problem was simple: no one knew what to buy until the warehouse ran out. We had no demand forecasting, no lead time tracking, no supplier performance data. ERPNext Consulting started by analyzing our top 20 ingredients (80% of spend) and their actual consumption patterns over the past year. They found that three ingredients had lead times that varied by 10+ days, but we were ordering as if they always came in two weeks.
- Coded each ingredient with its actual lead time (historical average from past six months)
- Set minimum stock levels that dynamically adjust based on recent sales (not static guesswork)
- Created a supplier scorecard ranking on-time delivery and quality—used it to renegotiate with our bottom three vendors
The result: fewer stockouts, less waste
In three months, emergency orders dropped from five per week to just one. Raw material waste due to expiration fell by 60% because we were buying closer to real demand. The procurement team now spends their time on strategic sourcing rather than firefighting. The warehouse manager told me it’s the first time he’s slept through the night. ERPNext Consulting didn’t add headcount—they added intelligence to our existing system.
If your supply chain feels like a fire drill, start by measuring your top three suppliers’ actual lead times. You’ll probably find they’re not delivering what they promised. Fix that data, and you fix half your problems.