Recent Question/Assignment

Date April-2021

Company Name: Nola
Company Profile:
Nola is a big distribution company and it’s a Strategic key account customer with a business contribution of 17% of overall Sales and the year-on-year growth rate is at 6%. This customer is commercially and operationally collaborative and at the same time is very demanding on higher services and better lead time.
They have recently built a warehouse in Khobar and plan to invest more by opening 5 new stores by the year end. The key focus of the company is to increase profitability and product availability while driving cost efficiencies in the value chain.
Business Scenario
In a recent, business review with the Johnson Controls Management, the Managing Director of Nola shared his grievances on the lost Sales opportunity due to poor Service level on a fast-selling SKU/product – ICEBERG Inverter Cool 23,000 BTU for the last 6 months (more details in below table)
Month Order Quantity Delivered Quantity Failures Forecast
Oct 1000 700 300 1200
Nov 1200 800 400 1300
Dec 5400 2600 2800 2550
Jan 3000 1850 1150 2200
Feb 3500 1400 2100 1900
Mar 4000 900 3100 1750
TTL 18100 8250 9850 10900
Mainreason for Service failures
Forecast Exceeded: The agreed quota or the monthly forecasted quantity for this SKU, but the Salesman punched additional orders due to increase in Consumer Demand and this pattern is expected to continue in the coming months.
Other business aspects
Supply Chain Manager
Is under pressure to reduce the Cost of inventory holding & distribution and is pushing you to identify efficiency projects to improve the service.
Sales Key Account Manager
Has started preparing for the upcoming yearly Business Development agreement with the customer and he expects a tough discussion with Nola with regard to Distribution allowance and Service level.
Your task as Supply Chain Representative
1.Prepare for the upcoming Customer meeting a presentation 1-2 slide
2.Based on the information provided, update the Service level % or Order fulfilment in % to the customer for the last 6 months and propose the key actions that will help to improve service level in the coming months.
3.Based on the over all information, list any other initiatives that you would like to propose to the customer.