o9 Solutions, Inc. Case Studies Revolutionizing Inventory Management in Agriculture with IoT

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	Revolutionizing Inventory Management in Agriculture with IoT o9 Solutions, Inc.

Revolutionizing Inventory Management in Agriculture with IoT

o9 Solutions, Inc.

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries	Agriculture Education
Applicable Functions	Procurement Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases	Demand Planning & Forecasting Inventory Management
Services	System Integration Training
Challenge	One of the world's largest family-owned agricultural companies, with 350 branches, was grappling with inventory issues due to inaccurate forecasting. This resulted in high costs and an aging inventory. The company had to place product orders, such as crop seeds, a year in advance for each season. However, the forecasting was poorly done due to reliance on lagging indicators to predict demand, leading to a large write-off of seasonal inventory. Additionally, the company was unable to control total inventory costs due to poor planning and sub-par scenario modeling. The company also lacked planning knowledge, with key decision-making processes being disconnected due to multiple sources of data, disconnected analyses, and an immature planning system. Read More
About Customer	The customer is one of the largest family-owned companies in the world that provides farmers with essentials for the world to thrive. The company markets and distributes products to the agricultural industry, including crop seed, animal feed, specialty chemicals, and ingredients. With 350 branches, the company has a significant presence in the agricultural industry. However, the company was facing challenges with inventory management due to inaccurate forecasting, leading to high costs and an aging inventory. The company's decision-making processes were disconnected due to multiple data sources, disconnected analyses, and an immature planning system. Read More
Solution	The company partnered with o9 to implement automated forecasting on products with high and low variability using Machine Learning and statistical modeling. The forecast for high variability products used active forecasting to ensure quicker responses to market changes. The company also used o9 to perform capacity optimization planning for warehousing and logistics to help minimize their total inventory costs and improve scenario modeling accuracy. This included automated replenishment and procurement forecasting, which fed back into the ERP system to assist with auto PO creation. Furthermore, o9 helped the company mature its planning capabilities and expertise through training and a single integrated platform to connect functions and running processes. The company used the o9 Enterprise Knowledge Graph to build market, demand, and supply-knowledge models, enabling them to run all key planning processes for all product lines and countries, across all time horizons in a single integrated platform. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Agriculture

Education

Applicable Functions

Procurement

Warehouse & Inventory Management

Use Cases

Demand Planning & Forecasting

Inventory Management

Services

System Integration

Training

Challenge

One of the world's largest family-owned agricultural companies, with 350 branches, was grappling with inventory issues due to inaccurate forecasting. This resulted in high costs and an aging inventory. The company had to place product orders, such as crop seeds, a year in advance for each season. However, the forecasting was poorly done due to reliance on lagging indicators to predict demand, leading to a large write-off of seasonal inventory. Additionally, the company was unable to control total inventory costs due to poor planning and sub-par scenario modeling. The company also lacked planning knowledge, with key decision-making processes being disconnected due to multiple sources of data, disconnected analyses, and an immature planning system.

About Customer

The customer is one of the largest family-owned companies in the world that provides farmers with essentials for the world to thrive. The company markets and distributes products to the agricultural industry, including crop seed, animal feed, specialty chemicals, and ingredients. With 350 branches, the company has a significant presence in the agricultural industry. However, the company was facing challenges with inventory management due to inaccurate forecasting, leading to high costs and an aging inventory. The company's decision-making processes were disconnected due to multiple data sources, disconnected analyses, and an immature planning system.

Solution

The company partnered with o9 to implement automated forecasting on products with high and low variability using Machine Learning and statistical modeling. The forecast for high variability products used active forecasting to ensure quicker responses to market changes. The company also used o9 to perform capacity optimization planning for warehousing and logistics to help minimize their total inventory costs and improve scenario modeling accuracy. This included automated replenishment and procurement forecasting, which fed back into the ERP system to assist with auto PO creation. Furthermore, o9 helped the company mature its planning capabilities and expertise through training and a single integrated platform to connect functions and running processes. The company used the o9 Enterprise Knowledge Graph to build market, demand, and supply-knowledge models, enabling them to run all key planning processes for all product lines and countries, across all time horizons in a single integrated platform.

Impact #1	The implementation of o9's solutions led to a significant transformation in the company's inventory management and planning processes. The company was able to reduce product waste and inventory, leading to sustainability impacts. The use of o9's Enterprise Knowledge Graph enabled the company to build market, demand, and supply-knowledge models, allowing them to run all key planning processes in a single integrated platform. This not only improved the accuracy of their forecasts but also enabled quicker responses to market changes. The company was also able to improve its planning capabilities and expertise, leading to more informed decision-making processes. The flexible and extensible tool with an intuitive user interface allowed for high user adoption.

Impact #1

The implementation of o9's solutions led to a significant transformation in the company's inventory management and planning processes. The company was able to reduce product waste and inventory, leading to sustainability impacts. The use of o9's Enterprise Knowledge Graph enabled the company to build market, demand, and supply-knowledge models, allowing them to run all key planning processes in a single integrated platform. This not only improved the accuracy of their forecasts but also enabled quicker responses to market changes. The company was also able to improve its planning capabilities and expertise, leading to more informed decision-making processes. The flexible and extensible tool with an intuitive user interface allowed for high user adoption.

Benefit #1	Inventory optimization with about 50% reduction in write-downs.
Benefit #2	Improved response time to suppliers.
Benefit #3	Significant improvement in operational efficiency for demand planning.

Benefit #1

Inventory optimization with about 50% reduction in write-downs.

Benefit #2

Improved response time to suppliers.

Benefit #3

Significant improvement in operational efficiency for demand planning.

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Overview

Revolutionizing Inventory Management in Agriculture with IoT

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit