Leading Forecasting Software Propels Industry Awards

Avercast, LLC is not just advanced technology, it powers innovators and excellence.

Innovators such as Chef Works, which supplies uniforms to the hospitality and food service industry worldwide with unsurpassed efficiency. Lack of planning tools, however, resulted in an overflowing warehouse and a bevy of slow-moving items. In its May issue, Apparel magazine salutes Chef Works for its decision last year to reverse its inventory trajectory and find a better system—Avercast—to work with the company’s Sage Accpac ERP and Warehouse Management systems.

Excellence such as Supply Technologies, which has sourced, procured and delivered more than 500 billion parts to local, national and international manufacturers and distributors over its 40 years. It replaced the limited forecasts from an ERP system, installed nearly 15 years ago, with Avercast to track its nearly 100,000 active SKUs. Six months into the deployment, Supply Technologies has reduced its inventory by a whopping $6 million, making them one of Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine’s “100 Great Supply Chain Projects.”

“We have experienced a productivity gain through our buys because the information is so much more accurate,” said Brad Hudson, the company’s Vice President of Global Sourcing and Materials. “We have also seen a significant inventory reduction without sacrificing customer service because we are able to hone in on the actual sales versus the forecast and make the proper adjustments in a timely way.”

“The projects featured in the ‘100’ article can serve as a roadmap for supply chain executives looking for new opportunities to drive improvement in their own operations,” said Supply & Demand Chain Executive Editor Barry Hochfelder.

Likewise, apparel manufacturers can look to Chef Works, where best-of-breed is no catch phrase but rather a way of doing business. A highly automated, paperless operation, Chef Works had become known for customer service while large on-hand supplies of smaller-value items piled up.

The first thing Chef Works noticed was Avercast’s speed and accuracy; the Inventory Analysis for the monthly operations meeting now takes 30 minutes to process whereas it used to take 18 hours.

“We hope to reduce inventory by as much as 30 percent by the end of 2012,” said Dave Roth, Chef Works’ Chief Operating Officer. “We know we’ll achieve that, but it’s the balance we want to achieve; the balance of having less-requested items available when needed while keeping our most in-demand items in stock to ensure customer satisfaction.”

The complete list of the 2012 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 award winners is available online with additional coverage in the June issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine and online thereafter. Apparel magazine honors Chef Works and other Top Innovators of 2012 in a special report online and in its May issue.

About Avercast
Avercast® inventory forecasting and demand planning solutions are the world’s first easy-to-use tools to optimize inventory according to true demand. Avercast’s forecasting technology includes an industry-leading 187 forecasting algorithms to optimize product trending, sales seasonality, new product introductions, mature and aging products, intermittent product demand, low-volume and slow-moving products, product promotions and much more. Please call 208-538-5380 or visit www.avercast.com for more information or to schedule a personal demonstration using your company’s inventory and demand data.

Contact Information

Tim McGraw

Media Relations

Avercast, LLC

(1) (510) 845-9063

tmcgraw@avercast.com