Identifying Over $20 Million in Opportunity in 30 Days with Verusen
The other week we held a webinar with our customer Geoff Mueller, Director of Supply Chain Analytics at Graphic Packaging International. We discussed inventory management and how Geoff’s company has been able to utilize Verusen to help them reduce their costs and organize their data.
Take a look below to find out what challenges Graphic Packaging International faced and how we were able to provide a solution!
About Graphic Packaging International:
Graphic Packaging International serves hundreds of the world’s most recognized brands. They produce the paper cup that held your coffee this morning, the basket that transported those bottles of craft beer you enjoyed last weekend, and the microwave tray that heated your gourmet meal last night.
They are one of the largest manufacturers of paperboard and paper-based packaging for beverage, foodservice, household, personal care and pet care products.They have over 70 facilities worldwide that provide innovative packaging solutions to help their customers stand out and achieve brand loyalty in a competitive and dynamic marketplace.
The Problem: Over purchasing of materials already in stock
Graphic Packaging International’s journey with Verusen was based on their need for inventory reduction.
They had half of their spare part purchases without any kind of SAP material number – just blanket POs. They knew they needed to implement a process to make sure the purchasers knew exactly what they had in inventory.
“We were finding we were buying redundant parts all over the place and doubling up. A lot of times we bought stuff we already had, we would buy it under different material numbers. We had a lot of stuff to clean up.”
The Solution: Using Verusen to identify purchasing patterns and the ability to clean up/move forward with dirty data
“The first part, and this was always viewed as the most valuable, was just the inventory optimization.”
Graphic Packaging International wanted to identify the following:
- Patterns in the material purchasing data
- Find purchasing overlaps
- Risk management assessment
- Assistance with rationalizing decision making
Utilizing Verusen allowed them to have the first of it’s kind inventory optimization for the company.
“The AI algorithms essentially identified around $26 million in opportunity, and it rather dramatically eclipsed our original goal of $5 million.”
The Outcome:
- Verusen’s AI and machine learning platform identified $26M in working capital cost savings opportunity within 30 days
- Eliminated duplicates leading to cost avoidance at the plant level and enabled better sourcing and procurement without over-procurement
- Faster search capabilities when looking for parts to make purchasing decisions
- Improvement in master data to allow Graphic Packaging International to share purchasing information between plants
“Verusen has a Google-like interface that has been a game changer for us. It lets our maintenance crews quickly search for stuff they need. The goal is to help them find it faster than our old method which was just blanket PO’s and to get the products shipped overnight. They can now easily do a text search to find out what’s on the shelf. We’re trying to create an easier process for them.
They now can purchase right away when needed or use what we already have, they can even find out if what they’re looking for is 2 hours away and just pick it up. Our plants really like that. It’s one of the ways we’re getting asked when they start if they aren’t already using Verusen.”