Tackling Forecasting and Inventory Challenges with S&OP
American Tire Distributors (ATD) is driven to be the most connected and insightful automotive solutions provider. But before we could help our customers to ‘thrive and drive into the future’, we had some significant supply chain challenges to tackle.
Vendors driving SKU proliferation, a long tail of very slow-moving items, poor vendor fill rates and high customer expectations all created a difficult balancing act between service and working capital.
ATD had a complex end-to-end problem to solve — spanning from demand to inventory and replenishment — but the place to start was a strategic Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) program. Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain for ATD will share our S&OP journey and how we are now able to use our supply chain as a competitive advantage to continue to grow our business.
ATD has partnered with supply chain planning software provider ToolsGroup, which is a sponsor of the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference and will exhibit at booth 327. Join us on Tuesday, May 14 at 3:50 p.m. for this can’t-miss presentation, as you will learn:
· How better understanding of complex demand led to climbing service levels
· Best practices for adopting the phased approach ATD used in its S&OP journey
· How to gain executive sponsorship and internal support for a company-wide initiative
· How ATD achieved best-in-class forecast accuracy and effective inventory management
Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference 2019 is the world’s most important gathering of supply chain leaders. Disruptions large and small confront today’s supply chains on a daily basis. At this year’s conference, chief supply chain officers and their leadership teams focus how to recognize the impacts of disruptions and create transformational strategies that empower the organization to exceed performance expectations.
Mark Chandler is the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain for American Tire Distributors, Inc. Mark has over 30 years of experience in Supply Chain Operations and Strategy. He has worked with leading retailers and distributors across the globe in creating and successfully implementing leading Supply Chain practices.
Mark is responsible for managing ATD’s overall Supply Chain operations including replenishment, overseas factory purchasing, Supply Chain systems, and overall inventory management. Mark is also the Executive sponsor of ATD’s Executive S&OP process, which is leading the way in driving greater insight into organizational performance.
Mark joined ATD from Belk Department Stores based in Charlotte where he was Executive Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain. Prior to that, he was with Price Chopper Supermarkets as Senior Vice President of Supply Chain. Mark was also a Senior Partner and Director of the Consumer Packaged Goods division of Kurt Salmon Associates consulting firm in Atlanta.
About American Tire Distributors
American Tire Distributors is one of the largest independent suppliers of tires to the replacement tire market. It operates more than 140 distribution centers, including 25 distribution centers in Canada, serving approximately 80,000 customers across the U.S. and Canada. The company offers an unsurpassed breadth and depth of inventory, frequent delivery and value-added services to tire and automotive service customers. American Tire Distributors employs approximately 5,000 associates across its distribution center network, including approximately 800 associates in Canada. For more information visit www.atd-us.com.
About ToolsGroup
ToolsGroup is a global provider of supply chain planning and demand analytics software. Our customers overcome volatile demand and challenging supply chains to generate accurate forecasts and outstanding customer service levels with less global inventory. Reliable behind-the-screen technology and scalable statistical models enable highly intelligent data-driven decision making, combined with ease of use. ToolsGroup’s solutions span key supply chain planning areas such as Demand Forecasting and Collaboration, S&OP, Demand Sensing, Promotion Forecasting and Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO). For more information visit www.toolsgroup.com or follow us on Twitter @ToolsGroup.
