Our Supply Chain Heroes program recognizes and celebrates the hard work of LeanDNA customers who optimize inventory, reduce shortages, and empower their companies to operate more efficiently. Every hero has a story, and we’re here to tell them.
Meet Jim Woods, Duravant’s Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO), and Brad Claycamp, Director of Operations at Marlen, a Duravant operating company. They are the dynamic duo behind Duravant's recent supply chain success. In the face of disparate ERP systems and historical inefficiencies, they championed change, embracing LeanDNA to revolutionize the company’s approach to inventory management. Empowering buyers to make data driven decisions, reducing inventory, and increasing inventory turns has earned them the title of LeanDNA’s Supply Chain Heroes.
From Static Reports to Data Driven Decisions
Duravant has experienced tremendous growth over the past ten years by expanding their market share and acquiring new companies into their portfolio of industry-leading brands serving the food processing, packaging and material handling sectors. Each acquired company was still using their own ERP systems and processes, including Marlen. Brad emphasized the limitations of the operating ERP systems, noting the tools provided by the ERP were not intuitive or user-friendly. "This combination really limited our ability to control inventory in the most effective and efficient way.”
Previously, Marlen was turning inventory less than three times a year. Their efforts to improve this included broad reaching asks of the organization like, “let’s work on improving inventory turns” or even putting a spending limit on buyers. While these approaches yielded short-term successes, they were not sustainable for long term improvement.
The team resorted to spreadsheets and BI tools to generate reports and pull data. However, these efforts were only successful when the reports were initially created. Not reflecting real time data made it difficult for buyers to make decisions effectively.
Marlen decided to implement LeanDNA to provide their team with clear and accurate recommendations and real time data to help them make data driven decisions and ultimately improve their inventory turns. With Jim and Brad leading the charge, the shift to accessing real time data was transformative for the site.
Results: The Triumph of Change
Empowered and Efficient Buyers
With LeanDNA, the team at Marlen have visibility into real time data and the ability to drill down in reporting to get the information they need in one place, saving them valuable time. Empowering the buyers with clear reporting enables them to be more efficient and effective now and in the future.
“Recently I have been seeing a change in the confidence of the buyers. LeanDNA is user-friendly and has empowered them in making wise decisions. This information has always been inside the ERP system, but LeanDNA brings this to a level that buyers can trust and feel confident in their decisions.” - Brad Claycamp, Director of Operations at Marlen
The buyers see the value of this shift to reliable inventory data and are actively exploring tools within LeanDNA. One buyer specifically called out how excited he was about the tool saying “LeanDNA is the best tool that has been provided to us. And I’m still playing around with stuff and learning.” That excitement is leading to lasting results for Marlen.
“We continue to have our buyers be very active in the tool and continue to drive improved inventory performance.”-Jim Woods
Inventory Value Reduction
Inventory reduction has been a primary focus for Marlen during this transformation. In just 3.5 months, Jim and Brad have led the team to achieve a 10.3% reduction in total inventory value. With that, Jim notes, “Our turns have greatly increased, and our raw material availability and customer delivery rates have not degraded.”
What’s Next
For Jim and Brad, the journey towards optimization is ongoing. Jim emphasizes the importance of fine-tuning safety stock levels and ABC inventory. “LeanDNA provides great insight into prioritizing decisions and allows the buyers to effectively review the biggest opportunities, in real time," he remarks.
Buoyed by their initial success, Jim and Brad are eager to continue improving inventory efficiency at Marlen. Not only that, they are looking forward to sharing their success across Duravant. With plans to expand LeanDNA's reach across multiple operating companies, they are paving the way for greater efficiency and innovation across their enterprise.
A Tip from the Heroes
We like to ask every Supply Chain Hero the same question. What is the most valuable thing you have learned that you would want to share with other supply chain professionals?
“LeanDNA is a complete package. The software is very user-friendly, the concept of the Widgets is brilliant and allows anyone to “customize” their dashboards quickly. This includes dashboards for buyers, managers, and leadership. Additionally, the support team has been super-efficient in solving any questions or concerns.” -Brad Claycamp, Director of Operations at Marlen
Jim echoes Brad with two points that have made the Duravant team successful so far with LeanDNA. First, he notes the software is well-written, easy to implement, and user friendly. He goes on to say how LeanDNA is a very willing partner, ready to respond and assist with any question or struggle they had, even providing new reports when needed.
“My feedback to other professionals that are looking to do this type of installation is to ensure you have more than great software, you need a great partner. We found that in LeanDNA.” - Jim Woods, CSCO at Duravant
With the triumph of data-driven decision-making, Jim & Brad’s leadership has ushered in a new era of efficiency and innovation for Duravant. They've empowered buyers, reduced inventory, and achieved initial goals for inventory turns. Looking ahead, Jim and Brad remain committed to the path of optimization, eager to continuously improve operations for their teams.
If you’d like to nominate someone for our Supply Chain Hero program or view more heroes stories, click here.
If this story resonated with you and you’d like to learn more about how to reduce inventory with LeanDNA, click here to schedule a demo.
