Success story

Farnell synchronizes its supply chain to boost customer service.

Logility helped Farnell achieve the best balance between customer service levels and inventory requirements.

Challenges

Farnell markets and distributes more than 600,000 electronic components and industrial maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products to 430,000 customers in 36 countries. 

As part of the effort to rebrand four businesses in its marketing and distribution division, Farnell wanted to cross-sell products across its subsidiary businesses and give customers access to a greater array of products from the Farnell company of their choice. With the Farnell initiative, the company needed to be able to deliver a single order from multiple warehouses, support the implementation of new warehouse locations, increase order visibility, improve service and reduce inventory levels. 

Consolidating business groups and brands

Farnell needed to join core functions of the companies but keep the markets, skills and differentiators separate, and honor the unique brand loyalty behind each company.

Strategic inventory placement

The business needed a primary stock location for each product and to be able to ship to any of the brand’s customers anywhere in the world.

Faster order turnaround

Farnell wanted to provide next-day delivery, a big challenge given the more than 140,000 SKUs on its CD catalog.

Solutions

The Logility® Digital Supply Chain Platform enabled Farnell to boost service levels without a corresponding rise in inventory levels and made it possible for the company to reduce overall inventories significantly at its Leeds, U.K., warehouse. Logility enabled Farnell to integrate supply chain and logistics functions across subsidiary operations. 

Demand Planning and Optimization

Inventory Planning and Optimization

Supply Planning and Optimization

“A new warehouse in Liège, Belgium provided additional space to better serve the growing European market, along with the existing Leeds  warehouse,” explained Jon Bates, head of supply chain for Farnell. 

For example, to deliver on the promise of a unified global brand, Farnell had to change its product catalogs and give customers access to a broader array of products from a single Farnell company. Formerly, customers had to place separate orders to each individual Farnell company from separate product catalogs. Now, with Logility, a single catalog contains all products, and customers have access to more than 600,000 products that they can order from a single company. 

By the same token, the company can split a single customer order across multiple warehouses, then seamlessly package and deliver it from multiple locations. Each Farnell brand is now transparent in terms of physical location of inventory. 

“We needed to have a primary stock location for each product and be able to ship to any of the brand’s customers anywhere in the world,” Bates says. “Logility helps us determine where to place inventory more strategically and choose any warehouse to be the point of delivery, minimizing the number of stocking points. Demand forecasts are critical to this process and Logility will enable us to generate accurate forecasts and share valuable global demand information with our key suppliers,” Bates adds. 

Farnell also wanted to be able to provide customers with next-day delivery, which is often a big challenge given the more than 140,000 SKUs on the CD version of its catalog, a heavy mixture of both slow and fast-moving products, and a catalog that continues to grow at the rate of 5,000 to 10,000 SKUs a year. With help from Logility, the company is able to better manage its investment while turning around orders faster than ever before. 

Results

With Logility, Farnell was able to increase customer service levels while reducing inventory by 5%facilitate corporate efforts to cross-sell products across Farnell companies and give customers access to over 400,000 products, as well as drive collaborative partnerships with key suppliers. 

Logility allows us to place inventory more strategically and choose any warehouse to be the point of delivery, minimizing the number of stocking points.