Mason, OH, October 27 — ACTYLUS™ Smart Bin Systems, from Apex Supply Chain Technologies® of Mason, Ohio, are helping extend companies’ continuous improvement efforts into inventory replenishment – a traditionally low-tech and manual process.
By automating vendor managed inventory (VMI) programs, ACTYLUS brings a new level of automation to a previously inefficient and expensive process once accepted as being part of a company’s tail spend.
Tail Spend’s Growing Opportunity
“Tail spend” is the name given to the 20 percent of purchases that are seen as not delivering value to a company. These purchases, and the processes they supply, are usually a low priority and inefficient.
Consider industrial fasteners, for example. It is estimated companies will spend as much as $81 billion globally on industrial fasteners by 2018. Despite this sizable expenditure, this purchase involves little more than a company getting three distributor bids before buying the cheapest option. And the replenishment process is usually manual, requiring trips to count bins before refilling them.
This inefficient process drains productivity and is prone to inaccuracy. This increases the risk of a stock-out, which triggers emergency reordering that requires rush delivery charges. And if a stock-out results in a missed production deadline, the company can be charged costly fines.
ACTYLUS smart bins automate the replenishment process, sending alerts and reorder notifications when preset bin levels are detected. The end result is a faster, more accurate reordering process. Powered by the Apex Trajectory Cloud™, a secure analytics and inventory replenishment platform, ACTYLUS gives distributors and their customers 24/7 visibility into supply inventory. This eliminates the need for counting trips, preventing stock-outs and their subsequent consequences.
ACTYLUS Helps Distributors Focus on Customers Instead of Bins
By automating the VMI program, ACTYLUS has been well-received by the industrial marketplace as distributors realize the benefits of the smart replenishment system from Apex.
“By eliminating stock-outs, ACTYLUS eliminates costly emergency orders and allows companies and distributors to focus on more important operational issues,” said Kent Savage, Apex Supply Chain Technologies founder and CEO. “This elevates service levels and incents customers to ask distributors providing ACTYLUS to supply more SKUs, further impacting tail spend by helping to streamline the number of suppliers. All of these benefits help increase the value of the distributor relationship.”
To learn more about the ACTYLUS Smart Bin System, visit //www.apexsupplychain.com/Actylus.
Apex Supply Chain Technologies provides world-class automated dispensing systems for use in a variety of applications and industries. Our devices track billions of transactions to help thousands of customers worldwide manage, track and control their inventory and assets. With world headquarters in Mason, Ohio, Apex has offices in Australia, France, Germany, Latin America, Poland and the UK. More information is available at the Apex website, as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn.