Partner Article

NVC Lighting celebrates bottom line boost

NVC Lighting UK, which distributes a range of commercial, industrial, amenity, and exterior lighting products exclusively through wholesalers in the UK and Ireland, has recently implemented new technologies to take control of both its stock management and customer service functions, and increase its bottom-line performance.

As a result, the Birmingham-based company, which employs 120 staff and has premises covering over 90,000ft², including offices, two large warehouses and an assembly area, has gained an additional two weeks of business time that would usually have been spent conducting a year-end stock take, this can now be reinvested back into the business operations.

OGL Computer’s prof.ITplus software has transformed the warehouse management at NVC UK by enabling the business to gain control of its stock. The system enables perpetual stock checks, which has changed dramatically how the lighting company now manages the complete warehouse operation.

NVC UK Deputy General Manager, Ralph Pars, comments: “With prof.ITplus, we now undertake daily stock checks on a line by line basis, rather than once a year. This has allowed the business to increase its turnover and profit because of the additional trading days available.

“The warehouse sits at the heart of NVC’s business, so when challenges arose with stock control, it also affected other areas of the business, such as sales and accounts. We had been running two different unlinked IT systems, which made the warehouse operation “chaotic”. This resulted in stock inaccuracies and product location issues, which in turn had an impact on the overall warehouse efficiency. Stock valuation aspects were also in question. Our internal staff had reliability issues when processing orders, which resulted in a poor delivery service to our customer base. The clients’ perception was that NVC could not supply products on time and in full.”

NVC UK has substantially trimmed its direct costs by implementing Kidderminster-based OGL Computer’s warehouse management (WMS) software. It has also improved its pick times and fulfilment rates, which enhanced its customer service.

“Previously our efficiency in picking was unknown. When we first analysed our data, it took around 12.5 minutes [per pick sheet] and now we have that down to 107 seconds, which is fantastic,” said Andy Pagett, Head of Logistics. “We can make those improvements based on having fixed locations for products, knowing the fastest moving products and where they’re located. Due to the flexibility of prof.ITplus we’re able to change fixed locations of fast-moving products to the front of the warehouse.

“WMS touched many areas of the business; it wasn’t just the warehouse. It impacts the purchasing, production, accounts and internal sales departments, allowing people to communicate together with confidence - the overall difference is remarkable.”

NVC UK is now able to maximise warehouse efficiencies, organise stock locations, store items based on size and weight, and understand its best sellers. The combined cost and time savings, and improvement to customer service provision, order processing and employee management has given NVC UK a significant boost.

OGL Computer worked closely with NVC UK to understand its business processes, configure the system to work appropriately and to ensure minimal disruption at go-live.

Nick Davies, Head of Software Development at OGL Computer, concluded: “NVC UK is able to drive its business forward with prof.ITplus giving the entire team visibility and control over their stock. The system provides NVC UK with the data needed to continually improve the business’ service to its customers whilst working effectively and efficiently to improve its bottom-line.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by OGL Computer .