Travis Perkins plc is transforming its capability to plan and forecast what products it should stock across its 1,900 branches according to the very latest trading information. This will enable it to reduce unnecessary inventory and increase sales, by having the right mix of products at the right locations to meet customer demand.
The leading British builders’ merchant and home improvement retailer operates 21 distinct businesses across its branches, with more than 100,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) to manage. It previously had no timely visibility of weekly trading performance broken down by branch, category, customer and SKU. The challenge was therefore to understand the appropriate ranges to stock so as to continue to have the right SKUs in the right branches, given that a branch only has physical capacity for around five per cent of all SKUs at any one time.
This has now been made possible thanks to a packaged solution delivered by SAS. The solution will enable Travis Perkins to easily visualise all its product data from a category, branch and customer perspective so it can make better ranging and trading decisions. The solution based on SAS’s data visualisation and data management technologies – SAS® Visual Analytics and SAS Data Integration- is scalable, can handle very large data sets and is easy to use.
SAS worked closely with big data specialists CoreCompete in delivering this solution, which acted as a solution design, technical and hosting partner. CoreCompete specializes in delivering business specific solutions utilizing the SAS platform and delivering on a cloud based platform.
“We chose SAS & CoreCompete based on their ability to deliver on our Range Management strategy with an integrated and fully managed solution that provides enhanced insights of what to stock and where, ultimately making us more efficient and boosting sales,” said Travis Perkins Group Supply Chain Strategy Director, Paul Horton. “The connected view of what SKUs to stock in each store enables us to give our customers a better experience and at the same time simplifies our inventory management.”
“What Travis Perkins is doing in terms of ensuring the appropriate products are provided for their customers through multiple channels is crucial for any retailer. In the case of Travis Perkins having such a wide range of often bulky products and limited in-store space, it is even more vital to achieve the correct mix,” said Mark Wilkinson, SAS Regional Vice President – Northern Europe and Russia/CIS. “In the information economy organisations need to maximise the use of data to make smarter, faster decisions – in this case to better understand ever-changing trading patterns and the optimum mix of products through every channel.”
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