Europe Snacks, a company based in Vendée (France) and specialized in the production of salty snacks for 25 years, has chosen to implement Colibri, the sales forecasting solution launched by VISEO in 2014, in order to improve its performances.
The challenge : Enhance reliability while saving time:
With continual growth since its inception, problems related to expiration and a service rate directly impacted by the quality of forecasts, it was necessary for Europe Snacks to evolve. Therefore, the producer decided to set up a forecasting process in order to improve performance, reduce the cost of losses and time consumption.
The group has been relying on Excel for 18 months, but quickly reached the tool’s limits on different aspects:
- Limited choice of non-automatic statistical algorithms
- Tedious management of new items and substitution
- Insufficient collaborative options
- Complexity of use
- High risk of errors due to manual processing
Hence, Europe Snacks decided in 2016 to look for a sales forecasting tool.
The choice of Colibri
«We chose Colibri due to its speed of implementation, as well as the SaaS rental mode which allowed us to test the solution for free before purchasing it, a quick ROI and the global ergonomics of the system.» Sebastien Mare explains, Head of Supply Chain for Europe Snacks.
Ergonomics have proved to be a crucial aspect, as the company forecasting process is mainly collaborative. It was necessary to have an easy-to-use tool in order to interact with the sales teams.
The implementation of Colibri
The implementation project was very fast, with a total duration of 1 to 2 days per week for a month in May 2016. Small workshops were organized internally to refine the hierarchy and discuss the project with the sales team.
Colibri’s standard package (Support, Training, Clear Cycle) enabled key users at Europe Snacks to quickly use the tool.
Earnings and ROI ?
For Europe Snacks it was important to have reliable forecasts made quickly.
«Since we impemented Colibri we have divided the time spent on the forecast by 2.5 while gaining 5 points of reliability» Sébastien Mare continues.
Moreover, the company observed, a 20 to 30% decrease in series changeover, as well as a decrease in expiration losses. Eventually, since the implementation of Colibri, long-term planning is going much better, especially towards the starts of new production lines which had often caused much trouble untill then.
What’s next?
«Today we are at 70% reliability, our goal is to reach 90%. We want to achieve this by using Colibri and by recruiting a demand forecaster who will spend more time working on the tool».
Europe Snacks is a growing French group that has evolved from a national wide business generating a 70 million Euro turnover to a Franco-British company with a turnover of 250 million Euro.
The strategy for the next 3 years is to centralize the forecasting process using the tool in both France and England.
Sébastien Mare concludes: «We are very satisfied with the for
The highlights of Colibri according to Europe Snacks:
- Collaboration
- Calculation speed and robutness
- Ergonomics
- Reporting
- Data sécurity
