Novacyl: New Supply Chain Process

Based in Lyon, in France, Novacyl is the world leader of Salicylic Acid, its derivatives and Aspirin. Novacyl is also a major player on Methyl Salicylate, Paracetamol and solar filters. Moreover, as an actor of both pharmaceutical and cosmetic markets, Novacyl offers a quality of products at a unique level, as proven by the Salicylate de Methyl (YMS) offer and the solar filters (YOS, Octyl Salicylate, Homosalate) with no paraben.

The challenge: Assist a global supply chain process

Many factors brought Novacyl to pick a sales forecasting tool: improve its visibility on the business side as well as on the factory side, but also simply implement forecasting and demand planning processes that didn’t exist before. This tool was supposed to improve the service rate, reduce the stocks and give visibility to the factories. Philippe Pessina, Supply Chain Director for Novacyl says: «We had an Excel sheet monthly process that salesmen had to fill. We could only have n+1 and n+2 forecasts, which was limited. We had difficulties making plans in the future.»

Therefore, Novacyl decided to set up a global thinking on supply chain, which brought it to implement a demand planning global process. In order to assist and complete this process, the group had to acquire a sales forecasting tool.

The choice of Colibri

Hence Novacyl chose Colibri to assist its effort. Colibri was a tool for decision support, forecasts gathering, but also for internal promotion. Many criteria distinguished Colibri from the others: its price, a minor investment risk, an easy and simple implementation. The group also chose Colibri as a tool for decision support and gathering, enabling to federate the company. “This was allowing us to enlist the company around a project by showing something concrete and visible that was giving useful information”, confirms Philippe Pessina.

And it has produced results. Novacyl has already reduced its stock by 20% without worsening its service rate. As for its sales forecast accuracy (SFA), it jumps from 50 to 70%. This enhancement ca be explained not only by a more structured process eased by the implementation of Colibri, but also by the involvement of Novacyl teams. Philippe Pessina says: «We also get better on our mid and long term vision, because Colibri gives us the possibility to plan our forecasts, something that we didn’t have before.»

Finally, Novacyl can now measure its order book completeness rate and compare it to the forecasts. Philippe Pessina explains: «As we do a daily update, we will soon be able to warn the salesmen on their perimeter. Colibri will bring a true gain on this process part.»

Therefore Novacyl implemented a complete supply chain process, assisted by a simple tool easy to set: Colibri.

A project enabled by Colibri’s teams

To implement Colibri, Novacyl set up a fluid workflow involving very little people. Colibri’s teams also stand out by their implication into the project. “We saw a lot of consultants. We met with a Colibri team which brought a certain freshness and a certain humility. They introduced to us a modern tool for which they had lots of new projects.

Next steps

Novacyl intends to keep on going and involve more of its salesmen in the process. This would allow to directly see the data and read information. Colibri’s teams work as well on other improvements asked by the group. Among those requests, there’s a mobile app for iOS and Android.

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