YKK Increases Efficiency and Improves Visibility with Atlas Planning Suite
COMPANY: YKK
WEBSITE: www.ykk.com
INDUSTRY: Consumer Goods
COMPANY TYPE: Privately Held
JOHN GALT SOLUTION: Atlas Planning Suite
Company
If you’ve ever touched a zipper, chances are you’ve used a YKK® product. Georgia-based YKK (U.S.A.) Inc. (YKK USA) manufactures sewn product fasteners and the machines to attach them. YKK USA employs more than 1,100 workers and offers worldwide manufacturing capabilities in 70+ countries.
Challenge
YKK USA had hit a wall with its existing forecasting software. The $70,000 annual license fee proved to be oppressive, and its database and data loading system required at least 16 hours per month on formatting and setup. To move forward, YKK sought a demand planning solution that would require little or no data formatting, have a generally high level of performance, feature a strong hierarchy tool, and offer a more reasonable one-time license fee.
Solution
John Galt’s Atlas Planning Suite met YKK’s speed, data-loading, and hierarchy requirements with impressive value. YKK’s planners were even more surprised by some of the more advanced features of the Demand Management Engine, including on-fly hierarchy that allows planners to drill down or roll up data by product group as needed. The Company also enjoys the ability automatically to load data each night through an ODBC connection. With nightly updates, YKK’s planners have better visibility of potential supply chain issues.
Benefit
YKK wanted to transition directly to the Atlas Planning Suite without significant process change, and it managed to do so smoothly. As a result, YKK planners were able to save up to five man-hours each month on data formatting alone. The absence of steep annual license fees saved YKK an estimated $50,000 annually. Furthermore, Atlas Planning’s ability to pull numerous opinion lines from different areas of the Company allows manufacturing and planning to speak in the same terms, leading to increased collaboration and greater efficiency.
