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Founded in 2013 in Singapore, Castlery is a ‘digital first’ lifestyle company that manufactures and distributes contemporary home furniture. Its business model focuses on providing high quality products for every personal style that can be purchased through a
simplified process for better prices.
As the brand and revenue grew, so did its footprint. Castlery expanded into Australia in 2017 and then, in 2019, it entered the United States as an ecommerce retailer. Today, the U.S. and Australian markets represent more than half of the company’s business. However, with market expansion came the requirement for a multi-echelon warehouse market to support the business, and supply visibility became a significant challenge. Castlery now had to deal with long lead times for products manufactured in Asia to the United States in particular.
Longer supply lead times meant the furniture maker couldn’t respond quickly to shifts in customer demand nor keep its suppliers updated on accurate future material needs. It found itself challenged to maintain the same service level with the same amount of inventory.
Inventory management and procurement was further complicated by the fact that a small operational team was trying to do the supply chain planning along with other work assignments. For product forecasting, the team was using Excel spreadsheets and Python scripts. Those tools made supply chain planning sequential
and opaque. Because Castlery made frequent upgrades and changes to its product line, the furniture maker also found it difficult to use those tools to quickly evaluate supply options or do scenario planning. The operational team also found it problematic to monitor plan performance as well as analyze alternative courses to procure supply and maintain the right mix and amount of inventory. In summary, Castlery needed to shift from a capability light, highly customized process to a much more advanced and future proof planning system.
We did not select Kinaxis and mSE Solutions solely for their supply chain technology and consulting expertise, we also value being able to partner with people who are collaborative, visionary, and put people first.
SHIMIN GU,
HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY AND INTELLIGENCE
Castlery began the search for an advanced planning solution (APS); seeking a market leader that would suit their current size of business yet be scalable for the future, with proven success in concurrent and scenario planning in their industry. Through an existing, strong relationship with mSE Solutions, (a Kinaxis Value Added Reseller (VAR) global partner), Castlery were recommended Kinaxis as a best-practice technology solution, amongst five other supply chain planning solutions. Castlery’s selection process
was well thought through – beyond the technical abilities of an APS they wanted to work with a reputable vendor that could offer a future proof solution that could be live quickly and does not require significant customization; no need to reinvent the wheel.
From the 6 shortlisted vendors, Kinaxis ranked highest in 8/10 of the technical requirements; was well featured “out of the box” negating the need for customization and with an implementation partner in mSE Solutions well experienced in implementation of Kinaxis globally enhanced by in region presence.
Castlery selected Kinaxis as its end-to-end supply chain solution for planning, forecast collaboration, and visibility for improved market responsiveness. With highly experienced and capable teams from Castlery, mSE Solutions and Kinaxis the deployment took just four months. Planning One™ is specifically tailored for small and mid-sized companies to deliver results (ROI/TTV) in an accelerated timeline.
With Kinaxis, Castlery can plan for new factory orders and ocean shipments. Kinaxis extracts and cleans data from Castlery’s Oracle ERP system for developing production plans, managing inventory,
and evaluating possible supply alternatives. The furniture maker uses Kinaxis for all scenario planning to determine replenishment windows and make alternative supply arrangements in the event of a plant shutdown. It uses scenario planning to better determine short- and long-term warehouse space needs.
Combining the capabilities of Kinaxis and mSE Solutions proved to be a winning solution; we saw positive results very quickly.
SHIMIN GU,
HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY AND INTELLIGENCE
Founded in 2013 in Singapore, Castlery is a ‘digital first’ lifestyle company that manufactures and distributes contemporary home furniture. Its business model focuses on providing high quality products for every personal style that can be purchased through a simplified process for better prices.