For industrial supply distributors
Thousands of parts that sell a few times a year, and the one that stops a plant
Bearings, fasteners, hose, safety supplies and cutting tools: most items sell a few times a year, and the one you don’t have stops a customer’s line. Datazimuts reads your ERP’s exports, cleans the item data first, and tells your buyers every morning what to order from each supplier, with the reason behind every quantity.
What goes wrong
Where the buying goes wrong
The part that stops a line
A customer’s line is down for a bearing you sold twice last year. A min/max can’t tell a part that matters from one that doesn’t.
Slow stock everywhere
Most of the catalogue sells a few times a year. Each item looks small, but together they hold a large share of your cash, and some will never sell again.
Steel and the dollar
Much of what you sell is made of steel or bought in US dollars. An increase or a weaker dollar reaches your cost a few weeks after the supplier’s notice.
What Datazimuts does
A plan every morning, and nothing sent without a yes
The order plan, supplier by supplier
Every morning, what to order from each supplier, rounded to their packs and minimums, with the reason behind every quantity.
The item doctor first
Unit and price-unit errors, duplicates and phantom stock are found before any forecast. An item with a problem gets no order line until a person confirms the fix.
A free health check, in ranges
Dead, excess and returnable stock, rebates within reach and stock to verify, each as a low and a likely figure with its evidence. Never a promise.
Supplier invoices, read and matched
Forward invoices to your own address. Each one is matched to its PO and receipt; a price or quantity that differs is held with its reason and dollars.
Alerts in plain words
Write the rule the way you would say it. You see it as understood, tried on today’s data, before it starts.
Drafts in your ERP, after a yes
Nothing reaches a supplier on its own. A buyer approves, then the POs land in your ERP as drafts, or as files you import yourself.
What moves the numbers
What moves your demand and your costs
Plant shutdowns
Your customers’ plants stop for maintenance in summer and over the holidays, and maintenance parts rush just before. Your past years show it, and the forecast starts from them.
Steel
Steel sets the price of fasteners, pipe, strut, studs and much of what is made from it. An announced increase goes in once, and the next plan reads it.
The exchange rate
Goods bought in US dollars cost more when the Canadian dollar weakens. Orders keep their currency, approval limits count US-dollar orders at your rate, and an expected change of rate goes in as an event.
Resin
PVC, PEX and ABS pipe and plastic conduit follow resin prices. An announced increase goes in once, and the next plan reads it.
Contractor jobs
A won job can take a month of stock in one order. The forecast sets one-off project orders apart, so one job does not raise every order after it.
A typical year
Fairly flat, with dips when customers’ plants shut down in summer and over the holidays, and a rush on maintenance parts just before.
The item doctor
Unit traps caught before any order
An item with an unresolved unit problem gets no order line and no dollar figure until a person confirms the fix.
Fasteners per 100 or per 1,000
Bolts, screws and washers priced per 100 or per 1,000 but counted by the piece: read as a price each, a box looks a hundred times too dear.
Hose and chain by the reel
Hose, chain and cable bought by the reel and sold by the foot or the metre.
Gloves by the dozen
Gloves bought by the dozen or the case of 144 and sold by the pair: the purchase and sales units have to agree before any order.
A box sold as one
A box of 50 inserts invoiced as one unit, so the sales history says one when 50 left the shelf.
Buying ahead
Should you buy ahead of an increase?
Buying before an increase saves on every unit, and costs money to hold until it sells. Move the sliders on a made-up example to see where it stops paying.
Illustration · made-up figures
Buy ahead of an announced price change?
Fasteners and steel products: about $6,000 bought a week.
+$1.1k–1.2k
Worth a look: even the low figure comes out ahead.
Your ERP
Reads the ERP you already run
Eight ERPs have a ready mapping, and any other can send CSV or Excel exports. Each export guide names the five lists to send and where to find them.
- Common in this trade
- Also read
Free health check
Get your free health check
Tell us who you are and which ERP you run; your trade is already chosen. We write back with the export guide for your ERP and the next steps.