REVIEW OUR CASE STUDIES

Create a financial planning model for a FMCG Manufacturer  read more...

Automated Master Scheduling Optimisation Process for a leading multi-national manufacturer read more...

Create a database for HACCP batch recording of raw materials and finished goods  read more...

Develop a custom spreadsheet function for a cosmetic company  read more...

Develop a Quotation database for a service company  read more...

Review and recommend logistics solution for FMCG manufacturer  read more...

 

If you would like to read them all they are below in numerical order.   Feel free to make contact with us to discuss any of the topics on this page or a project you need assistance with.

Please note some of the case studies were compiled from experience prior to trading under the name of Support-Logix.

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  Case Study 1: PLANNING FINANCIAL MODEL – FMCG MANUFACTURER

Background

A small manufacturing business had limited financial on-site resources and limited knowledge but wanted to create a budgeted plan for the next three years to demonstrate a strategy plan of new capital purchases that allowed increased capacities to service new markets with reduced costs of manufacture. With the functionality of having different costing scenarios for that time period when matched to engineering value initiatives that were planned.

The database was also to simulate the inventory levels of the materials and finished goods that were driven either by minimum economic order quantities or by seasonal availability, and simulate the stock levels accordingly. To allow a simulated cashflow and income statement for each period (month & financial year) that was to be presented with other material to their banking partners.

Solution

Build a custom database that can do the above with features that include creating a sales plan from a product family level forecast, and a matching production plan for this period, with capacity restraints built in and an optimised production plan taking into consideration safety stock levels. The Costing’s are built up from Bill of Material information and operational activity information and there is also a fixed asset register that allows depreciation calculations to be made accordingly. The database has a report writer that then allows the excel reports to be written with preset formatting. This allows a full new edition to be created within approximately 30 minutes.

The database is quite flexible and extensive, and does need resource that is skilled in management accounting to operate. However, the financial model does have far better manageability than trying to complete the same exercise on a spreadsheet, which if tried would be large beyond comparison. This model can be used for budgeting purposes and/or for strategic development.

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  Case Study 2: AUTOMATED MASTER SCHEDULING OPTIMISATION PROCESS - MULTINATIONAL MANUFACTURER

Background:

This manual optimisation task was completed by a Supply Chain Analyst, using excel spreadsheets and manually changing production specifications and some forecast specifications to better match product availability to customer orders, in the rank of profitability for that line of inventory and customer sale price per unit. This use to take approximately 2 days, with increment improvements, during this period.

Solution:

Design a database program, raise a supporting successful business case and work with the program developer.

The developed program ranked sale opportunities in profitability order or contribution margin order, then sequentially matched solutions from a table of known substitutions and altered the production specifications accordingly or in some cases altered the forecast if possible that didn’t effect the customer’s requirements. This was with approximately 7-12,000 different possible sale configurations per period in question.

This program took approx. 30 minutes to run, saved approximately 20 hours of a Business Analyst time and was far superior in quality of output. Each record was optimised to the fullest extent possible, given the set parameters. Because production was from multiple plants the exercise was complex, this process better utilised the production resources based on economic value and improved inventory levels, because more product was in the right specification to fill planned sale orders. It also helped the planning cycle, with the monthly planning meeting being able to be brought forward a couple of days.

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  Case Study 3: FOOD SAFETY INFORMATION RECORDING (HACCP) – FMCG MANUFACTURER

Background

Tracking of raw materials and factory information was compiled and written by hand, this process was slow, and by default the information was related but had to be manually written down each time, a very manual process that was costly.

Solution

Create a database record system that allowed security of data and was smart in recording ingredient information that was specific to the finished goods that were being manufactured each day.

A simple function was written to drill down through the sub assembly levels to each ingredient, and consolidate the list for the day’s production; the values were then automatically populated to the table so that batch numbers were the only data entry required. This saving valuable time and allowing an easy method for historic look up of batch numbers in regards to a finished good or a raw material.

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  Case Study 4: DEVELOP A SPREADSHEET CUSTOM FUNCTION

Background

A natural cosmetic company owner wanted to develop a spreadsheet function that allowed commission to be calculated for different team members that were at different levels in the multi-level marketing sale system and to make the month end task easy  to sum commission totals  for each individual sales person.

Solution

Create a Microsoft Excel^® Public Function developed in ‘vba’ allowing this information to be calculated with multiple parameter inputs driving the function summation calculation. It worked so well Support-Logix has since gone on to use this same functionality for graph data computations, where existing formulas are limiting.

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  Case Study 5: DEVELOP A QUOTATION DATABASE

Background

A business owner wanted a solution, where the less he had to write the happier he was, this was in regards to writing and calculating quotes. The end product had to look professional and be able to be emailed with company logo and design work incorporated.

Solution

Create a database that had pre-set text that could be added to at anytime. Allow a pdf document to be created so the quote could be emailed. The database also allows the status of quotes to be reported and also creates a link into Microsoft Outlook Calendar to remind management of upcoming jobs. This was a low cost solution to an everyday need.

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