Alsco

Finding the dead stock in a 50,000-item catalog

Alsco distributes industrial supply parts: thousands of slow-moving but essential items in a catalog of more than 50,000 products, bought by a single purchaser. Convexity sat on top of its Infor ERP to show which items deserve shelf space and which should be ordered only when a customer needs them.

Impact

Less dead stock — about 32,000 items with no stock, open orders or sales in two years identified to order only on demand
Fewer stockouts — reorder points set from current demand instead of static rules
Time saved each day — the sole buyer’s daily purchase-order review shrinks to the orders that need a decision
Faster purchase orders — a purchasing workbench that ranks vendors and drafts orders for review and import into the ERP
Better decisions — demand, forecast, minimum order and freight in one view for each order

The problem

One buyer for a catalog of more than 50,000 items
Static reorder rules that no longer matched what customers ordered
A large share of inventory estimated to be dead stock
Hours a day spent reviewing purchase orders
Switching an item to another vendor done by hand

Convexity features used

Inventory optimization →About 32,000 items flagged to stop stocking and order only when a customer asks.
Daily dashboards →Inventory, sales and purchasing refreshed from the ERP every day.
AI assistant →Questions about items, vendors and sales answered on request.

Company

Industry: Industrial supply distribution
Catalog: 50,000+ items
ERP: Infor CloudSuite Distribution
Workflow: Stock or order-as-needed → purchasing

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Before Convexity

Purchasing ran on static reorder rules inside the ERP. With one buyer for the whole catalog, reviewing purchase orders took hours a day, and switching an item to a different vendor was manual work.

A large share of the inventory was slow or dead stock: items bought to a rule that no longer matched what customers ordered.

What Convexity does

Dashboards refreshed every day

Inventory, sales and purchasing pulled from the ERP each day, so the buyer started from current numbers instead of exports.

Stock it, or order it when needed

Convexity flagged about 32,000 items as candidates to stop stocking and order only when a customer asks, so cash goes to the items that move.

A purchasing workbench, plus answers on request

Recommended orders in one queue, and an AI assistant the buyer could ask about items, vendors and sales. Purchase orders were planned to flow back into Infor.

The buyer reviewed every recommendation. Nothing was bought automatically.

Results and what’s next

The owners expected this to materially improve availability of the items customers rely on, cut stockouts and slow-moving stock, and free cash tied up in items customers no longer order. They also expected the buyer to get back the hours that went into reviewing purchase orders.

Sorting the catalog into items to stock and items to order on demand was the first step, and the one expected to free the most cash.

FAQ

Questions about Alsco

Alsco is an industrial supplies distributor with a catalog of more than 50,000 items, many of them slow-moving but essential.

On top of its Infor ERP: daily dashboards for inventory, sales and purchasing, a split of the catalog into items to stock and items to order only when a customer asks, a queue of recommended purchase orders, and an AI assistant for questions about items, vendors and sales.

Better availability of the items customers rely on, fewer stockouts, less slow-moving stock, cash freed from items customers no longer order, and hours back for the buyer.

Start with your workflow

Bring one inventory, purchasing or order-management problem. We will map the required data, demonstrate the relevant workflow and identify what needs configuration or further validation.