Rovers North

Buying from the stock position, not from memory

Rovers North has sold Land Rover parts since 1979. Every week its buyers answer the same question: given what is on the shelf, what has been selling and what is already on the way, which parts need a purchase order now? This is how they answer it with Convexity.

Before: every purchase order started as a research project

A parts buyer can usually tell you what is running low. Turning that into an order they can defend meant pulling stock, recent demand and supplier details out of several reports and a spreadsheet, and relying on memory for which parts really mattered.

The buyers’ judgment was never the problem. It just came last, after the numbers had been assembled by hand.

The workflow

1. Step 1 —

   One view of the stock position

   On-hand, committed and inbound stock sit next to each part’s actual demand, instead of in three separate reports.

2. Step 2 —

   A ranked list by part and supplier

   Convexity ranks what needs attention by part and supplier, so a buyer opens a short list instead of the whole catalog.

3. Step 3 —

   The buyer makes the call

   The order is still a person’s decision. It is just made from the real numbers rather than from memory.

Working with Convexity

We built the workflow from Rovers North’s own data and the buying process their team already ran, then adjusted it with the buyers who use it every week.

Their team talks directly to our founders and engineers, not to a support queue.

Related

• Inventory optimization
• ERP for distributors
• Implementation workflow guide