Granger Plastics: Vendor Managed Inventory

Some of Granger’s customers order so much and so often that they require Granger to keep stock for their items and deliver them to their plants just in time (this is known as Vendor Managed Inventory, VMI). These orders are placed in one of two ways: either the customer has an automated ordering process in place that sends orders directly to Granger or they call in orders by phone.

These two types of VMI orders are handled by a single process. Automated orders are stored into Granger’s ERP system automatically and phone orders are entered by a sales representative. Both types of orders are then sent to the warehouse by e-mail for high priority distribution. Finally, Granger performs an automated recalculation of their stock to determine whether manufacturing is required to bring stock levels up. The process ends after evaluating the stock levels and either creates a manufacturing order (a notification is sent out additionally in that case) or just leaves the sufficient stock as is.