Supplier taps Smart Software to improve demand planning, inventory management
Belmont, MA — June 23, 2005 — Creativity Inc., a mid-sized importer and supplier of a variety of arts and crafts products, such as beads, scrapbooking supplies, paper crafting and craft organization solutions, said it has purchased Smart Software Inc.'s SmartForecast Enterprise product to improve demand planning and inventory management.
Creativity will integrate SmartForecasts with the company's CMS ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to initiate an inventory management process to better quantify and predict demand patterns and provide superior service to its customers.
Creativity Inc., based in Van Nuys, Calif., consists of four divisions: Blue Moon Beads, DMD, Crop-In-Style and Westrim Crafts. It also manages more than 12,000 active stock-keeping units (SKUs) in its inventory. Creativity said it will use SmartForecasts' forecasting and inventory optimization capabilities to provide accurate safety stock estimates and set service level inventory requirements in the hopes of ensuring more efficient distribution procedures and better merchandising support for its customers.
With our growing business we need more horsepower to get the job done, said Nick Lazarou, vice president of Supply Chain Management at Creativity Inc. SmartForecasts will enable us to add accurate statistically-based forecasting to our collaborative demand forecasting process. This capability will help us do a better job of managing our inventories and providing superior customer service.
Smart Software has provided Creativity Inc, with business planning consultation and product training. Additionally, Smart Software will supervise and support the integration of SmartForecasts with the company's ERP system.
