Raising the Roof on Reduced Inventory

Better visibility lets GAF Materials cut inventories, distribution costs

Rockville, MD  January 30, 2002  Planners at roofing materials manufacturer GAF Materials Corp. used to spend hours poring over spreadsheets and using other manual processes to create daily production line schedules.


But now a new solution from software company Manugistics Group is letting GAFMC create centralized capacity plans that the individual plant planners can use to create the line schedules literally in seconds.


GAFMC, a 166-year-old, $1.2 billion company based in Wayne, N.J., piloted a supply chain management solution from Manugistics before deciding to roll out the software to 14 manufacturing facilities around the United States last spring.


Since completing the installation, GAFMC reports that the solutions have allowed the company to reduce finished and raw material inventories, enhance information flow, increase productivity and reduce distribution costs.


"We now have better visibility into our inventory and more integrated, uniform planning processes," said Matt Tarczynski, executive director of logistics at GAFMC. "Enhanced visibility has proven especially helpful, better enabling us to target excess inventory for sale or shipment, and helping us to avoid misdistribution of goods. As we operate in a heavy transport industry, the distribution savings alone made possible by the Manugistics solutions should prove capable of funding this entire project."


Inter-facility collaboration has also increased, helping GAFMC better focus on short- and long-term corporate objectives.


In a later phase, GAFMC expects to collaborate with its glass-manufacturing suppliers, enabling them to view GAFMC's raw materials requirements for products such as substrate glassmat, and then automatically create replenishment orders. GAFMC also intends to add outside third-party suppliers to its collaborative environment.


Tarczynski said GAFMC selected Manugistics because of its referenceable client base and the proven deployment speed of its solutions. "We began to roll out their solutions just six months after the initial project plan was drawn up," he said.

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