Viking Yachts (Infor CSI)

Learn how this premier luxury yacht builder enhanced supplier engagement and PO visibility with SourceDay – increasing the supplier acknowledgment rate to 96% and response rate to 88%.

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“The SourceDay platform is where I can see what the buyers and suppliers are doing in real-time and quickly get the information I need to know we’re on track.”

-Bob Pharo, Materials Manager

High End Customization Means Supply Complexity

Founded in the mid-1960s, Viking Yachts is relentless in its commitment to “build a better boat every day.” Critical to the company’s success and its reputation is its renowned in-house manufacturing capabilities. Since nearly every yacht built contains some level of customization, buyers must not only manage an ever evolving inventory of necessary stock materials; they must also order specialty parts unique to each boat as new sales come in. Even just one late or missing part stalls production, creating a delay for that specific yacht and also preventing all boats in that specific line from moving to the next stage of manufacturing.

Improving Supplier Responsiveness.
Reducing Extra Safety Stock.

Before

No MRP in Place
Even with some of the yachts containing up to 5,000 components, the six-person purchasing team did not use an MRP system because of the high rate of change in parts needed for each boat.
Manual Ordering
Each buyer spent extensive amounts of time following up with hundreds of suppliers to confirm receipt of purchase orders and check that all items from an order would be shipped and delivered on time.
Visibility Difficulty
It became increasingly difficult to maintain visibility into the status of POs, as well as accurately monitor if supplies were tracking toward an on-time delivery or running the risk of becoming past due.

After

Dramatic Improvement in Supplier Communication
The supplier acknowledgment rate soared to 96% as a result of automated workflows and the supplier response rate increased to 88%.
OTIF Inbound Delivery Rate Doubled
Visibility into the status of each PO line item – from quantities shipped to arrival dates – lets the team ensure orders are on track.
Reduced Safety Stock
The enhanced predictability, planning and precision helps prevent any production delays and lets the team avoid keeping large amounts of safety stock on hand.
Streamlined PO management
Removed the manual workload of contacting individual suppliers and pulling reports on late and on-time deliveries.

“When you have to manually manage a stack of papers on your desk, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. Now, we can go into the portal and quickly, at a glance, see what’s late and what’s coming in, and send out a bulk message to all vendors to request an update at one time.”

- Bob Pharo, Materials Manager

The Change

Streamlining the PO Management Process

Pharo and his team of buyers adopted the SourceDay platform and were impressed with how quickly it streamlined the PO management process. SourceDay removed the manual workload of pulling reports of late and on-time deliveries, and the team was pleased with how easy it was to get visibility into key metrics that impacted their business the most.

Results

96% Supplier Acknowledgment Rate

Viking Yachts saw a dramatic improvement in their interaction with suppliers, increasing supplier reliability. The supplier acknowledgment rate soared to 96% as a result of automated workflows, and the supplier response rate increased to 88%.

Doubled OTD Delivers Reduced Safety Stock

The purchasing team has also been able to mitigate concerns around storage and complex inventory management. The team's new level of visibility into the status of each PO line item allows for enhanced predictability to prevent production delays. As a result, the on-time, in-full delivery rate has more than doubled and the team can avoid keeping large amounts of safety stock on hand.

Who We Are

SourceDay

SourceDay provides PO Collaboration solutions to manufacturers, distributors, retailers and supply chains all over the world. We do more than save time and money; we transform procurement’s value proposition within the company.