Chatsworth Products

About SourceDay

Customer Story

7 min read

Chatsworth Products

How Chatsworth Products Reduced Work in Process with Real-Time Information

Download Now

We met our SourceDay partners at an Epicor user group meeting and we saw the demo. It wasn’t long after we saw the demo that we were planning our SourceDay implementation.

Jonathan Peters, Director of IT at Chatsworth Products

66%

WIP inventory cut

90%

Average on-time deliveries

70%

Decrease in late deliveries

Managing Suppliers at Scale for Risk & Reward

When Epicor announced they would no longer be supporting their supplier portal, Chatsworth made the decision to rethink how they handle supplier collaboration, both for their own sake and for their suppliers’. They made the decision to augment their ERP system’s capabilities by integrating with SourceDay.

Chatsworth was facing a number of supplier-related challenges with their Epicor ERP, all of which centered around how they were managing the process of acquiring parts and raw materials. They predominantly relied upon email, phone calls, faxes, and spreadsheets to manage supplier communication, none of which facilitated visibility or easy tracking. 

Chatsworth’s IT and supply chain teams worked with SourceDay to replace the old way of doing business with a digitally transformed, streamlined process for managing parts. While Epicor offered a replacement solution for their supplier portal, the Chatsworth team did not feel it provided the scale and performance they needed to manage their suppliers and relative risk. There were also concerns about the supplier onboarding process, described by one Chatsworth team member as “painful.”

1:44 Play Video

The Bottom Line for Adopting SourceDay

In evaluating supplier management tools, Chatsworth wanted something more than “a glorified email exchange.”

By cleaning up our work in process, we now have more just-in-time inventory management. We’ve reclaimed about 90% of our previous warehousing space and converted it into manufacturing floor because of the way we’ve optimized our inbound materials.

Spike McBride
Senior Director of Materials and Logistics at Chatsworth Products

Supplier Collaboration Improved with SourceDay

After

  • WIP inventory on hand reduced from 8-9 days to 2-3 days
  • Better use of production space fuels corporate growth
  • Cash flows freed up to support new acquisitions
  • Improved supplier management is facilitating the process of integrating those new acquisitions with the core Chatsworth business

BEFORE

  • Excess WIP inventory cluttered the production space and led to damages
  • Late deliveries all had the same cause: no supplier acknowledgement of the original order date
  • Managing orders and status via email led to confusion and wasted resources

Three years ago, we were living in chaos. Now, with our hyper-growth and with the new tool, I can’t remember the last time we were short a part.

Spike McBride
Senior Director of Materials and Logistics at Chatsworth Products

BENEFITS

Actionable Information Available in Real Time

Chatsworth leverages SourceDay’s real-time capabilities to put information into the hands of decision makers both inside the company and out. This includes planners in supply chain and warehouse operations as well as multiple types of customers (distributors, integrators, and end-users), each of which needs a different type of information on a specific schedule.

SourceDay has proven to be far more than a ‘glorified email chain’ because it stores information centrally, making it easier for all parties in the supply chain to stay up to date. Because the SourceDay team handled all the heavy lifting associated with implementation, integration, supplier onboarding, and adoption, Chatsworth quickly realized the full value proposition associated with the platform. Chatsworth is 100% employee-owned, creating added incentive for everyone to inquire how they can do more for the company, gain more efficiencies, and find more time in the day for adding value.

SOLUTIONS

From Root Cause Analysis to Corrective Action

Before SourceDay, certain parts were chronically late. Each time they were short on inventory, the Chatsworth team would do a root cause analysis to uncover the problem – especially when it brought production lines to a halt. It almost always came back to the same issue; because they were relying upon email and phone calls to manage their orders, they had no way to track whether suppliers acknowledged the original order date (and they often didn’t). Now that information is not only tracked centrally by SourceDay, Chatsworth is also able to make a record of the deal price when an order involves a spot buy.

RESULTS

Today’s Improvements Lead to Tomorrow’s Opportunities

Through increased supply chain predictability and a re-optimization of their available production space, Chatsworth Products has been able to grow their business substantially. They continue to invest in their own digital transformation, moving away from paper-based processes whenever possible.

Because the SourceDay implementation was smooth and offered additional benefits and functionality beyond their previous supplier management system, the materials and logistics team still has solid relationships with suppliers and internal customers. In fact, they plan to expand their use of SourceDay to include unlimited suppliers, more buyers, and supplier scorecards to support their quarterly business reviews, allowing performance issues to be addressed as soon as they happen rather than months later. They plan to do the same for the companies Chatsworth has recently acquired, and now that those teams have seen what the SourceDay platform can do, they are eager to come online.

Who We Are

SourceDay

SourceDay is a supply chain performance software that bridges the gap between the ERP and the supplier network, making it easy to manage changes throughout the direct spend lifecycle. For too long, change has been the only constant for manufacturers, distributors, and CPG brands relying on legacy processes to manage suppliers. With SourceDay’s suite of collaborative products, entire teams can trace a single part from PO issuance through delivery, giving organizations unprecedented command and control over their businesses. SourceDay has helped thousands of businesses prevent surprises in their supply chains and, in doing so, enabled them to ship billions of parts on time, uncover new cost savings, safeguard revenue, optimize operations and protect sacred customer relationships.

Chatsworth Products

Chatsworth Products (CPI) is a global manufacturer of products and solutions that protect your ever-growing investment in information and communications technology for IT and industrial automation applications. We act as your business partner and are uniquely prepared to respond to your requirements with global availability and rapid product customization, giving you a competitive advantage. With decades of experience engineering thermal, power and cable management solutions for the data center, enterprise networking and industrial enclosure markets, CPI is well positioned to provide you with unequaled application expertise, customer service and technical support, and a global network of industry-leading distributors.