Case Study: Charles River achieves 84% reduction in backorders with CCH Tagetik Supply Chain Planning

Charles River reduced backorders by 84% by using CCH® Tagetik Supply Chain Planning

Charles River’s Microbial Solutions, a global supplier of endotoxin test kits to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, faced severe demand uncertainty when COVID‑19 began in 2020—large new orders, more frequent repeat orders, and supplier warnings strained their supply chain. They needed better forecasting, reduced manual planning, and a single aligned S&OP view to determine whether demand spikes were one‑off or sustained and to protect critical vaccine-related supply.

Having implemented CCH Tagetik Supply Chain Planning in 2019 for demand planning, S&OP and inventory optimization, Charles River gained end‑to‑end visibility and faster decision‑making. Results included an 84% reduction in backorders, more than 50% year‑over‑year reduction in expiring inventory write‑offs (with a projected 75–80% reduction over two years), and about 40% lower shipping costs on select products, enabling better warehouse stocking, production planning and responsiveness during COVID‑driven demand spikes.

Charles River

Jody Rogers

CPIM CSCP, Director Global Supply Chain