Case Study: Leading Pharmaceutical Company achieves sub-1% stock-outs and autonomous supply chain planning with ToolsGroup

Saving Lives through Improved Supply Chain Planning

Leading Pharmaceutical Company, a major South African subsidiary producing and distributing affordable medicines worldwide, struggled with declining forecasting accuracy after rapid growth and faced long import lead times, currency volatility and demand spikes from government tenders. Concerned about costly, slow IT projects yet needing to avoid costly stock-outs and excess safety stock, the company engaged ToolsGroup for demand forecasting, inventory and replenishment planning (SO99+).

ToolsGroup deployed SO99+ for demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization and was fully operational within 30 days, delivering customer-level and 12-month forecasts and enabling autonomous planning. As a result, stock-outs fell from roughly 3% to under 1%, potential stock-outs can be identified up to four months ahead, statistical forecasts were up to 20% higher than the company’s prior market-intelligence system, and the planning team was freed to operate effectively during staff absences.