Since Columbia Distributing launched its Inventory Dashboard , the company has saved both time and labor , along with more accurately tracking products . Created as a “ single source of truth ,” the dashboard manages Columbia ’ s inventory across all branches and departments from the moment it lands at the dock all the way through the trade to retail customers and end consumers .

“ Since launching the dashboard , we have achieved labor and time savings equivalent to approximately one full FTE ( full-time equivalent ),” says Columbia Distributing ’ s chief operating officer Chris Wright . “ Additionally , its use has led to a 30 % decrease in out-of-stocks , a 9 % reduction in out-of-code items and a 38 % improvement in slotting utilization .”

Columbia ’ s previous methods required a high level of technical expertise with its Warehouse Management Systems and time-consuming individual report building , the company states . Through an 11−month collaborative process across many departments , the Optimization Team worked with Purchasing , Sales , IT , Business Development and Warehouse teammates to create an easy-to-use Power BI Dashboard to service all inventory reporting needs across the organization .

From the moment inventory arrives from a supplier , it is scanned into Columbia ’ s network . Within minutes , the product and its location can be seen on the Inventory Dashboard , the company states .

Code dates are immediately available , which gives the Business Development team an easy-to-read and color-coded scorecard to ensure that items are moving through the warehouses at a rate that doesn ’ t threaten their quality in the trade .

“ This dashboard has fundamentally changed the way we are able to manage our 80 million annual cases of inventory across 14 branches and two states ,” Wright states . “ It ’ s created a ‘ single source of truth ’ and helps us ensure that we ’ re delivering the highest quality product to our customers .”

To ensure the warehouse has the appropriate amount of product on hand , sales and purchasing teams can see Velocity and Days on Hand data . This allows them to see if something needs to be ordered before initiating incentives or special programming , according to the company .

Velocity data also helps warehouse teams identify items that have slower daily rates of sale and send them back to the hub branches in exchange for faster moving items . This helps ensure that the product is being picked for the retailer close to the source .

The best part ? The dashboard wasn ’ t even that time-consuming to implement .

Without creating additional work for Columbia ’ s frontline

– Chris Wright , Columbia Distributing ’ s chief operating officer

teammates , the company used the systems and technology already in place to pull inventory data from multiple sources into the dashboard .

“ The dashboard resulted from a Lean project aimed at optimizing inventory management and reducing waste ,” says Wright . “ It was a collaborative effort involving a cross-departmental team that worked diligently to find a solution . Once the team agreed on the goals , our analytics team took the lead in building the required data connections and dashboards . The entire project took about 12 months to complete .”

“ I ’ m thrilled that our team is being recognized for their great work ,” says Chris Steffanci , president and CEO of Columbia Distributing . “ So many people from all aspects of our organization collaborated on this to make us a more effective and efficient business .”

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Winter 2024 • Beverage Wholesaler 15