Ellery Homestyles
AN INDUSTRY THAT DEMANDS PRECISION
Ellery Homestyles was founded in 1924 and today has locations around the world. They supply branded and private labeled products such as bedding, curtains, window treatments, and specialty items to major retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Target. Molly Puckett is the VP of Demand Management and Operations and has been working at Ellery Homestyles for about 10 years. She began on the design side of the business but gradually transitioned to demand management through a variety of different roles.
2 years ago, Ellery had major problems with their demand planning and forecasting. Their processes consisted of using complicated excel spreadsheets that commonly had formulaic errors, which often led to lengthy out-of-stock periods. In addition to this glaring issue, Ellery Homestyles forecasting methods were undocumented, making training and maintenance of spreadsheets difficult or impossible.
Fast forward to six months after Molly and her team implemented Avercast. For inventory at brick and mortar stores, there was a 21% reduction in total inventory and a 29% reduction in excess stock. Major improvements were had in e-commerce also, with a 12% reduction in total and excess inventory. Don’t just take our word for it, Molly herself said “We've not only seen generous financial gains from the reduction of excess inventory as a byproduct of implementing the software but also a major improvement in our processes, collaboration, and general understanding of our mission as planners for the company… Avercast is the tool that will allow our company sustainable growth for decades moving forward.”
In addition to the marked improvements with inventory levels, Ellery Homestyles has seen many benefits from using Avercast’s more than 200 proprietary algorithm software. Their forecasts can now reflect events at the company and around the world to minimize spikes in inventory levels. They have also been able to develop a monthly process reviewing and reducing excess inventory, aged inventory, and aged stock. All of these benefits combined with better documentation of training materials and planner policies has caused Molly to say "Our team now spends the appropriate amount of time analyzing the data, putting into practice the adage of work smarter, not harder.” In an industry that demands precision, Molly has chosen to use Avercast to ease the burden of demand management on her and her team. Differentiating it from its competitors Molly states that “Avercast's tool is already robust, but they are next level when it comes to cutting edge development.”