Case study for business optimization of a paper distribution company using excel

1. Case Study For Business Optimization Of a Paper Distribution Company
Executive Summary
The customer is in the business of paper cutting and dispatching. They purchase jumbo rolls of paper
and then cut them into required lengths of sheets as per orders received. They also purchase ready
sheets in stock lot and this is resold to the clients as per orders.
Requirement
The customer had two main pain areas:
1. Customer side – The customers were regularly following up for the status of their orders and
dispatch details and the internal staff was spending lot of valuable time in responding to these
queries. This was disrupting the daily routine and productivity was being hampered due to
these constant queries as the required information was not organized and had to be sourced
from different departments as there was no systematic tracking of this information.
2. Operations – There was a co-ordination and communication issue within the team with respect
to the production and the stock status of finished goods.
a. Many times they had the product in stock but due to wrong accounting the stock was
not updated and new production was scheduled resulting in excess stock in the
warehouse
b. Sometimes the excess production was not entered in the stock register resulting in the
stock lying in the warehouse and not being issued.
c. The production team was expected to note down the individual roll numbers being used
so that correct inventory can be maintained for individual rolls but the roll numbers
being input were not entered correctly resulting in wrong stock status and therefore
excess purchase of existing stock and many times production was not scheduled as the
inventory did not show correct stock.
Solution
After detailed discussion with the teams for the above, it was decided to create an excel sheet which
would link all the activities with each other so that the data is transferred to each department correctly
and seamlessly. They were already using excel but the sheets were not linked and were maintained
separately by each department individually. The sheets would be password protected so that only the
authorized person would be able to enter data into his sheet.
 Order Sheet - The order sheet would be accessible only to the sales team. All orders received
from customers would be entered here. Once the order is dispatched, the delivery details would
be automatically updated here for ready reference.
 Production Planning – This sheet would be accessible to the sales team. The Order Sheet data
would be copied to the production planning sheet. Here the salesperson would schedule the
orders for production based on the Product Quality, Gauge and Width of the orders. A

2. maximum of 7 orders could be clubbed into one Job Card. In case there was ready stock
available for a particular order, the same would be shown here and when confirmed it would be
allocated against the order and the inventory for the sheets would be updated. This quantity
would be reduced from the production quantity.
 Job Card – This sheet would be accessible to the production team. All orders scheduled above
would be shown here with the individual Job Card Numbers. The production team would take
the orders in sequence for the production.
 Production - This sheet would be accessible to the production team. All the details of the job
card would be available here and the production and packing details would be added here. The
complication here is that one order could require 3 rolls for completing the order. Therefore a
provision was made so that 3 rolls could be entered for production along with individual details
of packing and quantity. This information is repeated in the Delivery Challan sheet for easy
identification of the bundles to be picked up for dispatch. For sheet stock purposes, all these
details would be clubbed and shown as a single figure. Based on the roll numbers entered, the
used quantity of the rolls would be reduced in the Rolls Inventory Report
 Purchase – There are 2 sheets for purchases accessible to the Purchase Department
o Roll Purchase – All roll purchases are to be entered here. These rolls would be available
for production.
o Sheet Purchase – All the ready sheets purchased would be entered here and would be
available for allocation against orders and dispatch immediately.
 Dispatch – Once the orders were produced, they would be marked as completed on the
production planning sheet and the same would then be available for dispatch. Delivery challans
would be created here and on entering only the job number, all the order and packing details
would be shown here automatically and the physical stock would be removed from the
warehouse and loaded on the trucks. After dispatch, the truck details would be entered here for
reference. This information would also be available on the customer order sheet.
 Production Sheet Inventory Report – The current stock of the manufactured sheets is
maintained here. All produced sheets are automatically added here and when dispatched, the
available quantity is reduced automatically giving a real time stock status report.
 Rolls Inventory Report – The individual rolls quantity status is shown here. All purchased rolls
details are automatically copied from the Rolls Purchase Sheet. Whenever any roll is used in
production, the used quantity is updated here and the stock for this role is recalculated.
 Consolidated Rolls Inventory Report – The total quantity of rolls grouped by Quality, Gauge
and Width is shown here as a ready reference for purchase planning.
Feedback
After implementation of this solution the operations team is more organized and there is reduced stress
level as all information is available to all and referencing order details has become very easy. The issue
of excess inventory and unaccounted stock has also been addressed resulting in optimum stock
management.