MARATHON PACER
Inventory and Procurement Made Easy.CASE STUDY
Introduction
The client this document is written about is a research laboratory in the pharmaceutical industry. The client invested in Marathon Pacer to improve their lab operations. Partnering with Marathon Pacer allowed the client to:
- Consolidate product SKU’s by 13% within 90 days
- Eliminate stockouts
- Drive alignment between finance, operations, and research teams
About The Client
The client is a growing pharmaceutical manufacturing company founded in 2015 in Massachusetts focusing on building a proprietary end-to-end platform for discovering and advancing RNA-targeted small molecules (rSMs) to develop themselves and with their partners.
The Challenge
Like other growing biotechnology companies, the client often found supply chain and inventory management challenges to be present within their lab. Some of these challenges included overcrowded storerooms containing multiple SKUs of similar products, missing or expired products, backorders, stockouts and procurement process inefficiencies all of which began to interfere with research and causing friction between the operations, finance, and research teams.
The Solution
The challenges the client had been facing compelled them to begin an engagement with an expert inventory management partner who could enable them to focus on their core competencies and increase operational efficiencies while eliminating the effort that they had to dedicate to non-research activities.
“I couldn’t figure out how to get my stockroom back… it was hitting a point where it was not mentally feasible for me to understand how to bring it back to where it needs to be and that is where Marathon and Pacer stepped in.”
The Result
By partnering with Marathon Pacer, the client has been able to meet and exceed their operational and financial objectives.
“I brought the Pacer team in and within a month – not even – I was seeing a major difference… we have not had a single stockout, we have reduced our inventory product numbers by 13% which I didn’t think was possible and I didn’t have the bandwidth to do it myself. The fact that they were able to do that – the fact that they counted our inventory in a day. The efficiency Marathon brings is unsurpassed by anyone else I’ve seen.”
Within the first 90 days of the client and Marathon Pacer’s engagement, the client was able to decrease their inventory product SKUs by 13% which freed up lab and storeroom space, made their inventory easier to manage and saved money on shipping costs and wasted product. Like many other similar companies, the client was facing stockouts. Since implementing Marathon Pacer, they have had zero stockouts. This was based on a contingency plan Marathon Pacer put forth including adjusting min/max inventory levels, enhanced communication, introducing alternative in-stock products and same day delivery. Lastly, with the reports available on the Marathon Pacer Software dashboard, finance teams can confidently track where their assets are and how much cash is potentially tied up in slow moving or obsolete (SLOB) inventory, and operations teams can provide these reports, aligning both teams.
Conclusion
Today, the client continues to grow and is able to focus on their life saving research and discovery. They are currently on their way to clinical trials with their leading oncology program. With the help from Marathon Pacer, the client has achieved the results outlined above and is eager to continue this journey together.
“I see no change happening anytime soon when it comes to me finding a new inventory management company because you guys have taken my stockroom in just three months and brought it to a level, I’ve been trying to bring it to in two years.”
