GPC Asia Pacific adopts AI-powered platform to streamline supply chain

GPC Asia Pacific has selected RELEX Solutions to optimise its forecasting and replenishment operations across its network of 600 stores and 17 distribution centres.

As the largest industrial and automotive aftermarket parts and service supplier in the Asia Pacific region, GPC Asia Pacific operates an extensive business that includes more than two million stock keeping units (SKUs). The company serves retail, commercial, and industrial customers throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

The parent company of GPC Asia Pacific is Genuine Parts Company, headquartered in the United States. Genuine Parts Company is a global service provider for automotive and industrial replacement parts and value-added solutions.

GPC Asia Pacific's operations had previously relied on a legacy enterprise resource planning system and manual processes to manage its inventory and replenishment. Typical tasks, such as manual order reviews and spreadsheet-based planning, were not integrated with promotional and supply chain data. These inefficiencies led to inconsistencies between locations, excessive inventory holdings, and pressure on profit margins.

The company began looking for an automated solution to optimise inventory, improve product availability, and enhance long-term profitability while also reducing working capital requirements. The aim was to improve working capital efficiency, ideally by decreasing inventory volumes yet still maintaining high product availability and customer satisfaction.

GPC Asia Pacific also set goals to increase margins by ensuring the right products were stocked in the correct locations and to reduce excess inventory. Integrating multiple brands and processes into a unified planning solution was another objective. The RELEX AI and machine learning-powered forecasting and replenishment solution was selected after an evaluation process, with the platform providing automated optimisation for forecasting, replenishment, and supply chain planning operations.

An important factor for GPC Asia Pacific's decision was the RELEX solution's ability to process millions of rows of data and deliver calculations within minutes, which is crucial for managing a large and varied product selection.

Jon Longbottom, Chief Supply Chain Officer at GPC Asia Pacific, said, "The speed of processing is critical as our business grows in complexity. We were thoroughly impressed after seeing RELEX pooled forecasting models and inventory optimisation in action."

By adopting the RELEX forecasting and replenishment system, GPC Asia Pacific expects to improve sales and profitability by increasing product availability and optimising inventory levels. With all operational data brought together on a single platform, the company can achieve end-to-end visibility of its supply chain and inventory, enabling more effective replenishment and allocation planning.

The modular structure of RELEX's solution brings further capabilities. For example, it can optimise inventory for promotional and seasonal products in all locations to ensure high product availability, and its capacity optimisation tools help maximise resource use by maintaining an efficient flow of goods across stores and distribution centres.

The RELEX Configuration Kit offers GPC Asia Pacific an interface through which they can customise and control the system to match their specific requirements, helping to avoid extended lead times and additional development costs.

Stefano Scandelli, General Manager of Manufacturing at RELEX Solutions, said, "The configurability of the RELEX solution helps GPC Asia Pacific adjust everything exactly to their needs. Our AI and ML-powered solution automates countless decisions and actions that take up resources when done manually, offering the best return on investment."