GPC Asia Pacific to Optimize Forecasting and Replenishment with RELEX Solutions 

Largest industrial and automotive parts and services supplier in Asia Pacific seeks to optimize inventory and optimize processes across 600 stores 

GPC Asia Pacific, the largest industrial and automotive aftermarket parts and service suppliers in the Asia Pacific region, has chosen RELEX Solutions, a provider of supply chain and retail planning solutions, to enhance forecasting and replenishment across its 600 stores and 17 distribution centers. 

GPC Asia Pacific is a subsidiary of the U.S. based Genuine Parts Company, a leading global service provider of automotive and industrial replacement parts and value-added solutions. It operates in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, delivering quality parts and service to retail, commercial, and industrial customers. GPC Asia Pacific manages over two million SKUs. 

GPC Asia Pacific’s purpose is “We keep the world moving,” and to that end, the company began seeking an automated solution to optimize inventory, improve availability, and ensure long-term profitability while reducing working capital requirements. GPC Asia Pacific previously relied on a combination of a legacy ERP and manual processes to manage its inventory and replenishment. These methods, including manual order reviews, planning on spreadsheets, and a lack of integration between promotion and supply chain data, led to inconsistencies across locations, excessive inventory levels, and margin pressures. 

The company wanted to improve working capital efficiency, ideally by decreasing inventory while maintaining high availability and customer satisfaction. GPC Asia Pacific also sought to increase margins by stocking the right products in the right locations and removing excess inventory while integrating multiple brands and processes into a single, unified solution allowing for an integrated and automated planning process. The RELEX AI and ML-powered forecasting and replenishment solution emerged as the winning choice as it automates and optimizes forecasting, replenishment, and supply chain planning processes. 

One key aspect that won GPC Asia Pacific over was the RELEX solution’s capability to consume millions of rows of data and execute calculations in minutes – a critical ability for a company with an assortment of over two million different items. 

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

With RELEX Forecasting and Replenishment solution, GPC Asia Pacific can increase sales and profitability through better product availability and optimized inventory levels. With all the data available in one unified platform, the data-driven supply chain and inventory plan gives the retailer end-to-end visibility, enabling effective replenishment and allocation planning. The modular solution delivers advanced capabilities that help GPC Asia Pacific achieve their goals. For example, RELEX optimizes inventory while ensuring high availability for promotions and seasonal products in every store. Additionally, capacity optimization maximizes resource usage and efficiency by ensuring a seamless flow of goods into stores and DCs. 

The RELEX Configuration Kit provides an easy-to-use interface allowing GPC Asia Pacific to control and tailor the service to their exact needs, avoiding long lead times and costly development. 

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