Case Studies
Case Study: Out of Stock, How Forecasting Can Help
Stuck with an excess of unfulfilled orders, an educational publisher found relief in its partnership with B&B.
Filling back-to-school orders became a nightmare for an educational publisher after an unanticipated surge in sales left them with an empty warehouse.
Situation
Filling back-to-school orders became a nightmare for an educational publisher after an unanticipated surge in sales left them with an empty warehouse, a backlog of unprocessed orders, and five to six week lead times from their supplier. Too big for digital-only orders and too small for larger book manufacturer’s offset print platforms, the publisher was left scrambling to find the planning tools necessary to meet customer demand.
Solution
With a market focus on the 8.5×11 trim size and a multi-print platform, Bradford & Bigelow can meet orders quicker than a traditional book manufacturer. Also, with decades of institutional knowledge and expertise in the educational publishing world and a strong forte of catering to mid-sized educational publishers, it used its burst capacity, manufacturing redundancy, and specialization of its equipment to refill a once empty warehouse.
Outcome
B&B was able to change its production schedule to accommodate the educational publisher. The flexibility allowed it to fulfill backorders and restock their warehouse within days. In the future, the educational publisher will utilize B&B’s offset platform for longer runs which will deliver products within ten days or less, or for emergencies that can run digitally within 5-7 days. These efforts increased the publisher’s time-to-market by 250%.