Delivering a Global Enterprise Inventory Solution Across 13 Manufacturing Plants

The company manufactures complex agricultural and construction machinery across approximately 40 manufacturing plants and more than 40 research and development centres worldwide. With inventory spread across multiple international locations, maintaining accurate inventory records and consistent inventory processes presented a significant operational challenge.

Following an unsuccessful audit, the manufacturer required a trusted global inventory partner capable of delivering a consistent Enterprise Inventory Solution across multiple manufacturing plants.

The objectives were to:

• Improve inventory accuracy across all manufacturing locations.
• Achieve successful auditor approval.
• Standardise inventory processes globally.
• Identify discrepancies between physical inventory and ERP records.
• Minimise disruption to plant operations.
• Establish a repeatable inventory methodology for future inventories.

The scale and complexity of the programme required a partner capable of delivering consistent execution standards, advanced technology and global project management across multiple countries and manufacturing environments.

RGIS designed and delivered a fully managed Enterprise Inventory Solution, providing complete project governance from initial planning through to reconciliation and executive reporting.

The programme began with detailed project planning involving both global and local stakeholders to define responsibilities, timelines and inventory scope. Site surveys, warehouse assessments and risk evaluations were completed before reviewing master data, warehouse layouts and barcode structures to develop a consistent inventory strategy across every manufacturing facility.

Before global deployment, RGIS conducted Proof of Concept (POC) inventories at the company’s manufacturing plants across the USA. These pilot projects validated the inventory methodology, reporting structure and operational procedures, allowing lessons learned to be incorporated before worldwide implementation.

Across the programme, RGIS successfully completed 100,026 inventory locations counted, 124,7771,593 individual parts verified and 59.45% second-count verification.

The project utilised more than 350 tablets, 1,930 RM3 inventory scanners and 250 counting scales, ensuring a consistent and accurate inventory process across every manufacturing location worldwide.

The Enterprise Inventory Solution included:

• Global project planning and governance.

• Site surveys and operational risk assessments.

• Inventory strategy development and warehouse mapping.

• Physical Wall-to-Wall inventories using advanced barcode scanning technology.

• Real-time quality assurance and supervisor validation.

• Resolution of counting exceptions and inventory discrepancies.

• Reconciliation between physical inventory and ERP records.

• Executive reporting, KPI dashboards and detailed variance analysis.

The Enterprise Inventory Solution successfully achieved all of the manufacturer’s strategic objectives, restoring confidence in inventory accuracy and enabling the business to successfully satisfy external audit requirements following the previous year’s audit findings.

Throughout the project, RGIS also identified opportunities to improve inventory governance, material organisation and data readiness, providing the manufacturer with practical recommendations to strengthen inventory control beyond the initial inventory event.

By successfully completing more than 100,000 inventory locations and verifying almost 125 million individual parts, RGIS demonstrated its ability to deliver consistent, high-quality Enterprise Inventory Solutions on a global scale while maintaining standardised processes and exceptional quality across every manufacturing facility.

Beyond achieving auditor approval, the programme delivered significant long-term operational improvements across the company’s global manufacturing network, including:

• Restored confidence in inventory accuracy across multiple manufacturing plants.

• Standardised inventory methodologies that can be consistently applied worldwide.

• Improved reconciliation between physical inventory and ERP records.

• Identification of inventory discrepancies and their root causes.

• Enhanced inventory preparation processes and operational controls.

• Strengthened Cycle Count procedures to support ongoing inventory accuracy.

• Improved collaboration between global project teams and local manufacturing sites.