Kestrel Auto Components
Cutting restock lead time by 40% with a standing catalog agreement
A tier-2 auto parts reseller was losing sales to stockouts caused by an unpredictable 6-8 week supplier lead time. Moving to a standing catalog agreement with committed stock levels brought that down to under 3 weeks.
Problem
Kestrel resells fastener and bracket components to workshops across two states. Their previous supplier quoted 6-8 week lead times that regularly slipped further, causing repeated stockouts on their fastest-moving SKUs and lost sales to competitors who had stock on hand.
Approach
We reviewed Kestrel's order history and identified their 12 highest-velocity SKUs. Instead of order-by-order quoting, we set up a standing agreement: we hold a rolling safety stock of those 12 SKUs at our main depot, replenished automatically, with Kestrel drawing down against it on a simple PO.
Result
Restock lead time on the committed SKUs dropped from 6-8 weeks to under 3, and Kestrel has not recorded a stockout on any of the 12 covered items since the agreement started. They've since added 4 more SKUs to the standing list.
- Lead time reduction
- 40%
- Stockouts since agreement
- 0
- SKUs on standing stock
- 16
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