How Vecna Robotics is using Factor to gain better inventory visibility 

The company 

Vecna Robotics is an American robotics and technology company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. They specialize in automated material handling, hybrid fulfillment, and workflow optimization for industrial applications. To build their product, the small but mighty manufacturing and purchasing teams at Vecna Robotics source a wide range of mechanical and electrical parts from a diverse supply base all over the world. They chose to partner with Factor to get more accurate delivery dates from suppliers, to better manage variable lead times, and to plan production.

The challenge

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vecna Robotic’s supplier lead times have become much more variable. With delivery delays and inaccurate data, suppliers were impacting downstream orders, build timelines, and customer relationships and satisfaction. 

The Vecna manufacturing team has a variety of responsibilities, and proactively following up with suppliers on every line item of every PO to ensure up-to-date delivery times was unrealistic. The team simply didn’t have the resources or bandwidth to focus on following up with all of these vendors and parts. 

Even when the team did reach out and follow up with specific vendors, the responses were too slow, vague, and unactionable such as “The new ETA for this order is Q4.” Additionally, the Vecna MRP process was using quoted lead times rather than real lead times, resulting in inaccurate forecasts that further complicated the supply chain and production. 

The solution

Vecna Robotics partnered with Factor to solve their problems with inaccurate delivery dates from suppliers, variable lead times, and production forecasting. With the help of Factor, Vecna now tracks an average of 150-200 direct materials line items per month and receives quality, accurate data, and delivery dates. 

Factor also enables vendors to provide updates via the vendor's preferred method, which has significantly increased the number and quality of updates Vecna is receiving overall. Certain vendors that did not use to provide any updates to Vecna Robotics are now communicating them in Factor, providing the manufacturing team with a lot more actionable data on delivery dates, quantities, and delays. 

Factor handles everything from email outreach, to ERP integrations, to no-touch updates via the no-login vendor portal. Factor’s assistance has enabled admins to do a lot more of the purchasing, freeing up engineers who did the purchasing historically, and simplifying and centralizing the process for the team. For example, the order details and tracking information are all in one dashboard view, saving the team time from digging through emails to try and figure out delivery times.  

Lastly, the historical vendor data and real-time supplier metrics reporting in Factor have also helped them plan their forecasts more precisely and understand supplier performance. By understanding trends and patterns in supplier delivery quotes versus actual delivery dates, they have been able to justify future orders with certain suppliers who stick to their timelines or change suppliers if they continue to slip. Communications with suppliers captured in Factor, such as comments and emails, help them build their story and account for spend. 

The result

“Factor has changed the way we manage our supply chain from reactive to proactive by enabling us to manage by exception. This has freed my team up to focus on strengthening vendor relationships and sourcing new vendors,” said David Akman, Director of Manufacturing at Vecna Robotics. “With Factor, we’re able to deliver to customer demand faster and more reliably.” In partnering with Factor, Vencna Robotics is also seeing: 

• Increased frequency of updates from vendors
  “We’re getting 5x more updates with Factor.”
• More accurate and more actionable updates from suppliers
  “Factor is getting us better ETAs—a lot of times we’d get ‘you’ll get your parts in Q4.’ With Factor that update is ‘you’re getting your parts on 10/5’.”
• 100% vendor adoption
  “We found vendors used not to give us updates, but they do give them in Factor.”
• Quality data that empowers the team to forecast and plan
  “With Factor...I can see that, even if the vendor quotes me a 20 week lead time, 9 times out of 10 it ended up getting pushed back to 40 weeks. This allows me to plan better on future orders.”
• Freed up more time in the day to focus on strategic initiatives
  “Factor has changed the way we manage our supply chain from reactive to proactive by enabling us to manage by exception. This has freed my team up to focus on strengthening vendor relationships and sourcing new vendors.”

Ready to follow in Vecna Robotics’ footsteps and get more accurate supplier delivery times? Click here to learn more or request a demo today to see how Factor can transform your operations and help you get better data from your suppliers to save money and time. Our supply chain experts are ready to provide a tailored walkthrough focused on your specific challenges and goals.