Be confident with colour

You know that holding too much stock is not good for business, but did you know there is a simple way around it? First Degree Systems’ Sales Manager Greg Beachim explains.

Managing stock levels has become a key pressure point for window fabricators in recent years, as business owners juggle the demands placed upon them.

Demand for high value products, including flush casements and foiled profile; uncertainty in the supply chain; customer demand for shorter lead times – all of these can translate into growing stock levels, which can add further pressures to a business.

Despite initial worries of demand falling off a cliff at the start of 2023, window companies and their suppliers have adjusted their offering to meet the changing demands from homeowners.

Pressure on stock

Business owners will tell you that if they have seen a reduction in orders, this has been more than made up by the demand for high value products. The downside to this is extra pressure this places on stock levels

If you are over-stocked, then that can tie up thousands of pounds – money that can be invested elsewhere in the business. That space can also be used to manufacture those higher-value products.

All window fabricators that use Window Designer from Cyncly Group company First Degree Systems to process their designs have access to Stock Assistant, which links the information already entered into the software to the stock holding.

So, as you place an order with a manufacturing date, Stock Assistant will pre-allocate your product. That will raise a demand for a given product, and then push it through to what you order. The net result is that you will only order what you need to the timescales that have been laid out by your production dates.

Coupled with the Barcode Tracking System, stocks can also be automatically downgraded as they're being used, reducing labour costs, reducing human error, and simplifying the whole process.

Good idea

While many fabricators are increasing their colour offering – to meet the increased demand from homeowners – this added pressure can be managed by Window Designer.

Standard colours are straightforward, because you have a good idea of what requirements are going to come through the door. But when we look at non-standard colours, there's no point guessing. The reality is that trends change. So, what might be a banana yellow job today might be a sky blue job tomorrow. Why hold stock of those?

Window Designer not only manages stock holding according to demand, but also builds in the cost of potential waste.

With standard colours, you want to make sure your prices are keen, so Window Designer will optimise the lengths and keep enough stock to be reactive to demand.

With non-standard colours, the whole pack price is taken into account when pricing orders. This means that window fabricators can confidently price jobs with unusual colours without worrying that any profits will be tied up in unused stock.

Efficiencies like this are key for window fabricators to remain agile in an ever-changing market, while keeping a close eye on cash flow.

If you access our software via a subscription model, there are several tools that you can add as you grow your business. And the benefit of the subscription model is that you only ever pay for those modules once you need them.

And we are looking to bring on new product developments and innovations as we grow Cyncly in the UK.