Customer Story
Jackson Systems Cuts Review Time From 3 Days to Hours and Frees $1M in Inventory
Overview
Jackson Systems, an HVAC distributor, implemented Blue Ridge to move its two-buyer team from reviewing 9,000+ SKUs every week to managing by exception. Weekly review time fell from two to three days to a few hours, service levels rose from about 88% to 98.1%, and roughly $1M in inventory was freed, all without adding a third buyer.
Industry
HVAC
Solutions
Demand Planning
Replenishment
Challenges
Two buyers spent two to three days every week reviewing more than 9,000 SKUs.
Jackson Systems started in 1997 in the Jackson family's garage. By the time Thelma Chavez joined as Director of Operations, it had grown into a six-division HVAC distributor with a rapidly expanding eCommerce business. The growth brought opportunity, and it strained purchasing.
Two buyers reviewed more than 9,000 SKUs each week using spreadsheets, formulas, and tribal knowledge. It took two to three days to work through the list, and as soon as they finished, the cycle started over.
Leadership tracked little beyond total inventory dollars, with no view of service levels or velocity.
There was little visibility into service levels, turns, dormant and dying inventory, or ABC velocity code classifications. Suppliers offered promotions and rebates, but there was no good way to confirm the savings were being captured, and supplier deals often guided decisions without clear financial logic. “We had too much inventory on things that weren’t moving and not enough on things that were,” Thelma says.
As eCommerce volume grew and fill-rate expectations tightened, the manual process fell behind.
Leadership faced a choice: hire another full-time purchasing admin, or find a system that could automate the basics and let the team manage by exception. They chose the latter.
Challenge 01
Weekly review of 9,000+ SKUs
Challenge 02
Little visibility into inventory performance
Challenge 03
eCommerce growth exposing planning gaps
Solutions
Exception-based planning with the visibility a two-buyer team needed
Forecasting and analytics are centralized in Blue Ridge, giving the team visibility into service levels, dormant and dying inventory, ABC velocity classifications, and forward-buy savings.
Jackson Systems started in 1997 in the Jackson family's garage. By the time Thelma Chavez joined as Director of Operations, it had grown into a six-division HVAC distributor with a rapidly expanding eCommerce business. The growth brought opportunity, and it strained purchasing.
Two buyers reviewed more than 9,000 SKUs each week using spreadsheets, formulas, and tribal knowledge. It took two to three days to work through the list, and as soon as they finished, the cycle started over.
One dashboard shows the orders to process today, plus overstock and inventory position, so buyers focus on exceptions. Event planning tracks expected versus actual uplift.
There was little visibility into service levels, turns, dormant and dying inventory, or ABC velocity code classifications. Suppliers offered promotions and rebates, but there was no good way to confirm the savings were being captured, and supplier deals often guided decisions without clear financial logic. “We had too much inventory on things that weren’t moving and not enough on things that were,” Thelma says.
Buyers load in supplier promotions and rebates, and Blue Ridge calculates which to take based on current inventory, expected savings, and resulting profit. Visibility into minimum order quantities gives the team data for supplier conversations.
Leadership faced a choice: hire another full-time purchasing admin, or find a system that could automate the basics and let the team manage by exception. They chose the latter.
Implementation took about six months, driven largely by data cleanup, and moved smoothly into ongoing coaching from the Strategic Success Practice.
Solution 01
Centralized forecasting and analytics
Solution 02
Exception-based dashboard and event planning
Solution 03
Supplier deal and MOQ decisions
Solution 04
Guided implementation and ongoing coaching
Results
Days of review became hours, service reached 98.1%, and $1M in inventory was freed
98.1%
Service level, up from roughly 88%
~$1M
Reduction in inventory on hand
The most immediate change was time. What once took two to three days each week shrank to a few focused hours. “Instead of reviewing every SKU, we were just reviewing the exceptions,” Thelma says. “It was such a relief.” She now completes the review in about three hours. With time freed up, buyers can understand why items are trending up or down, prepare for seasonal shifts, and spend their energy on forward-looking work instead of chasing lists.
Visibility changed how the business operates. Before Blue Ridge, leadership tracked little beyond total inventory dollars. Now they review service levels, dormant and dying inventory, ABC velocity classifications, and forward-buy savings. “We weren’t looking at any of that before,” Thelma says. “Now we have visibility we never had.” Service levels rose from roughly 88% to about 98.1%, inventory on hand dropped by around $1 million, and overstock decreased. Leadership saw the connection immediately: “They get excited about the service level and the total inventory dollars. Because in turn, all those end up with cash flow.”
Staffing plans changed, too. Jackson Systems had been preparing to add a third buyer, and the efficiency gains eliminated the need. The team still operates with two buyers, and Thelma believes they can support another 30–40% growth before needing more headcount.
Sales became more aligned as well. Initial skepticism gave way to collaboration as sales saw how their input shaped planning. They now share updates on new customer locations, product launches, and expected uplifts, and the team learns from every event. “I can load in an event and then next month go back and say, ‘You said we were going to see an uplift of 50%, but we only saw 5%.’ Next year, we’re smarter.” Trust improved on both sides: sales gained confidence in availability, and purchasing gained better forward-looking information.
Dead stock has not disappeared, but Jackson Systems now understands why it happens and where it can influence it. The biggest driver is minimum order quantities, being forced to buy a full case when demand supports only a handful of units a year. “Most of it comes back to MOQs,” Thelma says. With that visibility, dormant and dying items surface early. The team approaches suppliers with data, renegotiates minimums, and avoids overcommitting on new items. For eCommerce, they test smaller initial buys and review performance quickly. The result is not zero dead stock, but far fewer surprises and much more control.
We were able to avoid the hire completely. And that alone pays for the subscription each year.
Thelma Chavez
Director of Operations
Chosen after a "day in the life" test with Jackson's own data
Jackson Systems evaluated three providers before narrowing to two finalists, and asked each to simulate a “day in the life” using Jackson’s data. That is where Blue Ridge stood out. “Blue Ridge had the best interface and analytics you would need as a professional purchasing buyer,” Thelma says. “Other solutions had pieces, but not the whole package.” The platform fit the company’s size and complexity, delivered the visibility the team lacked, and came in at a price point leadership expected to pay for itself in both time and inventory.
Implementation took about six months, driven largely by data cleanup. The Blue Ridge technical guidebook outlined exactly what needed to be sent from Jackson’s homegrown ERP, and Thelma still uses it when something looks off. The implementation team helped analyze the data to confirm it was accurate before it fed the plan. “The implementation team was phenomenal,” she says. Support continued through the Strategic Success Practice. “We call our [Strategic Success Practice] coach from time to time. There’s always something unique that comes up, and he always has a good solution.” Within months, the workload eased, the manual noise faded, and the team finally had the visibility they had been missing.
Looking Ahead
Building on the foundation, one season at a time
"The Blue Ridge platform forces you to do the analytics, and that develops your team as problem solvers. If you’re leveraging it the right way and really digging into the alerts, it will change how you run your business.”
Thelma calls Blue Ridge a “game changer,” and she is clear that the work is ongoing. “It’s a marathon, not a 5K,” she says. The team continues to refine seasonal profiles, build custom groups for heating and cooling categories, use ABC classifications for both inventory policy and warehouse layout, and use analytics to drive continuous improvement. They are also exploring alternative sourcing strategies, including partnering with other distributors on slow-moving SKUs.
Looking ahead, Thelma sees Blue Ridge's continued innovation as a reason to keep building the partnership, and is excited about her team eventually maturing into a more formal S&OP process. Her advice to other distributors comes down to one idea: the work of digging into the analytics is what builds the team.
Customer Stories
Hear from the businesses making every decision count
“The ERP handles transactions. Blue Ridge handles the intelligence. That's the difference.”
Brad Smith
SVP, Procurement & Sales
Southwest Traders supplies national restaurant chains – Panera, Einstein, Starbucks, Panda Express – from a buying team of nine to eleven working on an AS/400 ERP. Blue Ridge cut order-build time from days to a few hours, held service levels at 99.95% across blue-chip customers, and let the company onboard new brands without adding to the planning team.
99.95%
Service level across national restaurant brands
~18.5
Days on hand
“Blue Ridge has been the most user-friendly, results-driven system that I've seen so far. Our whole planning and buying team absolutely loves it.”
Stephanie Hunn
Senior Manager, Planning
Before Blue Ridge, ISN was struggling to optimize fill rate and inventory turns simultaneously. The team evaluated multiple vendors and chose Blue Ridge for the onboarding, training, and ongoing system improvements baked into the relationship. They went live and saw measurable results from the first operating cycle forward – with the Strategic Success Practice supporting every step.
~99%
Forecast accuracy maintained
50%
Improvement in fill rates over twelve months
“The goal wasn't just to reduce inventory. It was to have what we need, when we need it. That's exactly what Blue Ridge helped us do.”
David Mays
VP of Operations
West Virginia Electric Supply is an electrical distributor running eight branches on the Eclipse ERP. Centralizing inventory and moving to data-led replenishment let the team strip out the dead stock that had quietly accumulated for years – while service to contractors and customers held above 96% and the planning organization shifted from firefighting to forward-looking decisions.
70–80%
Reduction in dead stock
96.3%
Service level to contractors and customers
"Blue Ridge has the best interface and analytics you would need as a professional purchasing buyer"
Thelma Chavez
Director of Operations
Jackson Systems is a six-division HVAC distributor generating roughly $40M in annual revenue. Before Blue Ridge, the planning team reviewed every SKU manually – a process measured in days, not hours. Exception-based planning compressed that work, freed cash from excess stock, and pushed service levels into a range the team had never sustained before.
~$1M
Drop in inventory on hand
98.1%
Service level, up from 88%
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