Israeli co IMS streamlines supply chain management

Samson Samson Photo: PR
Samson Samson Photo: PR

The Kiryat Gat based company reduces one of the most costly expense items for some of the world's largest corporations.

Israeli company IMS offers an innovative, tech system-based way for managing inventories and supply chains in a more streamlined fashion that achieves significant savings in one of the most costly expense items on the balance sheet of any company. Founded in Kiryat Gat in 2004, within a few years, the IMS system was implemented in multiple advanced companies. In the wake of its success, IMS was acquired by UTI, a Nasdaq-traded corporation with an annual turnover of $5 billion. UTI has 363 offices in 60 countries worldwide. IMS kept growing too: from the 3-people nucleus that started the company, it currently employs more than hundred people today and is present all over the world.

IMS started out by providing services to the semiconductors industry but evolved into serving a broad range of industries, from medical and pharmaceuticals to food, energy and more.

Innovating industrial processes

Industrial and manufacturing companies invest considerable resources in trying to streamline and optimize their supply chain and inventory management. This is a significant issue for any enterprise, in particular to large production facilities, be they in high technology or low technology. Executives in these companies, from the general managers to the procurement and operating officers are well aware that inventory management has direct bearing to the company's profit line. Good, optimized management can save millions and dozens of millions of shekels to the organization and this fact will be clearly reflected in the financial statements, sometimes account even to the difference between profit and loss.

Samson Samson, CEO of IMS Israel, which specializes in implementing unique inventory and supply chain management solutions, says inventory management is the Achilles Heel of multiple organizations: "Many companies lose significant amounts of money because their inventory management methods are outdated or not sophisticated enough. Sound inventory management requires in-depth understanding of this specific area, knowing how to deal with dozens of suppliers, some of whom may be located abroad, making payments in different currencies and using planning tools to prevent shortage or surpluses."

It is not only about money. Sound inventory management leads to significant improvement in the control of material and finished goods inventories, less depreciation, more orders and better timing of order production, improved raw material quality and fewer issues on the production line.

From Kiryat Gat to the world's largest industry hubs

Recent years saw increased awareness on behalf of operating managers as well as CFO's to the importance of inventory and the alternative uses of the capital invested in inventory.

According to Samson, the small Kiryat Gat Company, which for years existed with its innovative model under the radar, has succeeded in revolutionizing, within a decade the way mega corporations are managing their supply chains. "We educated the market by demonstrating the 10%-30% saving that can be achieved with our methods," explains Samson.

"Today, we provide advanced inventory management solutions to manufacturing high tech companies at the forefront of technology, in Israel an abroad. Our turnover is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars today and our systems help manage inventories worth tens of millions of dollars," says Samson. "The understanding that inventory and supply chain management require expertise like any other area, as well as the awareness of the huge saving potential drove an increasing number of companies, including international leaders, to outsource this important area to external specialized companies.

IMS offers its clients a range of programs to replace the in-house inventory management: it can be limited to an external procurement service or full inventory management from ordering the item to replenishing the shortages on the production floor. "When we founded IMS, we offered only procurement management service but we realized our clients would like us to assume responsibility for additional links of the supply chain. Today, many of our partners opt for a comprehensive package that covers the entire supply chain, inluding procurement, inventory management, working capital, finance and logistics. Logistics refers to the entire process, from the supplier's gate to the client's warehouse, including the handling of the importation, customs clearance and other procedures. With Israel's entrepreneurial spirit and our technological solution, we succeed in taking a seemingly dull area such as factory inventory management to the 21st century," concludes Samson.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 27, 2016

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016

Samson Samson Photo: PR
Samson Samson Photo: PR
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