When you’re shipping more than three million hot commodity items after a period of rapid growth, you need to make sure your supply chain is in tip-top shape. This was the case for HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a leader in memory products such as flash drives and SD cards. Since launching its first gaming headset in 2014, HyperX has expanded to keyboards, gaming mice and mouse pads. Fast forward to 2017 and HyperX has shipped more than three million gaming headsets to consumers.
To deal with its new size and speed, HyperX began a supply chain transformation initiative earlier this year to replace legacy systems with up-to-date software from Logility. The company needed a proven solution that could automate routine tasks, so employees could reduce the time spent on Excel and focus their efforts on exceptions. HyperX also needed to improve its forecast accuracy. “We did not have a single system to connect demand projections with supply chain execution,” explained Kevin Teng, HyperX Peripheral Planning Business Analyst, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints.
“As we expanded into new product lines via the HyperX brand of Kingston Technology, it was apparent that our legacy systems could not support all the demands of the new business,” said Teng. “In addition, we quickly realized these systems could not scale with the product and supply chain roadmaps. Operationally, none of our existing systems or software tools mapped out the complex networks between our manufacturing partners and customers, which made it difficult to track the progress of material in the supply chain.”
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HyperX chose Logility’s Voyager Solution to enhance visibility across the global supply chain, synchronize the planning process to boost efficiency and align inventory with customer service goals. In just six months since implementing Logility, HyperX was able to increase inventory turnover for its best-selling HyperX Cloud II gaming headset by 200%.
Improved Forecasting Streamlines Supply Chain Processes
The implementation of Logility also allowed HyperX to gain a better way of filtering and processing forecasts from the business side before executing inventory and replenishment planning.
“Logility serves as a platform for us to better analyze and track the forecast trends, which in turn gives our team time to react and revise our strategy, if needed,” said Teng. “Logility’s inventory alerts greatly reduce the amount of manual Excel work and ERP inventory queries, which leaves more time for our planners to focus on other more strategic tasks. Finally, with Logility’s Demand, Inventory and Replenishment Planning modules available to our supply chain team, management has the confidence to grow our product and SKU count without worrying about overstressing the systems and/or team.”
HyperX has been able to free up working capital to enable inventory investments in new product lines, including the HyperX Pulsefire FPS gaming mouse and HyperX Alloy Elite mechanical gaming keyboard.
The change management involved in implementing the Logility solutions was complicated by the fact that the HyperX teams are in two locations: Hsinchu, Taiwan and Fountain Valley, Calif. However, HyperX addressed the issue by continuing to use its old system while the new solution came online.
“As our teams ran Logility and Excel models concurrently, it was apparent that our investment in the system was paying off,” said Teng. “Our supply planners are now able to use Logility to complete their replenishment plans in a fraction of the time and more accurately than before.
“Although HyperX is part of a much larger organization (Kingston Technology), we run like a small company and are highly aware of the inventory issues that plague other companies,” Teng added. “Our goal with Logility is to set a solid foundation in the supply chain planning area to allow our HyperX product and business teams to continue with their visions without having to constantly worry about the health of the business unit.”