Eminess Technologies manufactures and distributes surface-finishing solutions for high-tech materials. From Arizona HQ with manufacturing/distribution in Monroe, NC and Frauenfeld, Switzerland, the company supports electronics, optics, aerospace, and medical customers that demand microns-level perfection.
Those customers don’t wait. Eminess promises speed and flexibility—small custom lots, no MOQs, short lead times—while upstream reality looks the opposite: raw-material lead times from 3 to 150 days, supplier reliability that varies widely, and temperature-sensitive products that can only be shipped to/through certain regions six months of the year.
The Situation Before: “Good Enough” Planning Wasn’t Good Enough to Scale
Until late 2018, replenishment ran on a homegrown reorder-point system. Performance wasn’t “bad,” but it depended on constant manual upkeep: many people placing orders across locations, reorder points that lagged market changes, and lots of firefighting.
When the company decided to implement NetSuite on an aggressive timeline, Supply Chain lead Mark Evans realized NetSuite’s native planning wouldn’t fit Eminess’ variability and shelf-life realities.
The team began sourcing an embedded planning app that could live inside NetSuite but work demand-first, not forecast-first.
“Many of our raw materials have a short shelf life, and they’re highly specialized.” — Mark Evans, Head of Global Supply Chain Management
The Decision: Demand-Driven Planning (Native to NetSuite)
DDMRP was new to Evans, but the logic echoed how Eminess already thought about flow. Intuiflow (formerly Replenishment+) stood out for two reasons:
- Fit & simplicity. The method aligned with their make-to-order and short-lead-time promises, without forcing a heavy forecasting program.
- Implementation depth.
“I was very impressed with the amount of support we received. Demand Driven Technologies sent a team of three specialists here for four days to lead in-depth training… New features were addressed for development before I could even ask the questions.”
Go-live: NetSuite + Intuiflow launched together in January 2019.
“We didn’t really miss a beat. There was no interruption to the business whatsoever.”
What Changed in the Operating Model (and Why it Matters)
1) From many planners to a focused control tower
Before: 7 people across sites placed POs/WO/TOs; suppliers got multiple orders a day from different contacts.
After: 2 roles (a purchaser and a scheduler) run the entire plan from Monroe, NC. Orders and shipments are consolidated; suppliers have one point of contact.
“Nobody likes getting four different orders from four different people.” — Mark Evans
Centralizing planning freed time to improve the model (not just push buttons) and reduced freight/handling costs via consolidation.
2) From static reorder points to dynamic buffers
Before: manually maintained reorder points that lagged demand shifts.
After: Intuiflow buffers align to real consumption and lead times; planners work by exception from clear red/green priorities.
As demand reality changes, the planning model changes with it—automatically—so inventory doesn’t drift out of tune.
3) From “buy more just in case” to surgical inventory protection
Eminess can’t “just stock up.” Shelf-life limits and long supplier qualifications make that risky. Instead of broad, blunt increases, the team used planning levers that target protection where it counts.
You get resilience without bloated, expiring stock.
Results:
- Inventory −6% in year one while maintaining service.
- During COVID, >95% on-time/in-full service sustained.
- By 2021, inventory was −12% vs. go-live, even with long and variable lead times.
Process gains: planning time collapsed (7 people → 2), supplier relationships improved via consolidated orders and fewer shipments, and the team had bandwidth to keep improving buffer logic.
“In a global pandemic with unprecedented supply chain issues, we were very pleased.” — Mark Evans
Playbook in Practice: How Eminess Planned Farther Ahead (Without Forecasting)
When COVID hit, most firms tried two moves: stockpile or switch suppliers. Eminess couldn’t do either reliably—shelf life and qualification constraints made those options risky or slow.
So the team used a feature in Intuiflow called the Demand Order Window (DOW) to extend planning beyond lead time—but still only on real demand:
- They added ~120 days to the DOW.
- As soon as orders appeared in the system (even 4–5 months out), Intuiflow treated them as qualified demand.
- Work orders were created and raw materials purchased earlier, but against actual orders—not guesses—minimizing obsolescence risk.
“The Demand Order Window enables planners to extend production into the future by adding additional time to the demand-driven reorder points that have already been established.”
“As we saw demand in our system, we were creating the work orders for it, even if it was four or five months in the future. This allowed us to plan and buy farther ahead, while maintaining the demand driven methodology.”
Why it worked:
- It pulled forward the right materials just in time for real orders, absorbing logistics shocks without overbuying.
- When risk subsides, simply dial back the DOW and inventory naturally returns to pre-change levels over the ensuing months.
What the Team Learned (and Teaches)
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Thoughtware before software. Learn DDMRP and the planning levers; the tool is powerful once you know where to turn the knobs.
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Own your variability. Tuning buffer profiles to your true variability bands stabilizes inventories and priorities.
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Centralize the work, decentralize the signal. Let real orders drive action; run planning from a single playbook.
Future-Proof Your Supply Chain with Intuiflow
Eminess shows how Intuiflow helps high-precision manufacturers simplify planning, stabilize supply, and maintain service when it matters most.
Intuiflow connects materials planning, scheduling, and execution in one platform so planners manage by priorities—backed by AI-optimized buffers and live dashboards that surface exactly where attention is needed.
Intuiflow: One Platform. Four Core Solutions
Intuiflow is Smarter by Design
With Autopilot, Intuiflow’s AI continuously tunes buffers to protect service while minimizing inventory. Embedded Power BI analytics make performance transparent, and native NetSuite integration ensures accuracy and speed.
See how Intuiflow can help your organization move from forecast-driven complexity to demand-driven flow.
👉 Book an Intuiflow demo to explore your potential results.
