Industry: Lubricants & Industrial Fluids • Region: Global (70 countries)
Scale: 300+ product families, 2,000+ SKUs (own brand + private label)
YUKO is a modern lubricants manufacturer in Ukraine producing automotive and industrial oils, cutting and molding fluids, and service products.
The portfolio spans 300+ product families with a finished-goods range of 2,000+ SKUs, including make-to-order and private-label products shipped to 70 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania.
The Reality: A Wide Portfolio in a Turbulent Market
For YUKO, the inputs are oil fractions and additives—and the global petroleum market sets the tone. Supply chain protection is hard, and the cost of a single missing component is huge: production downtime, late shipments, overtime to catch up, and disappointed customers.
At the same time, illiquid balances can pile up—tying cash while teams spend time storing and accounting for materials no one needs.
Historically, planning happened in Excel: parameters weren’t consistently set per SKU, special/private-label orders needed manual workarounds, and the process itself limited growth. YUKO needed modern, reliable tools to automate production planning and inventory management while protecting service.
The Decision: Demand-Driven, Not Forecast-Driven
Leadership evaluated Demand Driven (DDMRP) to replace spreadsheet MRP and align the entire flow—finished goods, semi-finished, raw materials, and containers—to what the market actually buys.
The company chose Intuiflow and invested in capability, not just software: beyond overview training, key employees completed Demand Driven Planner Professional instruction so the method would stick across operational, tactical, and strategic levels.
“All complex questions have simple answers, and the DDMRP methodology is understandable for both managers and planners.”
— Dmitriy Vasiliev, CFO, YUKO Lubricants
YUKO also conducted a reference visit (Kormotech) before committing; after that visit, management selected Intuiflow. Today, 100% of active SKUs are managed in the cloud-based Intuiflow system.
What Changed: From Spreadsheets to Signals
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Unified demand signals: Intuiflow buffers set and adjust to actual consumption and lead times across thousands of items—replacing static Excel logic with clear, visual priorities.
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Shared parameters, shared truth: Standardized planning conditions ended “Excel islands,” improving control of specials and private-label orders.
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Operational discipline: Picking became systematic; order fulfillment became more predictable; material usage is more rational and accounting is streamlined (qualitative improvements noted by the team).
Phase 1 Results (Production): Less Stock, More Sales
June 2019 → March 2020
- Finished-goods stock −8% while sales +13%.
- Finished-goods SKUs in “Overstock” −60%.
These wins were accompanied by broader improvements to production processes (not just inventory levels).
Phase 2 Results (Distribution): Value Down, Even as Sales Grew
May 2021 → November 2021
- Inventory value reduced from UAH 13M to UAH 6.5M, despite growing sales.
- SKUs in “Overstock” went from 81% to 45%.
The team also called out additional gains (e.g., better flow and turnover) as distribution caught up to the production improvements.
Why It Worked
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Method first, software second. Formal DDMRP education aligned leadership and planners on “how” decisions should be made, not just “where” to click.
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End-to-end scope. Buffers and priorities were applied across finished goods, intermediates, raws, and packaging, not just one node.
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Visual control. Intuiflow made exceptions obvious and eliminated hidden work buried in spreadsheets—freeing capacity to improve the model.
Closing the Loop: Leadership Perspective
CFO Dmitriy Vasiliev emphasized that the biggest gains were not cosmetic—they came from clearer signals, simpler decisions, and a shared way of working. The company didn’t need “more data”—it needed to interpret existing data correctly and manage in the flow.
Future-Proof Your Supply Chain with Intuiflow
YUKO’s story shows how a Demand Driven model turns volatility into clarity—lowering stock while sustaining (and even growing) sales.
Intuiflow connects materials planning, scheduling, and execution in one unified platform. Planners manage by priorities, not firefighting, with AI-optimized buffers and live dashboards showing exactly where attention is needed.
Intuiflow: One Platform. Four Core Solutions
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Materials Planning: Demand-responsive buffers and automated replenishment create daily, visual priorities—so planners manage by exception, not spreadsheets.
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Scheduling & Execution: Priority-driven sequencing and capacity-aware execution align the plant to what customers actually need.
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Sales & Operations Planning: Connect strategy to execution with shared, live visibility.
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Demand Planning: Adapt quickly as conditions shift—without reverting to top-down guesswork.
With Autopilot, Intuiflow’s AI continuously tunes parameters to protect service while minimizing working capital. Embedded Power BI analytics and cloud deployment keep teams aligned from supplier to shipment.
👉 Book an Intuiflow demo to see how demand-driven planning can lift service and cash flow—without overstock.
