Mossops Trading - Cargo Carriers

A company rejuvenated

Mossop-Western Leathers has made fine leather for more than 170 years. This is the story of its dramatic turn-around.

MOSSOP-WESTERN Leathers was established way back in 1846 in Wellington, where it is still located today. The leather has been used by various shoe companies and has been crafted into bags, furniture and countless fashion accessories by the leather goods industry.

The challenge

Gert Kruger, CEO explains: “Leading up to 2016, the company faced substantial challenges. The imports of hides were problematic, with many supplier and logistics problems, exacerbated by a highly volatile rand/dollar exchange rate. The leather products covered a wide spectrum, and this led to quality inconsistencies, large amounts of work-in-progress, long lead times to clients and missed promised dates.”

The solution

During 2016, Mossop and Cargo Solutions embarked on a project to optimise the entire supply chain, using the theory of constraints to change processes and the Symphony warehouse management system to enable these new processes.

The company started sourcing local good quality hides with very short lead times, managed with the aid of dynamic buffers that adjust according to supply and demand issues. A number of very high offtake products were identi?ed, and the supply of these items was changed from a make-to-order process to a make-to-stock process, again based on dynamically adjusted buffers.

Based on this ability, a new partnership was formed with key customers, namely four substantial footwear factories in Cape Town, Groot Brakrivier, Port Elizabeth and Pinetown.

Inventory data is relayed from these factories daily to Mossop in Wellington, who replenishes on a frequent basis based on demand at the factories.

The outcome

The results are impressive. Mossop has become ?nancially sound over the past three years from a returns on revenue and capital employed point of view. Through its partnership programme, its customers have managed to reduce inventories from up to six months to around two weeks. The production lead time has decreased by more than 50 percent, and the cash-to-cash cycle has reduced from some six months to eight weeks. A story of great inspiration for local manufacturers of apparel, footwear and clothing.