Myers Industries is a diversified plastics and metal material-handling company. Based in Akron, Ohio, its products include plastic containers, portable fuel and water tanks, and metal safety cabinets.

In 2020, Myers began looking for a way to integrate its planning function across six business groups serving multiple markets and product types. “There was no consistency within our supply chain approach or best practices,” says Jeff Baker, senior vice president of shared services. The existence of multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems across the organization was further hampering its ability to plan efficiently. 

Myers turned to John Galt Solutions, provider of end-to-end supply chain planning software. “They have a very good dashboard,” explains Baker. “Once you get the tool up and running, it provides business visibility to drive the supply chain process.” Myers also was looking to John Galt’s Atlas Planning Platform to allow for longer demand-planning horizons.

Implementation took about six months. Baker says Myers approached the initiative in phases, addressing demand planning first, then supply and inventory planning. Finally, it moved into optimization.

Matt Hoffman, vice president of product and industry solutions with John Galt Solutions, says the software provider often engages with companies that have undergone growth or acquisition that led to disparate planning, ERP and other systems. The goal is to integrate all of those systems and create a single plan, he adds.

John Galt got “great participation” from multiple team members across Myers’s business units as well as its IT function, Hoffman says. Each provided immediate input on key design and implementation decisions. “Adds Baker: “We got a lot of support from the Atlas team as well.”

Baker says the software provided Myers with “a uniform supply chain view across platforms,” with common metrics that result in “one integrated business plan.”

Myers is now in discussion with John Galt about using the Atlas tool to create multiple “what-if” planning scenarios, to chart the best path for dealing with any type of supply chain disruption.