Every manufacturer has felt the sting of a missed shipment or a production line paused by an empty shelf. Despite the best planning and investments in technology, too often the result is the same. Some products gather dust in the warehouse while others run out just when they’re desperately needed. These frustrations are symptoms of problematic inventory planning approaches.
Fill rate is one of the most important supply chain KPIs in manufacturing, yet it’s often misunderstood. Many manufacturers struggle with stock-outs, excess inventory, or both, despite investing heavily in ERP systems and manual planning processes.
The difference is rarely effort. It’s structure.
This article brings together five real manufacturing case studies where businesses improved their fill rates by adopting clearer forecasting strategies, better inventory visibility, and planning tools working alongside their ERP systems. Each story shows that fill-rate improvement is not a one-off fix. It is the result of repeatable, data-driven inventory decisions.
Quick insights
- Manufacturers improved fill rates by addressing variability, not by holding more stock.
- ERP systems provided the foundation for manufacturing fill rate improvement, but purpose-built planning tools drove results.
- Visibility enabled enhanced inventory prioritization, not just better and easier reporting.
- Safety stock tuned to real demand patterns supported service levels across manufacturers.
Why fill rate matters in manufacturing, and why it’s hard to improve
Fill rate measures how consistently a manufacturer can meet customer demand from available inventory. When fill rates are low, the impact goes beyond missed sales. Production schedules are disrupted, customer relationships suffer, and teams spend time firefighting instead of planning.
Improving fill rate is challenging because manufacturing environments are inherently complex. They include variables like long lead times, bill-of-material dependencies, seasonality, and demand variability, all of which introduce risk. Many manufacturers rely on spreadsheets or static ERP forecasts that can’t adapt as conditions change.
The manufacturers featured in this article improved fill rates by moving away from static, reactive planning. They adopted structured strategies that allowed them to anticipate risk, prioritize high-impact SKUs, and align inventory decisions with real demand behavior.
Common themes we saw across these improvements
Before diving into each case, let’s look at at few shared patterns that stood out across all five manufacturers:
- Visibility alone was not enough. Each business needed clear signals on what to act on first. After all, not all SKUs or recommendations are equally important.
- Manual forecasting limited scalability. This prevented business growth as SKU counts and complexity grew.
- Safety stock based on averages created either excess inventory, stock-outs, or service risk.
- ERP systems worked best when paired with a dedicated demand planning solution.
These themes recur across geography, product type, and ERP platform.
Case Study #1: Al-Noor Lasani
30% fill rate improvement with SAP B1 integration
Al-Noor Lasani manufactures and distributes laminated sheets used in kitchen paneling across Pakistan. With more than 1,000 SKUs managed primarily through spreadsheets, the team struggled to balance high-velocity and slow-moving inventory. The result? Frequent stock-outs on key products and excess inventory elsewhere.
By integrating Netstock with SAP Business One, Al-Noor Lasani gained centralized visibility across inventory and demand. Forecasting moved from spreadsheet-based guesswork to structured recommendations, allowing planners to focus on the SKUs that mattered most.
“Being a SAP B1 customer, we considered upgrading to their larger ERP, which is more comprehensive regarding forecasting, supply chain, and discrete manufacturing,” said Moeen Zakaria, Director of Al-Noor Lasani.
In the end, however, sticking with their ERP and exploring integration options to fill their operational gaps was a more sound financial decision.
“The Netstock pricepoint is extremely competitive, and it was exciting to see such a quick return on our investment,” said Zakaria.
Within months, they improved fill rates by 30% while also reducing inventory pressure by 20%. The shift gave the team confidence in ordering decisions and reduced the constant cycle of reactive purchasing.
Case Study #2: The Little Potato Company
Improving fill rate by 8% with Dynamics Business Central
The Little Potato Company operates multiple facilities and distribution centers across North America. Manual forecasting and inconsistent data made it difficult to align inventory with demand across locations. After integrating Netstock with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, however, the business became a demand planning success story.
The integration enabled the team to introduce demand modeling that accounted for variability instead of fixed time periods. Safety stock was adjusted based on deviations rather than static days of cover.
The result was an 8%improvement in fill rate, along with better alignment between inventory and actual demand patterns.
“Being able to adjust safety stock based on statistical modeling using history and forecast deviation instead of just a number of days coverage has improved our inventory fill rate from 90.9 to 98%,” said a Senior Sales and Operations Manager at The Little Potato Company.
Case Study #3: Aquatic AV
From 79% to 99% fill rate with Dynamics 365 Business Central
Aquatic AV manufactures specialized audio products with serialized inventory, seasonal demand, and multiple warehouse locations. These factors made planning especially complex.
By implementing Netstock on top of Dynamics 365 Business Central, Aquatic AV gained early visibility into potential stock-outs and excess inventory. Forecasting and replenishment decisions were aligned across locations, reducing conflicting signals.
The impact was significant.
Don’t take our word for it? This is what former Purchasing Manager Erin Williams has to say: “Implementing Netstock helped us gain complete visibility of our inventory, and we can see our combined inventory figures as well as individually, per warehouse, which has significantly benefited us from a global perspective.”
Besides this qualitative testimonial, the resulting KPIs speak for the success of Aquatic AV’s actions.
Fill rate increased from 79%-99%, while inventory decisions became more predictable and controlled. This enabled the business to reduce inventory holding by over $1 million while improving manufacturing fill rate.
Case Study #4: Warwick Hanger
Fill rate jumps from 50% to 90% with Sage 100 insights
Warwick Hanger experienced rapid growth, expanding from 60 SKUs to more than 1,000.
“To ensure we always had adequate stock on hand, we often over-ordered, leaving surplus stock on the shelves for months,” said Mike Ellery, President of Warwick Hanger. “If we erred in the other direction and ran out of stock, we would sometimes have to buy from our competitors to complete our customers’ orders. That was frustrating.”
Then, Warwick found Netstock.
“The first morning, I logged on and literally couldn’t pry my eyes away,” recalls Ellery. “Suddenly, I had the information that I’d always wanted, but had never been able to get.”
As soon as implementation was complete, the team could see the following in an easy-to-digest graphical dashboard:
- Calculated vendor lead times
- Stock holdings
- Stock-outs
- Fill rates
- And more
“I could instantly see where our trouble spots were, and we set out to fix them,” said Ellery.
Netstock’s integration with Sage 100 enabled bill-of-materials forecasting and improved visibility into both finished goods and components. This allowed planners to order proactively and avoid production disruptions caused by shortages.
Warwick Hanger improved its fill rate from approximately 50 percent to 90 percent. The business gained confidence in its planning process and reduced the operational strain caused by constant inventory shortages.
Case Study #5: Marinucci
Inventory reduction plus a 5% fill-rate improvement in food packaging
Marinucci is a long-established food packaging manufacturer based in Australia. Part of its business involves managing seasonal demand and fluctuating order volumes. Despite being an industry leader for more than 50 years, Marinucci struggled with high stock levels that masked poor inventory performance and tied up working capital.
By adopting Netstock’s dynamic reorder logic, Marinucci aligned inventory decisions with actual demand patterns and seasonality. Visibility into risk allowed the team to reduce inventory without compromising service.
The business reduced inventory by 25% while improving fill rate by 5%. Marinucci also gained a comprehensive view of all their stock, making it a Demand planning success story rather than a victim of volatility. Today, planning decisions are clearer, and excess stock is no longer the default safety net.
What patterns link these successes?
Lessons for manufacturing leaders
While each manufacturing fill rate improvement example comes from a different business, each with a unique niche, several lessons stand out across the board:
- Visibility enables priority action: Clear signals, easily accessible in dashboards rather than static spreadsheets, help teams focus on high-impact SKUs rather than reacting broadly.
- Automated forecasting reduces guesswork: Removing manual forecasting enables planners to scale without sacrificing accuracy, risking fill-rate declines, or stock-outs.
- Safety stock must reflect variability: Dynamic models support service levels without unnecessary inventory. Seldom does a static safety net actually serve the business – especially as it grows.
- ERP plus planning is the catalyst: ERP systems record activity, but they don’t fill every gap dynamic manufacturing businesses experience. Purpose-built planning tools drive better decisions when integrated as an intelligent layer of existing tech stacks.
Beyond fill rate: Other benefits manufacturers realized
While fill rate improvement was the headline result, businesses in the manufacturing industry also saw broader gains. These included:
- Reduced inventory carrying costs
- Faster decision cycles
- Improved coordination across locations
- Fewer manual errors
In each case, fill rate gains were part of a larger shift toward more controlled, predictable inventory optimization and management.
3 steps to start improving your fill rate today
Inventory strategies improving fill rate don’t have to be complicated. Taking these three steps can help your business reap the benefits, as Al-Noor Lasani, The Little Potato Company, Aquatic AV, Warwick Hanger, and Marinucci exemplified.
- Identify where fill-rate loss occurs most often: Focus on SKUs, locations, or components driving the biggest service gaps.
- Integrate planning tools with your ERP: Use your ERP as the system of record and layer planning intelligence on top.
- Plan for variability, not averages: Adjust forecasting and safety stock based on real demand behavior.
Disclaimer
Fill rate percentages presented in this article are standard, commonly accepted benchmarks for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the specific algorithms, metrics, or calculations used within the Netstock platform.
