Our Supply Chain Heroes program recognizes and celebrates the hard work of LeanDNA customers who optimize inventory, reduce shortages, and empower their companies to operate more efficiently. Every hero has a story, and we’re here to tell them.
Supply chain leaders today are balancing the pressure to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and build resilience all while maintaining operational excellence. Nicolas Moreno-Cely, Senior Director of Materials Planning and Operational Excellence and Homero Garza, Procurement Manager at Daikin, are leading this transformation by driving smarter decision-making, increasing visibility, and empowering teams to take faster action with LeanDNA.
Gaining Control with Visibility
Before implementing APEX by LeanDNA, Nicolas and Homero faced a common challenge: a lack of visibility into inventory performance and no clear, actionable roadmap to reach target levels. The time it took to analyze data prevented them from any quick action.
“Filtering noise in exception messages to identify what really mattered was difficult. We had plenty of data, but not enough clarity or prioritization to translate that data into meaningful action.” -Nicolas Moreno-Cely, Senior Director of Materials Planning and Operational Excellence at Daikin
The team initially turned to manual methods, relying on spreadsheets and early ERP implementation efforts to bring order to the process. While those efforts provided a temporary structure, they needed to find a long term solution.
“They were partially successful,” said Nicolas. “The ERP implementation was still in progress, and LeanDNA accelerated that transformation by highlighting the key pain points.”
Accelerating Transformation with Smarter Workflows
Since adopting APEX by LeanDNA, the Daikin team has already achieved impressive results. Inventory levels have dropped by more than 10%.
“It’s still early on, but inventory levels have dropped by 10+% while gaining operational efficiency through buyers' collaboration.”
Beyond an inventory reduction, on time PO placing has improved and impacted the production line.
“Production lines have noticeably improved. Now any impact we have in the production line is due to supplier performance issues and not due to opportunities on our processes.” -Homero Garza, Procurement Manager at Daikin.
A major catalyst in that early success has been the use of workflows in APEX Procurement Management, which have helped the team standardize and streamline their processes. Instead of buyers sifting through manual spreadsheets to make buying decisions, they have prioritized actions that allow them to focus on the highest impact decision first.
The result: a more efficient, agile, and aligned supply chain organization, where buyers can focus on high-value actions that move the business forward.
Looking Ahead: Driving Supplier Collaboration
As Daikin continues its journey toward operational excellence, the next phase of Nicolas and Homero’s strategy is centered around improving communication with suppliers to further optimize production flow and making smarter decisions regarding inventory policies.
“Increasing supplier collaboration is our next big opportunity,” Nicolas said. “We’re focusing on enhancing forecasting frameworks, incorporating advanced PFEP capabilities from APEX, and ensuring operational excellence through Supplier Connect.”
By connecting supplier performance directly to materials planning insights, the team aims to strengthen relationships, improve reliability, and reduce disruptions.
A Tip from the Heroes: Measuring What Matters Two Levels Up
With a career dedicated to improving operations and empowering teams, Nicolas and Homero have learned that successful transformation isn’t just about metrics, it’s about measuring what matters most.
“As people who are obsessed with measuring everything, focusing on metrics that matter two levels up can make the difference between adoption or project failure.”
That philosophy has become a key part of their strategy. Instead of tracking performance solely through supply chain KPIs like inventory turns or shortage reduction, the team now anchors their success to broader business outcomes such as working capital optimization, production throughput, and on-time delivery to customers.
By connecting supply chain metrics to business goals, Nicolas and Homero have created a stronger line of sight between day-to-day execution and overall business performance. This alignment not only drives better decision-making but also helps elevate the supply chain’s strategic importance within the organization.
Nicolas, Homero, and the Daikin team are building a stronger foundation for the future where visibility drives confidence, collaboration fuels performance, and every decision moves the business closer to operational excellence.
“Bringing a new platform into your process is not always easy, but having a weak foundation in your data and processes can kill your business. Embrace the rapid change in which the world is adopting new technologies.”
If you’d like to nominate someone for our Supply Chain Hero program or view more heroes stories, click here.
If this story resonated with you and you’d like to learn more about LeanDNA, click here to schedule a demo.
