More than 80% of UK SMEs still rely on Excel as a support in supply chain planning.

That means critical replenishment decisions are being made in systems that can hide errors, rely on a single “Excel guru,” and slow to a crawl as ranges expand and complexity grows.

For SME boards focused on operational resilience, that’s not just inefficient, it’s a weakness that puts customer service, compliance and growth at risk.

This was the situation HoX Global was trapped in, until we decided to act.

HoX Global is a leading UK consumer goods supplier, providing hydration, lunch wear and gifting products to retail giants like Asda, Argos, Tesco and Amazon. Their products feature licenses such as Pokémon, Minecraft, Sonic, Peppa Pig, Xbox, and Squishmallows.

We decided to collaborate with Lumina, a supply chain tech startup, with a platform which enables SMEs to create bespoke, modular systems which are flexible and familiar like a spreadsheet, connected to internal systems and powered by AI to forecast, create rules, report and automate all in one place.

Here’s what changed for HoX:

• Replenishment accuracy grew. Forecasting using consumer demand may seem counterintuitive for a supplier, but it's a game changer. It lets suppliers spot consumer trends early, understand what end customers really want and feeds those insights directly into manufacturing and product decisions. The results are stronger customer relationships, greater trust and an unbroken chain from consumer demand to replenishment.

• Lower obsolete stock. End-of-season features flagged upcoming range refreshes early, helping the team reduce obsolete stock and waste before it builds up.

• Faster planning cycles. Planning by exception freed the team from endless spreadsheet reviews, speeding up replenishment decisions and giving them time to focus on higher-value planning activities.

• Clearer visibility. Vendor ETAs integrated directly into replenishment views, eliminating surprises and keeping stock arrivals predictable.

• Stronger retailer service. AI-powered alerts flagged stock-outs, delivery delays and seasonal cut-offs early, giving the team time to act before issues impact the customer.

Customer trust, relationships and delivery performance improved, leading to range growth and increased revenue.

Why the shift to AI matters for SMEs:

• Competitive gap in AI readiness. Leaders already using AI in supply chains are seeing dramatic improvements in KPIs:15% lower logistics costs, 35% less inventory, and 65% better service, according to McKinsey & Company*. Thus becoming a competitive advantage, compounding an edge competitors can’t copy retroactively.

• Forward visibility beats history. Modern supplier platforms model consumer demand directly, creating a forward-looking view that secures supply and service.

• Decision latency kills agility. Exception-driven planning keeps meetings short and decisions fast. Excel can’t do this at scale.

• Scalability & single-point failure. Most SMEs rely on one “Excel guru.” Lumina removes that risk with shared ownership and rule creation in plain English, lowering the barrier to entry for bespoke concepts to become competitive advantage, Like creating a vendor holiday adjustment rule that flags lead time adjustments for CNY (Chinese New Year) automatically to ensure customer supply.

• Market context. Around 80% of SME supply chain teams still rely primarily on spreadsheets. Those who move first will gain an edge competitors can’t quickly replicate.

The bigger truth

Supply chains are the engine of your SME business. Their systems can either fuel growth or restrict it.

HoX Global chose visibility, automation and forward planning and they’re now exploring further Lumina enhancements that would have been unthinkable when Excel was running the show.

The question is: is Excel still running your supply chain?

If operational resilience is an important board agenda this year, this is the place to start.

If you’re interested in knowing more try www.get-lumina.com or email info@METSupplyChainConsulting.com and lets talk.

* McKinsey & Company (Succeeding in the Supply Chain revolution)