Turning Data Into Action to Improve Warehouse Performance

As Jenson USA continued to grow, increasing inventory complexity and order volume created new challenges around warehouse space, productivity, inventory management, and freight costs. With approximately 45,000 active SKUs ranging from small components to complete bicycles, the company needed to improve operational efficiency while creating greater visibility into performance.

Jenson USA partnered with LMA Consulting Group to dig into the data and work side by side with its team to identify opportunities and turn information into action. In this customer testimonial, Mauro Megalo, Director of Operations at Jenson USA, discusses how the collaboration helped improve picking and labor productivity, automate reporting, strengthen operational visibility, and identify significant freight savings.

The Challenge: Supporting Growth Within a Complex Warehouse

An e-commerce operation with tens of thousands of SKUs creates a very different set of challenges than a traditional distribution environment. Products vary dramatically in size, velocity, storage requirements, and handling needs. Fast-moving inventory needs to be readily accessible, while slower-moving products cannot consume valuable space in prime picking locations. At the same time, warehouse employees need efficient pick paths, replenishment processes, accurate information, and the right metrics to manage performance. 

As Jenson USA Director of Operations Mauro explained, growth was creating pressure around both space and productivity. LMA worked with Mauro and his team to evaluate warehouse operations from end to end, including forecasting, receiving, putaway, replenishment, order picking, inventory management, bike build, packing and shipping, freight, labor, and operational metrics.

Optimizing Inventory Placement and Warehouse Flow

One of the largest opportunities was straightforward in concept but significant in impact: put the products picked most frequently closest to shipping. LMA analyzed inventory velocity, storage requirements, warehouse zones, forecast requirements, and picking activity to identify which SKUs should be positioned in the most accessible warehouse locations. The analysis showed that approximately 80% of volume was concentrated in roughly 1,500 SKUs. This provided an opportunity to prioritize valuable Zone A space for the products that employees picked most frequently.

Working together, LMA and Jenson developed a strategy to move high-velocity inventory closer to packing and shipping, reduce travel time, improve pick paths, and position long-tail inventory farther away. The results were significant. At the beginning of the initiative, approximately 47% of picks came from Zone A. By the end of the project, that had increased to 60%, with the team continuing toward an 80% goal for key items.

“We were able to increase productivity about 20% just within those couple processes there. So, that’s a very big win for us.”

The improvement translates into approximately $60,000 in annual labor productivity value, while also creating a more efficient foundation for future growth.

Turning Operational Data into Action

Improving warehouse performance required more than reorganizing inventory. Jenson also had substantial operational data from its ERP and execution systems, but collecting and interpreting that information required significant manual effort. As Mauro described it, the data was “pretty muddy.” An employee was spending hours gathering information and compiling notes. That meant valuable time was spent assembling the data rather than determining what the data meant and what should be done about it.

LMA helped the team categorize and structure the information and transition manual reporting into automated Power BI reports and dashboards.

“Instead of having somebody sit down for hours on end collecting this, it’s now at our fingertips and it allows us to spend our time looking for root causes instead of just collecting the data.”

That shift is critical. Data itself does not improve operations. The value comes from providing employees with timely, actionable information so they can identify exceptions, determine root causes, and take corrective action.

Reducing Inventory-Related Waste

Improved visibility also allowed the team to focus on the causes of inventory adjustments and operational waste. LMA worked with Jenson to develop reporting around manufacturing issues and identify key drivers such as manufacturer-related problems, quality control issues, and shipping issues. The team established additional quality checks, training, tracking tools, and processes to address root causes.

Those efforts generated measurable improvement. Inventory adjustments related to manufacturing issues for January through May 2026 declined 53% compared with the same period in 2025. As Mauro noted, the team was no longer simply gathering information. They were putting the reports to work and seeing meaningful reductions in warehouse cost and waste.

Finding Immediate Freight Savings

Freight provided another significant opportunity. LMA analyzed shipping volume, carriers, rates, and service requirements and identified an opportunity to shift package volume between carriers. By working with the carriers and changing the freight mix, Jenson reduced freight spend by approximately $5,000–$5,500 per month — savings that will continue as shipments move under the improved rate structure.

But carrier rates were only part of the opportunity. LMA and Jenson also analyzed shipping charges for bikes and expedited next-day and two-day shipments. The analysis uncovered a gap between what Jenson was paying its carriers and what customers were being charged. The difference had resulted in approximately $20,000–$21,000 in losses over roughly six months. Once the issue was identified, Jenson adjusted its shipping charges to better reflect actual freight costs, significantly reducing the loss and creating a more sustainable approach going forward.

Building a More Scalable Operation

The operational improvements extended beyond immediate cost savings. LMA developed a sales and operations (SIOP, also known as S&OP) forecast incorporating historical shipments, annual growth, open purchase orders, and on-hand inventory to calculate projected SKU usage. This gave Jenson greater visibility into future inventory and space requirements and provided a stronger foundation for replenishment, warehouse planning, and labor decisions.

The team also evaluated warehouse capacity and automation opportunities to determine how Jenson could support continued sales growth within its existing footprint. The objective was not simply to solve today’s warehouse issues. It was to create processes, tools, and visibility that would allow the operation to scale as the business grows.

The Results

Through its partnership with LMA Consulting Group, Jenson USA achieved measurable improvements across warehouse operations, inventory, data visibility, and freight:

  • Increased Zone A picks from 47% to 60% in the first few months of the new process
  • Improved picking productivity by approximately 20%
  • Generated approximately $60,000 in annual labor productivity value
  • Positioned high-velocity inventory closer to packing and shipping
  • Reduced travel time and improved warehouse flow
  • Automated operational reporting and reduced hours of manual data collection
  • Improved visibility into root causes of inventory adjustments and operational issues
  • Reduced inventory adjustments related to manufacturing issues by 53% year over year for the January–May period
  • Reduced freight expense by approximately $5,000–$5,500 per month through carrier optimization
  • Identified and addressed approximately $20,000–$21,000 in shipping-charge losses
  • Improved forecasting to support inventory, storage, replenishment, and labor planning

Most importantly, Jenson gained actionable information and practical processes its leadership team can continue using to drive improvement.

Operational Visibility Drives Profitable Growth

For distributors and e-commerce companies, growth can quickly expose weaknesses in warehouse layout, inventory strategy, labor productivity, forecasting, and freight management. The answer isn’t necessarily more space, more people, or more systems. 

Frequently, the greatest opportunities come from using existing data more effectively, positioning inventory based on demand, eliminating unnecessary activity, improving visibility, and focusing the team on root causes. For Jenson USA, that approach delivered measurable productivity improvements and cost savings while creating a stronger operational foundation for growth. And the impact went beyond the numbers.

“They challenged us and made us look at things differently and it probably brought the best out of me and my leadership team.”

Mauro added that his team still asks, “What would Diane and Lisa do?” when evaluating operational challenges.

That ability to continue applying the processes, tools, and thinking long after an engagement is complete is what turns operational improvement into sustainable results.