About Us
Our Vision is to help companies across the UK realise the true value of their inventory profile.
Our goal is to help your business reduce and optimise inventory in a controlled and sustainable manner.
Our Story
At Libero we believe we have an unrivalled passion for inventory. This passion was ignited when our founders, James and Owen, met whilst working together as Production Planners for Honeywell between 2010 and 2013. A world class manufacturer, Honeywell deployed HOS (Honeywell Operating System, inspired by the Toyota Production System) to raise standards and ensure consistency of approach across its 200+ sites.
A key pillar of HOS was an aggressive focus on inventory reduction, which was driven from the top by CEO Dave Cote. Dave firmly believed that reducing inventory reduced costs and importantly freed up cash to invest, a philosophy which really resonated with us. We became heavily involved in inventory reporting and various reduction projects, eventually becoming inventory champions for our site. Working together forged an excellent professional relationship and a close friendship, and we often talked about how we’d one day set up our own business.
Owen moved on from Honeywell in 2013 and James followed in 2014. However, our close friendship and almost telepathic working relationship meant the dream of setting up together was never far from our thoughts. In 2015 we formed a LTD company and regularly met to formulate plans for going live, but for many years life got in the way of making our dream happen. However in 2024 we took the plunge and Libero became reality.
Libero’s goal is simple – to help your business reduce inventory in a controlled and sustainable manner, enabling you to hold more of what you do need and less of what you don’t. OTIF will improve, backorder will reduce, SLOBs will be minimised and cash will increase. So if you want to improve your inventory position LET’S TALK!
Meet the Libero team……
James Smith
After graduating with a 2.1 in Business Management from the University of Manchester in 2007, James embarked on an extensive 17-year journey in manufacturing, starting out as a Materials Planner for Ifor Williams Trailers. He then moved into food, taking up a role as Project Manager for Roberts of Port Dinorwic, where he managed the design and roll out of a stock traceability system. After completing this project he became Production Systems Manager for Engineering firm Denis Ferranti Group, managing the Group’s ERP system and production planning. A role as Production Planner at Honeywell followed, where James developed his passion for inventory after being appointed site inventory champion.
Roles as Senior Production Planner at rivet manufacturer Henrob and Operations Project Manager at fibreoptic manufacturer CommScope followed, where James improved planning processes and honed his ERP knowledge further. After taking redundancy from CommScope, James joined leading wet wipe manufacturer Nice-Pak, initially as S&OP Manager before being promoted to Group Planning & Inventory Manager. In this role James revolutionised Nice-Pak’s S&OP processes and embedded an inventory reduction and optimisation culture, playing a key role in reducing inventory from £22M to £16M. Latterly, James became Group Demand Planning Manager at Advanced Medical Solutions where he oversaw the demand plan for £130M+ sales across multiple sites and territories, before embarking on his Libero adventure.
This varied experience across roles and industries gives James an unrivalled insight into the challenges faced by manufactures of all shapes and sizes, and the critical, yet often misunderstood and overlooked role that effective inventory management plays in business success. One thing he has learned over the years is that whilst every firm is unique, the underlying principles of inventory management remain the same.
A father of boys aged 10 and 12, when he’s not obsessing over inventory and working on creative solutions to reduce and optimise it, you’ll most likely find James either watching his boys play football or coaching Conwy Borough Under 12’s, and perhaps occasionally, if he fancies punishing himself, watching Manchester United.
Owen Davis
Owen’s supply chain journey began in the late 1990s, whilst working for the Aluminium Corporation in Dolgarrog, North Wales. Having learnt his trade on the shopfloor, working in the Rolling Mill and the Cast House, Owen gained a valuable insight into manufacturing from the bottom up! The intense heat of the cast house was quite the environment to encourage aspirations for a role away from shift work, and would ultimately result in Owen moving into the Production Control department of one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of aluminium sheet metal. Planning here involved not only the scheduling of international works orders, but also the route planning of raw materials through to finished product for renowned corporations such as Westland Helicopters and British Aerospace.
In 2007, having left what had now become British Aluminium, Owen took on a role within the Supply Chain department at MK Electric, a subsidiary of the globally renowned Honeywell corporation. Though it may not have seemed so at the time! With all the day-to-day frustrations of the manufacturing industry, it’s fair to say hat this was a particularly fruitful time of his supply chain journey. The Honeywell Operating System (HOS) was in the process of being implemented in factories across the UK, and it was, of course, where James and Owen first worked together. The challenges presented, along with the forward-thinking nature of the company, enabled Owen to take it upon himself to develop the factory’s first capacity planning model, thus aiding improved OTTR performance for the site and also a business Bravo award on a personal level. With the company’s relentless focus on Lean Manufacturing, Owen achieved Six Sigma Green Belt certification and his close working relationship with James helped to develop a sustainable SIOP process for the company. An accomplishment that Libero Inventory are incredibly proud of.
As a self-employed supply chain consultant, Owen has continued to aid companies in developing robust reporting processes over the past decade, with his expertise in Microsoft Excel proving particularly invaluable.
As a father of four, Owen still enjoys the occasional game of golf, when time allows, though the football boots were hung up many moons ago. He is a firm believer in participation in sport being essential, and critically being available to all, though he maybe doesn’t partake as much as he really should these days!