Also launches "university" to train service supply chain practitioners
Philadelphia — July 7, 2005 — Service planning and optimization specialist MCA Solutions has launched a strategic consulting practice, bringing its expertise in creating service supply chains to the commercial and defense markets.
The company also is rolling out MCA University, combining seminars intended for executives and line-of-business managers, and expanded hands-on training courses for service supply chain practitioners.
The consulting engagements are intended to deliver process improvement and service strategy roadmaps to help organizations drive revenue, profits and greater customer satisfaction with their service business.
These engagements will involve the client management teams and utilize the service industry knowledge of MCA's own staff and extended network of experts, consultants and partners. MCA's Service Planning and Optimization (SPO) 5.0 software suite will also be a component of the consulting program.
"As the market moves to performance-based logistics and extremely demanding service-level agreements, organizations are experiencing increasing pressure to deliver the ultimate performance at the lowest cost," said Bob Bryant, MCA's vice president of professional services, who will direct the consulting organization.
Morris Cohen, co-founder and chairman of MCA Solutions and the Matsushita professor of manufacturing and logistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, will help direct the consulting team. The team will benchmark each company's performance against best-in-class processes and metrics, providing measures for success, according to MCA.
Engagements will identify areas where cost of ownership can be cut and provide clients with opportunities to improve the performance of their service supply chains through greater coordination, asset utilization and incentive alignment.
Areas of opportunity could include: defining the service level/inventory trade-off for differentiated markets and products on a global basis; analysis of strategies for negotiating performance-based logistics (PBL) contracts; optimizing field service resources to meet entitlement requirements; and identifying the best strategy for shifting from legacy applications, when the implementation needs to be extremely rapid.
MCA said that initial engagements across industries have seen service costs reduced by 20-30 percent; labor and parts costs cut by 20-40 percent; and service contract profitability increased by at least 10 percent.
As one component of the strategic consulting program, MCA applies its SPO to help companies optimize inventory, scheduling and service commitments, with the goals of cutting operating costs and improving overall performance.
Boeing, Cisco Systems, Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins are among the companies using MCA Solutions for their service organizations.
Elsewhere, MCA University courses will begin this fall. The curriculum will include supply chain concepts, PBL analysis, and optimization and forecasting techniques.
Additional Articles of Interest
— For more information on solutions for the service and support chain, see the articles "In the Field and All Grown Up," the Net Best Thing column in the June/July 2002 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive), and "Time to Prove It," the Net Best Thing column in the April/May 2003 issue of the magazine.
— For best practices in service parts management, see the SDCExec.com article "Three Keys to Successful Service Parts Management."
— Is your company getting the most from its supply management function? For a step-by-step look at how to phase in a successful "end-to-end" supply management strategy, read the article "Roadmap to a Comprehensive Supply Management Strategy," an In Depth article on SDCExec.com.
Philadelphia — July 7, 2005 — Service planning and optimization specialist MCA Solutions has launched a strategic consulting practice, bringing its expertise in creating service supply chains to the commercial and defense markets.
The company also is rolling out MCA University, combining seminars intended for executives and line-of-business managers, and expanded hands-on training courses for service supply chain practitioners.
The consulting engagements are intended to deliver process improvement and service strategy roadmaps to help organizations drive revenue, profits and greater customer satisfaction with their service business.
These engagements will involve the client management teams and utilize the service industry knowledge of MCA's own staff and extended network of experts, consultants and partners. MCA's Service Planning and Optimization (SPO) 5.0 software suite will also be a component of the consulting program.
"As the market moves to performance-based logistics and extremely demanding service-level agreements, organizations are experiencing increasing pressure to deliver the ultimate performance at the lowest cost," said Bob Bryant, MCA's vice president of professional services, who will direct the consulting organization.
Morris Cohen, co-founder and chairman of MCA Solutions and the Matsushita professor of manufacturing and logistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, will help direct the consulting team. The team will benchmark each company's performance against best-in-class processes and metrics, providing measures for success, according to MCA.
Engagements will identify areas where cost of ownership can be cut and provide clients with opportunities to improve the performance of their service supply chains through greater coordination, asset utilization and incentive alignment.
Areas of opportunity could include: defining the service level/inventory trade-off for differentiated markets and products on a global basis; analysis of strategies for negotiating performance-based logistics (PBL) contracts; optimizing field service resources to meet entitlement requirements; and identifying the best strategy for shifting from legacy applications, when the implementation needs to be extremely rapid.
MCA said that initial engagements across industries have seen service costs reduced by 20-30 percent; labor and parts costs cut by 20-40 percent; and service contract profitability increased by at least 10 percent.
As one component of the strategic consulting program, MCA applies its SPO to help companies optimize inventory, scheduling and service commitments, with the goals of cutting operating costs and improving overall performance.
Boeing, Cisco Systems, Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins are among the companies using MCA Solutions for their service organizations.
Elsewhere, MCA University courses will begin this fall. The curriculum will include supply chain concepts, PBL analysis, and optimization and forecasting techniques.
Additional Articles of Interest
— For more information on solutions for the service and support chain, see the articles "In the Field and All Grown Up," the Net Best Thing column in the June/July 2002 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive), and "Time to Prove It," the Net Best Thing column in the April/May 2003 issue of the magazine.
— For best practices in service parts management, see the SDCExec.com article "Three Keys to Successful Service Parts Management."
— Is your company getting the most from its supply management function? For a step-by-step look at how to phase in a successful "end-to-end" supply management strategy, read the article "Roadmap to a Comprehensive Supply Management Strategy," an In Depth article on SDCExec.com.
- More articles about MCA Solutions.
