Presents personal case study of inventory optimization achievement with provider Optiant at conference
Boston — March 29, 2006 — At last week's Supply Chain World-North America Conference, inventory planning and optimization solutions provider Optiant and customer Black & Decker co-presented a real-world case study entitled, "Developing Creative Supply Chain Strategies In Highly Competitive Markets." The case study focused on three main themes: Inventory Rightsizing, Sourcing and Acquisitions, and Value Chain Strategic Design.
Using Optiant's multi-echelon inventory optimization and strategic analysis solution, Black & Decker said it has designed a more responsive and resilient supply chain that accounts for uncertainty and interdependencies while balancing resources, total costs and service levels.
Achieving More with Less
Black & Decker explained that it needed to "right-size" its inventory, specifically its safety stock level and location of one of its product lines. For this strategic inventory deployment, Optiant was able to help Black & Decker set inventory targets to achieve a sustained 99 percent service level and reduce inventory by 12 percent — a multi-million dollar cost reduction in finished goods safety stock inventory.
A recent acquisition fueled Black & Decker's desire to re-evaluate several sourcing strategies to account for variability across its global supply chain. Optiant's sourcing analysis compared the associated costs and interdependencies between three potential sourcing options and revealed the best, most cost-efficient location for Black & Decker's sourcing dilemma.
Additionally, Black & Decker took a holistic, end-to-end approach for creating an advanced value chain strategic design optimization to determine the right supply chain design for one of its highest growth product lines. Not only was Black & Decker able to identify opportunities for cost, service and flexibility, but it was able to use data-driven numbers to unlock hidden value in non-intuitive solutions.
"We needed supply chain flexibility," stated Dan Harmeyer, global value chain leader for Black & Decker. "With Optiant's solutions, we gained an agile supply chain and have been able to optimize our safety stock levels, balance identified opportunities to reduce our inventory investment, and increase service level yield and consistency. We truly are achieving more with less."
Matthew Menner, Optiant's senior vice president and co-presenter at Supply Chain World, said, "We're excited about being a key component to our customers' success. Not only was Black & Decker able to achieve immediate value of satisfying their needs at the lowest total supply chain cost, but they can now explore endless opportunities.
