The "New Normal" economy of the post-Great Recession era has forced companies to operate leaner and meaner than in the past. The current economic environment is defined by high demand volatility, increased pressure on margins, heightened risks to supply continuity, and resources that are stretched thin. Today, more than perhaps ever before, Supply Chain is on the spot to for just cost reductions to the bottom line but genuine value to the enterprise and its shareholders. A key question facing Supply Chain executives today is: Where are the "weak links" in our supply chains, and how can we address these gaps?
It was with this question in mind that the editors of Supply & Demand Chain Executive undertook this year's Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 process with the goal of highlighting "100 Great Supply Chain Projects." Ten years ago, Supply & Demand Chain Executive announced its first "100" list of supply chain solution providers, consultants and other organizations that were helping lead the way in transforming companies' supply and demand chains. This year the magazine focused the criteria for its "100" feature on supply chain transformation projects that demonstrate the broad spectrum of opportunities for enabling excellence in the supply chain.
The projects cited in this year's "100" article and online at SDCExec.com put the spotlight on successful and innovative transformation projects that are delivering bottom-line value to small, medium and large enterprises across the different functions that comprise the supply chain. The projects featured in the "100" article can serve as a roadmap for supply chain executives looking for new opportunities to drive improvement in their own operations.
Enabler: Apptricity Corporation
(Irving, TX, apptricity.com)
Customer: Department of Defense (Defense)
The Project: TMS. Automate planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling theater transportation activities.
Solutions/Services: TMS based on Apptricity's SOA platform, providing advanced transportation request planning, management and execution capabilities. Cargo management and real-time visibility throughout the theater of operations and accessible worldwide via the DoD enterprise.
Business Impact: Using the Apptricity TMS solution, Army Transportation Units and their command structure have real-time visibility and the capability to manage, plan, coordinate and report cargo movement within theater.
Enabler: Axway (Phoenix, AZ, www.axway.com)
Customer: Con-way (freight and logistics)
The Project: Implement a B2B infrastructure that integrates Con-way with its customer and partner community and creates automated transaction intelligence.
Solutions/Services: Up to 65,000 messages and more than 300,000 transactions flow through Con-way daily. The company deployed Axway Interchange and Axway Sentinel as a data-exchange system using a broad range of protocols and custom web services to deliver fast (less than two seconds) data search-and retrieval process, and visibility and alerting capabilities.
Business Impact:Enhancements to Con-way’s services and information flows have increased customer satisfaction, lowered IT time and cost expenditures, while providing scalability and flexibility to manage its complex supply chain.
Enabler: Avercast (Rexburg, ID, avercast.com)
Customer: Markwins International (Health & Beauty)
The Project: Forecasting, planning and collaboration. Move from flat-file database, improve accuracy and provide suppliers and planners a way to interact directly with planning data.
Solutions/Services: Avercast Business Forecasting, Supply Planning, Sales Forecasting & Supplier Connection.
Business Impact: Today Markwins' key suppliers can view the company forecast while customers are entering their own projections for Markwins' products. Markwins can now roll up accounts of smaller (but no less important) customers and treat it as one record without sacrificing fine-grain analysis and the ability to adjust forecasting parameters as needed.
Enabler: Basware (Helsinki, basware.com)
Customer: Global leader, power industry
The Project: Invoice automation. Standardize accounts payable best practices across this global leader's operations worldwide, gain visibility and automate inefficient manual processing of millions of invoices annually.
Solutions or Services Used: Basware Invoice Automation
Business Impact: Process improvements, greater visibility and efficient control of invoices. Through invoice automation, this company has been able to implement group-wide A/P best practices. The new invoice automation solution has enabled the company to cut in half the processing time of millions of invoices annually, and some group units are now able to achieve 60% fully automatic, straight-through processing.
Enabler: Cadent Resources, Inc. (Arlington Heights, IL, demandcaster.com)
Customer: $10 million metal component manufacturer
The Project: Demand planning and forecasting. Develop a strategy to manage cost-of-materials volatility — and hedge against future price increases.
Solutions/Services: DemandCaster Demand Planning, Forecasting, and Inventory Optimization SaaS.
Business Impact: PPV savings of $120,000. Improved inventory management, resulting in lower inventory levels.
Enabler: Caterpillar Logistics Services Inc. (Morton, IL, logi.cat.com)
Customer: Manitowoc Crane Care (Heavy Equipment Mfg.)
The Project: Solution implementation. Consolidate three N. American warehouses into one showcase facility located near the UPS Central hub in Louisville, KY. With goals of improved customer focus, reduced cost of ownership, increased dealer loyalty, through a long-term agreement with a world-class partner.
Solutions/Services: Operations/planning, packaging/branding, program management, transportation management, IT infrastructure.
Business Impact: Start-up completed ahead of schedule and under budget. First full year of operations was completed at end of 2010, and client operating costs were $250,000 under budget. Claims and bin denials are better than forecast, and productivities are exceeding targets.
Enabler: Celsis International Ltd. (Chicago, celsis.com)
Customer: Kao Worldwide (Personal Care)
The Project: Quality control project. A faster (and safer) product quality testing process to improve cash flow and reduce warehousing, working capital and inventory requirements.
Solutions/Services: Celsis Advance system.
Business Impact: Kao updated its quality process, enabling it to test and release products 50% faster. The company reduced inventory and warehouse space requirements.
Enabler: Demand Solutions (St. Louis, demandsolutions.com)
Customer: Certified Transmission Rebuilders (Automotive)
The Project: Rebuild manufacturing workflow. Optimize scheduling of work for individual transmission technicians to achieve improved manufacturing throughput.
Solutions/Services: Demand Solutions Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Business Impact: By standardizing its process, Certified Transmission was able to initially improve stocking levels by 30% and improve productivity. The company increased overall throughput of the units it produces by as much as 50% in some cases. The company has seen a 5% increase in each builder's efficiency just from the scheduling being automated with APS, and the new software has given them visibility into every planned order they need.
Enabler: Descartes Systems Group Inc. (Waterloo, ON, descartes.com)
Customer: Kraft Foods (Consumer Packaged Goods)
The Project: GPS enabled management of the Sales and Merchandising Workforce. Improve the productivity of Kraft's sales and merchandising operations.
Solutions/Services: Descartes Sales & Merchandiser Management Service with Sprint as the wireless carrier and handset provider and integration with ADP, Kraft's payroll calculation provider.
Business Impact: The project provided a system with actionable data for supervisors to better plan and manage the operational activities of the resources in the field. Access to this data allows them to conduct improved workload modeling for better resource capacity planning, and the refinement of labor standards. The project also improved the productivity of the Kraft sales and merchandising work force in the field, resulting in less hours and mileage reported and reimbursed, and an increase in the volume of product merchandised.
Enabler: DiCentral (Houston, dicentral.com)
Customer: Gamo Outdoor USA (Retail)
The Project: As part of an upgrade from MAS 200 system to SAP R/3, Gamo needed a trusted, SAP-capable EDI provider.
Solutions/Services: DiCentral's Managed Services suite of solutions, including mapping and file integration.
See the Best Practices feature starting on page 18 of this issue for more details on this project.
Enabler: Enporion LLC (Tampa, FL,enporion.com)
Customer: Duke Energy (Utility)
The Project: Complete a transition to a new ERP platform without impacting the current business process with the supplier community.
Solutions/Services: Enporion's Transaction Manager Application and Order Manager Application.
Business Impact: Duke increased the amount of transactions processed electronically over the Enporion marketplace by 74% from 2009 to 2010, which is when the ERP transition took place. Duke estimates that they were able to realize $2.3 million in savings during the transition.
Enabler: Epicor Software Corporation (Irvine, CA, epicor.com)
Customer: Kwalyti Tool (Industrial Machinery)
The Project: ERP upgrade and implementation. Provide an integrated business software solution to support business management and control in order to promote efficiency, growth and profitability.
Solutions/Services: Epicor ERP.
Business Impact: Kwalyti Tool immediately became more profitable and realized ROI within the first three months. Profits increased significantly in the first year and grew to be much larger than what Kwalyti Tool originally invested to buy the software.
Enabler: Flash Global Logistics, Inc. (Pine Brook, NJ, flashlogistics.com/brazil)
Customer: Juniper Networks, Inc. (Computer Networking Equipment)
The Project: Improve speed of fulfillment to Brazil and increase customer satisfaction. Improve overall operations and supply chain, gain transparency, reduce cost.
Solutions/Services: FLASHTRAC, custom inventory management and order tool, NF-e compliant with fiscal system link to Siscomex, plus Network Modeling Solutions, Command Center Solutions, Transportation and Global Trade Management Solutions.
Business Impact: Juniper experienced a 40% reduction in lead times, customer satisfaction rating improved, percentage of commercial invoice value paid to duties and taxes was reduced. Juniper achieved significant operational cost savings, and visibility to duties and taxes via unbundled invoicing helped Juniper accurately assess and predict budget and carrying cost.
Enabler: Fortna Inc. (Reading, PA, fortna.com)
Customer: MSC Industrial Supply Co. (Industrial Distribution)
The Project: Order fulfillment optimization. MSC guarantees that orders placed by 8 p.m. will be delivered next day to its customers. The company needed to optimize many facets of its Distribution Operations to meet customer and business commitments.
Solutions/Services: Fulfillment Center process redesign by Fortna Inc. that fundamentally changed the way MSC operated its facilities, implemented new warehouse control software – FortnaWCS™ in all locations that was seamlessly integrated with MSC's warehouse management and order systems and its materials handling equipment.
Business Impact: MSC increased profits and delivered on its customer promise. MSC cut order cycle time from three hours to less than one. Productivity improved by over 60%, and MSC was able to take on more business – and keep its next-day deliver guarantee to customers. Overall, it was the single biggest cost-cutting initiative in company history.
Enabler: Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX, Louisville, CO, ghx.com)
Customer: The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (Healthcare)
The Project: Complete supply chain transformation. Cut costs and improve operational performance.
Solutions/Services: GHX Business Solutions, GHX exchange services and GHX Procurement Suite
Business Impact: HHC cut costs and improved operational performance, achieving a $14 million annual savings goal. HHC has reduced its off-contract spend and ensured that it is procuring items at negotiated prices.
Enabler: Global4PL Supply Chain (Sunnyvale, CA, infinera.com)
Customer: Fortune 500 manufacturer in the telecommunications sector
The Project: Integrate in one system import control, export control, supply chain visibility, document control, freight audit and payment, HTS Database.
Solutions/Services: POHorizon
Business Impact: Complete visibility from PO to delivery, total compliance, reduced costs, greater visibility/exception management and complete control on a worldwide basis of all shipments and transactions.
Enabler: HighJump Software (Eden Prairie, MN, highjump.com)
Customer: Richmond Cold Storage (Third-party Logistics)
The Project: Consolidate multiple WMS systems to one centrally hosted system that is adaptable to ever-changing business processes and that reduces TCO.
Solutions/Services: HighJump Software WMS using HighJump Advantage Architect and HighJump's Web-based reporting system, HighJump WebWise, supported in a WMWare virtual environment.
Business Impact: Many processes that were previously manually executed or managed through another system outside the WMS are now automated within the WMS. All processes and product movement is captured through RF devices with a user interface that walks operators through processes one step at a time. This provides managers greater visibility and manageability to activities within the warehouse.
Enabler: Inmar, Inc. (Winston-Salem, NC, inmar.com)
Customer: ADT Security Services, Inc. (Electronic security systems and services)
The Project: Returns processing and warranty dispositioning program. Formalize and automate returns processing and warranty dispositioning to maximize warranty credit and compliance at branch and technician level.
Solutions/Services: Implementation of new operational processes and use of a number of Inmar's proprietary Web-based tools.
Business Impact: Improved technician compliance (parts used vs. parts returned) to an average of 70%. Branch compliance (timeliness of shipment to Inmar) increased to 96.5%. By increasing the volume to suppliers by 700%, ADT increased its credits for replacement parts, a projected annual savings of $3.5 million. Shipping and transportation costs also have been reduced.
Enabler: Integration Point (Charlotte, NC, integrationpoint.com)
Customer: Large U.S. sporting goods retailer
The Project: Global Trade Management software. Integrate and streamline the supply chain from vendor risk assessment to PO creation, screening and filing of the ISF.
Solutions/Services: Integration Point Supply Chain Compliance, Denied Party Screening, Importer Security Filing, Global Classification.
Business Impact: Streamlined supply chain and importing processes. Reduced risks within the supply chain, eliminating chances of working with denied parties, ensuring timely, accurate filing of the Importer Security Filing, and decreased the amount of time it takes for their goods to clear Customs.
Enabler: John Galt Solutions, Inc. (Chicago, johngalt.com)
Customer: Leading Consumer Goods Company
The Project: Improve forecast accuracy by facilitating collaboration between analysts, sales teams and retail partners.
Solutions: John Galt Solutions' Atlas Planning Suite
Business Impact: Initial forecast error reduced from 50% to 20%; out-of-stocks reduced; fill rate in one store went from 65% to 100%; and a $7 million gain in sales.
Enabler: Logility (Atlanta, logility.com)
Customer: American Italian Pasta Company (CPG/Food)
The Project: Supply chain planning and visibility. More accurate planning as the company experienced high growth, a constrained capacity situation and a more volatile commodities market.
Solutions/Services: Logility Voyager Solutions
Business Impact: Increased customer service from 95.5% to 98.8%. Reduced inventory 50%. Decreased obsolete and aged inventory from 18% down to 2% of total inventory. Improved forecast accuracy by 50%. Developed a ONE PLAN culture, a collaborative environment with trust in the statistical forecast and the S&OP process.
Enabler: Management Dynamics, Inc. (East Rutherford, NJ, managementdynamics.com)
Customer: Abercrombie & Fitch (Apparel)
The Project: Visibility into global shipments.
Solution: Management Dynamics' Supply Chain Visibility solution.
Business Impact: The solution has allowed Abercrombie & Fitch to receive notice of inbound shipments approximately 10 days sooner than previously. The solution allows A&F to collaborate with merchants and service providers to reduce costs, shipment delays and improve customer service. The visibility A&F has gained lets it manage its expanding international footprint without expanding its staff.
Enabler: Oildex, a service of Transzap, Inc. (Denver, transzap.com/oildex.com)
Customer: Williams Companies (Energy)
The Project: Early payment discount capture. Williams wrestled with the challenge of efficiently processing thousands of invoices before they became past due, which resulted in late payment fees for the company.
Solutions/Services: Oildex's ePayables solution, Spendworks.
Business Impact: Bills paid on time, and estimated savings of $1.7 million a year in early payment discounts. Supplier relationships have also improved.
Enabler: Puridiom (Mechanicsburg, PA, puridiom.com)
Customer: Top 100 Defense Contractor
The Project: e-Procurement solution. Automate largely paper-intensive process, ensure corporate policy compliance, ease federal audits.
Solutions/Services: Puridiom Hosted Enterprise Procurement Solution
Business Impact: Greater visibility into spending; easier, faster, more competitive procurements; more efficient, virtual approval process. Correct approval workflow and validation of data at every step ensure correct information and attachments from the start of the process. Management has gained greater control over the timing of purchases. In addition, Puridiom's CPSR (Contractor Purchasing System Review)-ready technology and integration has eased the burden and assisted the client with mission-critical audits.
Enabler: ReSolve (Peabody, MA, resolvebyarrow.com)
Customer: National multiple system operator
The Project: Establish a more cost-effective way to manage returned DVRs.
Solutions/Services: Product returns and service spares management solutions.
Business Impact: By sending retired DVR equipment directly to a ReSolve facility, the MSO saves money by utilizing returned material from its own product stream to create service spares inventory. Also, by remarketing the returned hard drives, ReSolve brings revenue back to the MSO.
Enabler: Riverwood Solutions (Menlo Park, CA, rwsops.com)
Customer: Fortune 500 electronic component manufacturer
The Project: In/outsourcing decision and supplier selection.
Solutions/Services: Value chain analysis, with supply chain modeling, supplier quoting and evaluation, and pro forma financial modeling.
Business Impact: By using outside factories in existing low-cost locations, Riverwood demonstrated capital savings of $160 million compared to baseline option of new internal factory, while still achieving product cost target.
Enabler: ShipXpress Inc. (Jacksonville Beach, FL, shipxpress.com)
Customer: Green Plains Trade Group (Ethanol)
The Project: A collaborative, fully integrated software platform for planning and execution of contracts, trading, distribution and delivery of Ethanol among traders, producers, buyers, sellers and carriers.
Solutions/Services: Hosted proprietary software platform.
Business Impact: The Portal reduces supply, distribution and freight costs, creates trading opportunities, and reduces man hours for all industry participants. Process improvements include better shipment planning, freight rates management, truck tendering, ratability and position reporting, logistics planning, freight accrual, and freight payment processing.
Enabler: Silvon Software, Inc. (Westmont, IL, silvon.com)
Customer: Mid-market producer and distributor of dairy products
The Project: Supply chain business intelligence. Provide better supply chain visibility and forecasting capabilities to a leading dairy products producer and distributor with $300 million in gross annual sales.
Solutions/Services: Silvon's Stratum applications for sales analysis, inventory performance management and statistical forecasting.
Business Impact: Forecast accuracy improved to 98%, operating expenses decreased. Reduced spoiled product or product facing expiration to its goal of .25% of gross sales. Sales team spends less time forecasting and more time strategically selling.
Enabler: Smart Software, Inc. (Belmont, MA, smartcorp.com)
Customer: Prestolite Electric (Automotive/Heavy Equipment)
The Project: Forecasting/S&OP. Increase sales and cash flow by reducing unnecessary inventory and stocking the right parts in sufficient quantities.
Solutions/Services: SmartForecasts demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization system.
Business Impact: Increased availability of critical parts from the mid-60-percent range up to the high-80-percent level, while reducing overall inventory by 25%. Increased parts availability also dramatically improved customer service, resulting in virtually no complaints about stock-outs. Fill rates increased from 80% to 95% in aftermarket business.
Enabler: Source One Management Services, LLC (Willow Grove, PA, sourceoneinc.com)
Customer: Multi-billion dollar global mining & minerals processing company
The Project: MRO sourcing/spend reduction. Reduce costs, strengthen controls and increase efficiencies in MRO spend.
Solutions/Services: Data cleansing initiative, with propriety matching technologies in conjunction with a low-cost country data-specialty firm. E-sourcing technologies, market intelligence collected from other industries, and change management services in order to drive compliance.
Business Impact: Total hard dollar savings of 15%, with revamped and streamlined ordering processes and subsequent compliance monitoring.
Enabler: TradeCard, Inc. (New York, tradecard.com)
Customer: Major global outdoor sportswear company
The Project: Supply network efficiency, visibility.
Solutions/Services: TradeCard/Factory Xpress
Business Impact: Automation and connectivity allowed the company to cut costs and grow business efficiently with less paper and manual tasks. It automated purchase orders, invoices, accounts payables, settlements, early payments, customs and vendor compliance. Today, just one accounts payable person approves all vendor payments.
Enabler: Treya Partners (Thousand Oaks, CA, treyapartners.com)
Customer: Leading N. American manufacturer of windows, siding and other building products
The Project: Procurement cost reduction and process improvement. Deliver a minimum of $4 million hard sustainable cost savings.
Solutions/Services: Spend analysis and opportunity assessment services. Strategic sourcing services. Group purchasing agreements with pre-existing, deeply discounted pricing for cost savings in simpler indirect spend categories
Business Impact: Total contract-length cost savings of $5.5 million were realized on an addressed spend base of $38.3 million across five spend categories (wireless telecom, IT hardware, small parcel freight, office products and audio conference services).
Enabler: U.S. Bank (Minneapolis, usbpayment.com)
Customer: U.S. Department of Defense
The Project: Automating paper-based payments. Automate processing of the Department of Defense's transportation payments.
Solutions/Services: U.S. Bank Freight Payment.
Business Impact: Cumulatively, U.S. Bank has electronically paid more than 1.3 billion invoices for the DoD. By using U.S. Bank Freight payment and creating an interface with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and military services' accounting systems, by 2010 DFAS has reduced its charges to the military services by over $200 million/year.
Enabler: UpNet Technologies (Minneapolis, upnettec.com)
Customer: Household goods importer
The Project: PO automation and inventory management. Manage the order flow from import to warehouse to retailers and enable drop ship fulfillment through extended visibility of multiple warehouse inventories.
Solutions/Services: UpNet's iEDeX data integration and translation platform with Distributed Order Management and Inventory Management applications enabled.
Business Impact: Expand customer base and provide greater visibility to the retailer. Manual entry errors greatly reduced while improving order fulfillment rates. Gained the ability to track entire product inventory across all warehouses, including keeping track of each retailer's SKU for easy reference and allocation.
Enabler: JDA Software Group (Scottsdale, AZ, jda.com)
Customer: Goya Foods, Inc. (Food)
The Project: Improve and leverage supply chain and planning processes; improve production planning and execution. Implement a tool to help determine what products to order, when, and in what quantities so Goya would have the right products at the right place at the right time, and to enable the company to bring on shorter shelf-life items and better manage them. Primary goal: Improve service levels (reduce out of stocks) to 98 %. Secondary goal: Reduce inventory levels. Also, make the process of generating purchase orders less cumbersome.
Description of Project: The project started in March 2009. A phased implementation approach was taken with Goya North East (Secaucus and 6 satellites) that accounts for over a third of Goya's sales volume going live in December 2009. The Houston and California locations went live in April 2010. The Miami location went live in May 2010 and the Puerto Rico location went live in September 2010.
Each of these locations is live on Demand, Demand Classification and Fulfillment and Order Optimization for their finished good products. Prior to the implementation of the JDA Demand and Fulfillment products, Goya utilized a legacy system eight-week moving average as their method of forecasting demand. Since Go Live, Goya has been able to realize record service levels.
Business Impact: Service Level Improvement from 95% to 98% or better.
Purchase Order Process Improvement from 20 minutes to 1-3 minutes.
More Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 Recipients for 2011
Client and project type listed in parenthesis. Note that some enablers have requested that the name of the client not be listed for reasons of confidentiality. In these instances, either a substitute descriptor was used or, where marked with an asterisk (*), we have withheld the name or industry of the client altogether. More detail on the projects listed below will be available online at SDCExec.com.
4SIGHT Supply Chain Group (WMS & LMS implementation)*
Aspen Technology, Inc. (Plastic & Chemical Manufacturer; integrated supply/demand planning)
Avendra (Pillar Hotels & Resorts; implementing procure-to-pay solution)
Blue Sky Technologies, Inc. (Staples, Inc.; supply chain visibility)
Cardinal Logistics Management Corporation (Hazen Transport; TMS, driver handheld)
Cheetah Software Systems, Inc. (Central Freight Lines, Inc.; digital dispatch management implementation)
Choice Logistics, Inc. (Hitachi Data Systems; service parts logistics)
CombineNet Inc. (Advanced sourcing solution implementation)*
Core Solutions (Kmart Australia; retail product lifecycle and global sourcing)
Corporate United (Vertis Communications; safety supplies contract implementation)
CSC (Defense Group) (U.S. Army; ERP project)
Datria Systems (Roche Diagnostics; voice-enabled picking solution)
DSSI, LLC (Multinational Construction Equipment Manufacturer; procurement outsourcing – source to pay and integrated supply)
DW Morgan Company (Force 10 Networks; logistics outsourcing)
Dyadem (Roche Genentech; supply chain risk management implementation)
e-LYNXX Corporation (International Construction Equipment (ICE); automated vendor selection procedure)
Emptoris, Inc. (Global engineering and construction company; supplier performance management)
eZCom Software (P2F Holdings; EDI project)
Fieldglass (BP; VMS implementation)
Fluensee, Inc. (Container Centralen US; returnable asset tracking solution)
Full Circle Wireless (A.T. Kearny; recycling/sourcing/procurement/corporate social responsibility)
Genpact (Inventory optimization)*
GEP (Global eProcure) (Indirect procurement, outsourcing, technology)*
Greybeard Advisors LLC (Fortune 500 retailer; procurement assessment and transformation)
GT Nexus (Fortune 100 Retailer; paperless supply chain)
Iasta (OfficeMax, Inc.; procurement transformation)
IES, Ltd. (Private; packaging optimization)
Insight Sourcing Group (Cost optimization assessment & sourcing)*
INSIGHT, Inc. (Supply chain network redesign)*
Intermec (Mission Foods; inventory tracking solution)
Kinaxis (Supply chain planning process improvement)*
LogFire (Top Three Retailer in Latin America; WMS implementation)
Lucas Systems, Inc. (Voice-directed warehouse management)*
Manhattan Associates (Urban Outfitters; WMS)
Metastorm (now an OpenText business) (CRM/ERP consolidation)*
MetricStream Inc. (Fortune Global 200 Consumer Electronics Brand and Medical Devices Company; supplier quality solution implementation)
Mode Transportation (formerly Exel Transportation) (Leveraging TMS in the marketplace)*
ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. (Provo Craft; supply chain outsourcing and optimization)
NFI (NFI; centralized distribution implementation)
NGC Software (Parigi Group; PLM software implementation)
Omnify Software (Crystal Technology; product lifecycle management implementation)
Optricity (Slotting project)*
Pace Harmon (Fortune 500 Telecom Company; global supply chain optimization)
PINC Solutions (Yard management and visibility)*
Prime Advantage (Ultrafryer Systems; sourcing/procurement solution)
ProcureStaff Technologies (Fortune 500 Financial Services Company; VMS implementation)
Psion, Inc. (Powell's Books; barcoding and WMS implementation)
Reddwerks (Well-known Specialty Retailer; event-enabled logistics)
RedPrairie Corporation (ADS Logistic Services; enterprise WMS/on-demand WMS implementation)
Remsoft, Inc. (One of the World's Largest Pulp Manufacturers; asset lifecycle optimization solutions implementation)
Retalix Ltd. (ERP & WMS implementation)*
Schneider Logistics, Inc. (International and domestic supply chain synchronization)
SciQuest, Inc. (KBR; e-sourcing/project-based procurement)
Spend Radar (Spend analysis savings allocation)*
StarCite (One of the World's Leading Pharmaceutical Companies; strategic meetings management solution)
Sterling Commerce, an IBM company (Transportation management system (TMS) implementation)*
Strive Logistics, LLC (Fortune 500 Shipper; consolidation and optimization project)
Tableau Software (Norfolk Southern Corp.; supply chain network redesign)
TAKE Solutions Inc. (Baker Hughes Inc.; e-procurement, supplier integration, e-invoicing)
Terra Technology (Forecasting and inventory optimization)*
Test Technology (DriveCam; Recycling/redeployment/refurbishment/repairs)
TMSi Logistics (Lean action workout)*
ToolsGroup (Global 2000 Electronics Distributor; demand planning & inventory optimization)
Trade Wings (Telenor Norway; integrated reuse program)
TradeStone Software (UK's Leading Direct Home Shopping Company; merchandise lifecycle management implementation)
Transplace (Supply chain network expansion)*
Upside Software Inc. (International Pharmaceutical Company; contract lifecycle management solution)
Verian Technologies (e-Procurement solution)*
VHA Inc. (Scottsdale Health; multi-faceted supply chain cost reduction project)
Volt Consulting Group (Leading Provider of Health Insurance; business intelligence consultation)
Waer Systems Limited (Tier 1 Aerospace Manufacturer; replenishment solution using GPRS)
YRC Worldwide (Inventory management)*
Zionex Inc. (Fortune 500 Global Manufacturer; production planning solution implementation)
Next Level Purchasing, Inc., & the Next Level Purchasing Association
Next Level Purchasing (Moon Township, PA, nextlevelpurchasing.com) has long offered online courses teaching purchasing and supply management strategies, as well as the Senior Professional in Supply Management (SPSM) certifications. On April 4, the firm launched the Next Level Purchasing Association, a free professional purchasing association aimed at breaking the mold of traditional associations by offering the same benefits through a free online format. Its goal is to allow purchasing professionals to interact with their purchasing peers through the online discussion board, get the latest articles in NLPA's online magazine and manage their purchasing educational and certification pursuits all in one place. More information at the Next Level Web site.
Transforming from Tactical to Strategic
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (Boston, dfci.org)
Project Goal: To transform our existing materials management group from tactical in nature to strategic by adding value to the bottom line.
The Project: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (DFCI) has engaged in a comprehensive transformation of our sourcing department. We created an organization that focuses on delivering strategic results and proactively seeks out cost savings and operational efficiency opportunities. By adopting cross-industry best practices and explicitly enfranchising the purchasing community, DFCI has become a leader in developing a truly strategic sourcing model that has yielded remarkable results.
Business Impact: We have achieved $3.5 million in actual savings and another $6.5 million in cost savings pipeline or backlog. Some of our savings include: 1) supply unit costs from several of our strategic suppliers (strategic suppliers are defined as holding 80% of our spend) have been reduced at a minimum of 15% and as high as 80%; 2) reduction in supply inventory has decreased 33% and consignment programs have grown 100%; and, 3) utilization of lower cost alternatives for reagents have been successfully sourced across diverse research laboratories.
Other achievements include:
- Exceeded our savings goal by 60%;
- Customer service ratings increased up to 43% in some areas from a year ago and now average 90% vs. 70%;
- Exceeded inventory turns best practice by 54%; and,
- Consistently deliver 16% return on investment; which is 136% above the benchmark.
– John P. Willi
Director, Materials Management,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc.