Target Europe's supply chains to enhance financial performance with supply chain design, consulting best practices
Manassas, VA, Nijmegen, The Netherlands — April 21, 2005 — INSIGHT Inc., an international provider of supply chain planning solutions, announced a strategic relationship with Buck Consultants International (BCI) designed to offer global companies best practices and solutions for supply chain network design.
The companies are offering a combination of INSIGHT's SAILS 21 supply chain planning software and BCI's consulting methodology and services to help clients design and optimize their supply chains for efficiency. The companies said that, together, the solutions will improve the management of complex, global supply chains, from inbound raw material supply and inventories, through manufacturing and distribution, to on-time customer delivery.
Marcel Stuve, managing partner, Corporate Strategies and Logistics, of Buck Consultants International, commented, "INSIGHT and BCI powered reductions in supply chain costs while improving delivery service levels for a large petrochemical manufacturer, which provided competitive differentiation and the best financial performance for the client's competitive industry sector."
For European firms, the combination of BCI's methodology and local experience and INSIGHT's SAILS software is expected to optimize global supply chain networks to reduce costs, improve service levels, and achieve greater turnover (revenues) and profitability, the companies said. Buck Consultants International also meets corporate goals, such as an integrated operation of business units, so that supply chain executives can make informed choices when confronted with ever-changing global trade, mergers or acquisitions, changing product mixes, new customer delivery expectations, facilities issues, or tougher corporate profitability goals.
In concert with Buck Consultants International's methodology, SAILS finds the manufacturing locations that deliver the lowest cost for each product and customer. BCI uses SAILS to consider alternative production sites, secondary storage facilities, logistics service providers, shipment routing to the customer and country-specific criteria, such as load capacity per truck.
"We are pleased to partner with Buck Consultants International for best practices to uncover and realize optimal logistics efficiency for international operations," said Bob Belshaw, chief operating officer of INSIGHT. "Strategic supply chain design, with rigorous implementation, continues to power companies to the top of highly competitive markets."