Santa Clara, CA November 5, 2002 Two divisions of sports apparel giant Nike have seen greater efficiency in creating and re-designing integrated demand and delivery plans since implementing Web-based planning and supply chain management software from Bristlecone, according to the solution provider.
Nike's Footwear and Equipment divisions are using Bristlecone's Planner Decision Assistant (plannerDA) and Supply Chain (SC) Policy Manager solutions in a bid to improve supply chain performance by enabling exception-based management and predictive analytics.
The provider said that plannerDA is a rules-based, supply chain event management and analysis tool that links the realities of unexpected supply chain events to the demand planning process. Supply chain analysts can use the solution to monitor their planning processes daily, comparing updated customer demand to supply plans, detailed factory scheduling and work in progress. plannerDA integrates information from SAP, i2 and 10 other network systems providing demand, supply, shipment and inventory data.
SC Policy Manager is used to track and analyze operations such as booking, billing and backlog. Bristlecone said the solution gives both line-of-business managers and enterprise-level analysts the ability to review, monitor, test and project seasonal business volume. SC Policy Manager presents a picture of the current business and projects sales, receipts and inventories positions several fiscal years out. Nike is using it as its predictive analytics solution.
Since adopting the solutions Nike has seen greater efficiency in creating and re-designing integrated demand and delivery plans, resulting in improved customer delivery performance and low inventory carrying costs, according to the solution provider.
Gordon Steele, chief information officer at Nike, said, "Bristlecone's ability to quickly help and solve complex problems with [the] Nike supply chain has strengthened our relationship with them and made them a trusted advisor for our supply chain efforts."
Bristlecone, a business process and information technology (IT) consulting company with expertise in complex supply chain software implementations, said it analyzes and aligns its clients' business and technology needs, then provides IT mentoring and direct implementation services for enterprise software projects.
