Cambridge, MA October 30, 2002 Meat processor Swift & Company has achieved a 10 percent improvement in its weekly inventory sold position by deploying a real-time supply chain solution, according to the solution provider involved in the implementation.
Swift & Company is the nation's third-largest processor of fresh beef and pork. Based in Greeley, Co., the company has one of the most complex and largest supply chains in the meat processing industry, producing more than 6 billion pounds of meat per year.
The company has implemented a supply chain solution from Aspen Technology (AspenTech) in order to dynamically match production to customer demand, in real-time, resulting in an increased order fulfillment rate and improved efficiencies in production scheduling in a multi-plant environment.
Swift uses the AspenTech supply chain solution to optimize meat cutting and packing schedules within its plants. The solution incorporates a capable-to-promise function that provides customers with delivery dates for new orders and incorporates those delivery promises into the production schedule.
The solution is designed to address the complexities inherent in beef processing involving multiple cutting schedules, shelf life constraints, variations in customer preferences, a complex product tree and plant capacity parameters.
"Using the AspenTech supply chain solution, we have significantly improved our production scheduling accuracy and resulting customer satisfaction levels," said Gary Acromite, Swift's vice president of customer supply chain and margin management. "With this solution, we have real-time visibility across our entire supply chain, which creates numerous benefits, from knowledge of product available to sell to savings in freight expense. Now we have the ability to make decisions based on real data instead of anecdotal knowledge."
"When we first spoke with Swift & Company executives about their business, they felt their order fulfillment process was not supporting their business needs," said David McQuillin, president and CEO of AspenTech. "AspenTech has been able to provide a capable-to-promise system that improves Swift's competitiveness."
