solutions overview

Driving Supply Chain Operations Performance Excellence

In today's customer-focused manufacturing environments, operations performance success is defined by how fast and how effectively companies can respond to volatile demand and changing supply chain conditions. Manufacturing is in the throes of a massive shift from a production-centric to customer-centric business model. The world has transformed from minimal options and long production runs, to a new world of mass-customization, delighting the customer, strategic supply chains, global outsourcing, and greatly reduced time-to-market.

Traditional demand planning and supply chain planning systems designed for cycles in weeks, months and quarters for use by a small number of highly skilled planners were not intended to empower people to deal with daily changes. Lacking multi-enterprise operational data, these systems do not offer the real-time collaborative environment needed for risk tradeoff and response. Analyst Sound Bite"Most organizations do not realize the complexities of getting the information that's required across the operations. It cannot just be managed in a spreadsheet and it can't just be managed in an ERP system. It requires an application that can actually help you manage your operational performance."
Mark Smith — Ventana Research ( video)

“Traditional planning cycles are obsolete. Internet connectivity and global markets have accelerated change so dramatically that businesses must revisit daily investments in product development, manufacturing capacity, and inventory. The 21st-century supply chain is no longer about matching supply with demand, but capability with opportunity.”

AMR Research, Supply Chain Saves the World, 2006.

Because of these short-comings in legacy planning systems, most manufacturers today tend to rely on an ad-hoc, labor-intensive "scramble mode"—a combination of people, paper and tools (dominated by spreadsheets) to accommodate supply chain volatility. Their ERP systems, while excellent at managing their internal operations, cannot support their needs for a collaborative, multi-tier environment necessary to cope with the current business climate. Expensive "just in case" practices such as safety stock, expediting and capacity hedging are commonplace in many companies. This inefficient approach erodes margins and threatens customer loyalty. Clearly, manufacturers need a breakthrough that can drive operations performance to new levels.

A Breakthrough in Manufacturing Operations Performance

Kinaxis™ RapidResponse™ supersedes traditional demand planning and supply chain planning systems to deliver this breakthrough. RapidResponse delivers integrated and collaborative demand-supply planning, monitoring and response to change. It empowers your front-line supply chain staff to respond to real-world volatilities in demand, supply and product, and to achieve new levels of supply chain agility.

Unlike centralized planning processes, response processes are very distributed and collaborative—calling on front-line decision makers throughout the supply chain to contribute to a rapid and accurate response. In the midst of constant change, "black box" optimization no longer works. Leveraging human capital and the unique insights they have, combined with rapid evaluation of the alternatives using standard key performance indicators, is the key to risk tradeoff and response. Collaboration with colleagues and partners around the world leverages these collective insights to address problems. People need to be empowered with tools to simulate the possibilities and any impact their actions would have on business metrics.

What RapidResponse Can Do for You

RapidResponse delivers breakthroughs in customer service and operations performance across the supply chain. The results speak for themselves:

	Casio shortened lead times and optimized inventory management. Calculations that had previously taken 3 hours can now be completed in less than 50 seconds. Team members respond rapidly to changes, score various alternatives in seconds and benefit from comprehensive supply chain visibility.
	Jabil Circuit gains competitive advantage. RapidResponse allows Jabil to model internal and external data with a high level of speed and granularity enabling them to make informed decisions in hours, not weeks.

“If you don't have RapidResponse, the only other solution for Response Management is a fully-functional crystal ball.”

Mike Peters, Program Manager, Process Development, Solectron (now Flextronics)