solutions for operations performance

Response Management Delivers Breakthroughs in Inventory Management and Operations Performance

If you're like most companies, your response process consists of manual efforts combined with expensive "just-in-case" measures that produce excessive inventory and negatively impact operations performance. Most companies today use a combination of people, paper and tools where demand management, customer service and operations "throw bodies at the problem" to try to cope with the influx of changes coming at them daily. These supply chain professionals resort to the tools available to them—silo planning applications and, increasingly, spreadsheets. But none of these disparate tools provide them the information and tools for collective risk tradeoff and response critical to manage at the moment.

“Brand owners are keeping these relationships working by brute force… suffice it to say that a majority of communication is still done by phone, fax, and increasingly email.”

Source: AMR Research Report, Contract Manufacturing at a Crossroads, April 2005

As a result, most companies have institutionalized expensive just-in-case practices that amount to a corporate margin sinkhole. Safety stock, pooling and blanket orders result in excess and obsolete inventory and poor inventory management practices. Excess or flex capacity combined with excessive expediting costs place a corporate tax on operations performance.

Operations performance is negatively impacted when companies are unable to profitably deliver the right products to the right customers at the right time. Frequently inventory management practices are leveraged to compensate for the organization's inability to effectively respond to change. Top line and bottom line metrics are both affected as the company struggles to satisfy customers and manage costs.

Response Management resolves these issues by empowering front-line supply chain decision makers with the tools for risk tradeoff and response. Kinaxis™ RapidResponse™ allows supply chain managers to regain control of supply chain operations and drive breakthroughs in customer service and operations performance. Companies experience dramatic reductions in inventory and improved inventory management practices as they squeeze out excesses previously required to buffer poor responsiveness. With RapidResponse manufacturers see productivity gains as their staff are now able to act quickly and decisively with up-to-date demand and supply information. Using tools for collaboration with others to weigh the impact of change and determine the appropriate response helps balance corporate objectives with customer satisfaction goals.