Client Overview
Our client, a regulated utility company established well over a century ago, provides electricity and natural gas products and services to more than 400,000 customers within an 11,000 square mile service territory. This customer base includes residential, farm, commercial, industrial, and wholesale customers. Providing its customers with the best value in energy and related services is our client's mission.
Project Description Summary
The goal of this project was to replace the client's legacy materials forecasting and planning tool with Manugistics v7.2 and modernize their business processes. This new solution will reduce stock-outs, improve inventory turns, and successfully align supply and demand throughout a warehousing network that spans multiple states. It increases the operational efficiency of material analysts, reduces training time and expenses, and improves the accuracy of their forecasts.
Role and Approach
MEB Consulting was responsible for the implementation of the following Manugistics v7.2 solution footprint:
Demand
Fulfillment
Monitor
Inventory Policy Optimization
MEB Consulting was also responsible for project management activities and ensuring a self sufficient organization of resources was well-trained to support the solution.
Accomplishments
MEB Consulting, in conjunction with an excellent core team of client resources, achieved accomplishments in four key areas:
Strategy & Process
Ported all current state functionality to be retained successfully to Manugistics v7.2.
Developed a 4-tier DFU hierarchy with statistical forecasting based on the Croston's and Lewandowski algorithms at the lowest and highest levels, respectively.
Utilized the Demand module's exception-based tools to fine tune statistical forecasts and manage the demand planning process.
Introduced several custom safety stock algorithms that cater to low and intermittent demand patterns and provide a quantitative method for managing inventory levels.
Configured a constrained deployment network that prioritizes which locations receive larger allocations of inventory in low stock situations.
Streamlined the capacity planning process, which also provides a foundation for a future vendor-managed inventory process.
Utilized the Load Manager tool in Manugistics for building capacity-constrained vehicle loads capable of multi-stop routes.
Created and configured multiple user-defined tables to allow custom data storage and manipulation within the application and reduce hard-coded logic and values.
Performance Metrics
Implemented tools to measure forecast accuracy on a monthly basis.
Created Monitor exceptions to notify analysts of shortage and excess stock situations, obsolescence and safety stock review requirements, firmed order expedites, and more.
Created several data extracts from Manugistics to interface with existing reporting tools and provide key data for performance metrics.
Developed an annual ABC analysis process which allows material analysts to focus on the 20% of their items that make up the 80% of their business.
People
Reduced low value-added daily activities to increase material analyst planning workflow efficiency.
Created well-defined processes and solution configuration within the scope of existing personnel.
Trained functional and technical resources such that they are capable of adding functionality or enhancements and expanding the solution for network scalability.
Timeline and Schedule
Completed all project deliverables on time and under budget.
