Increasing Supply Chain Performance Without Big Capital Investments

The pressure to find efficiencies and squeeze savings from the supply chain is never ending, but success often seems dependent on convincing corporate to invest in technology’s ‘next big thing.’ So what if someone told you there may be large, potential savings “hiding” in your existing supply chain that could be tapped without big capital outlays?

That’s exactly the message that Toby Brzoznowski, co-founder and executive vice president of LLamasoft, will bring during his presentation at the upcoming Supply Chain Transportation USA Exhibition & Conference, to be held March 17-20 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Brzoznowski asserts that most companies have “millions in potential cost savings hidden just below the surface of their supply chains.” Moreover, he says, many of these opportunities require neither massive overhauls nor structural changes and can be uncovered with supply chain modeling techniques.

Brzoznowski likens this process to discovering money in the pocket of a seldom used coat– in addition to being fast and easy, results are unexpected “because modeling technology often uncovers solutions that contradict intuition or legacy business practice,” he says. Brzoznowski will explain these techniques and how to apply them during his SCTUSA presentation, Found Money: Using Modeling Technology to Find Hidden Savings in your Supply Chain. “This presentation pulls together dozens of real-life examples to highlight the top five strategies for using modeling technology,” he says.

Another way to dramatically improve the performance of existing supply chains is through business process reengineering (BPR), a strategy developed in the 1990s to help companies restructure their organizations by focusing on the re-design of processes used to achieve specific outcomes. Kyle Salem, director of customer solutions at UPS, will address this topic in a case study at SCT USA titled The Benefits of Business Process Reengineering in Supply Chain Operations. “Streamlining processes within your supply chain can drive down costs, speed products to market and improve customer service,” says Salem. “Whether you are focused on order entry, order fulfillment, transportation, returns operations or your customer service function, assessing and redesigning your business processes will help you achieve those outcomes. It’s all about process.”

Many situations may result in a company needing to reassess its processes, including rising operational costs, declining service levels, acquisitions, or implementation of enterprise-wide technology systems, says Salem. His presentation will demonstrate how to map ‘current state’ and ‘future state’ processes as well as strategies to successfully implement the latter. Whether BPR is approached as a single process improvement project or an enterprise-wide program, “improving operational processes within your supply chain can provide your company with a competitive advantage,” says Salem.

These information-packed sessions and their focus on solid, useable take-aways are representative of what will be on offer at the inaugural Supply Chain & Transportation USA Exhibition Conference, March 17-20, 2014 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA.

A first-of-its-kind event, SCT USA is a trade show and educational conference serving the transportation needs of supply chain executives. Co-located with MODEX and the Georgia Logistics Summit, these joint events will offer the biggest supply chain show ever to be held under one roof, with 150 educational sessions, workshops and case studies, more than 800 exhibitors and top speakers addressing the biggest industry and supply chain issues. Keynote speakers include Edward H. Bastian, president, Delta Airlines; Lee Scott, businessman and former CEO of Walmart; George W. Prest, CEO, MHI and Scott Sopher, Principle, Deloitte Consulting.

For more information about Supply Chain & Transportation USA and to register to attend, please visit the website at www.supplychainusaexpo.com.