Schneider Electric Inventory Optimization Journey Case Study

Background
Schneider Electric is the global specialist in energy management. Their mission is “to help people make the most of their energy.” The company provides technologies that make industries, IT, energy, and cities more efficient.

Schneider has over $30B in annual revenue and 140,000 employees across over 100 countries. Some of their well-known brands in North America are APC, Juno Lighting, Square D and Telvent.

The company was motivated to make a fundamental disruptive change in the way it manages its inventory. Their executive team believed that there were inventory opportunities based on the local inventory optimization techniques currently in use. For example, recent fluctuations in demand had led to extensive spend in terms of expedites and overtime to meet customer requests which further motivated finding a more radical solution.

As Kyle Hamm, VP of Supply Chain Performance & Development North America at Schneider Electric said, “we were concerned with the cash tied up in inventory in the supply chain and high service level expectations from customers about these products. So the question was how to position inventory in the right part of the system while meeting customer expectation and maximizing the benefit for the company.”