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Mark’s Work Wearhouse, a retail chain that sells work clothes, boots, business wear, casual wear, and outdoor apparel, faced a challenge in managing its inventory. The company's product complexity and geographic coverage increased over the years, creating merchandising challenges. The company recognized a gap between what and how much they were placing in their stores and what customers actually wanted. For out-of-stock products in specific stores, Mark’s had a customer promise that was expensive to fulfill. The company had a service — Mark’s FastFind — where they would deliver merchandise that’s out-of-stock in a certain size or color to the shopper’s home or local store at no cost to the consumer. However, this commitment was depleting the company's margin due to the vast distances involved in transporting goods across Canada.

Gruppo PAM, one of Italy’s leading grocery chains, was facing a challenge of maintaining a large product range and outstanding service while still achieving the operational efficiencies necessary to keep prices low. The company needed to buy inventory in the right quantity to maximize its margins while minimizing its financial exposure. The company realized it needed advanced technology capabilities to automate its forecasting and replenishment processes. The challenge was to find a solution that could help them optimize forecasting and replenishment at its distribution centers while rationalizing and minimizing product inventory.

Giant Eagle, Inc., one of the nation’s largest food retailers and distributors, faced a major challenge in properly scheduling, tracking, and paying its employees to deliver services, receive shipments, stock shelves, set up promotions, and perform other tasks involved in running the stores. Prior to 2007, scheduling was mostly manual, resulting in overstaffing, understaffing, and excessive overtime costs. The company had older time and attendance and time clock systems that required a lot of manual intervention. Payroll errors resulted from inaccurate information and punch errors. Compliance with labor laws was always a concern due to the large number of minors employed in the stores.

Bon Preu, a retail company, was faced with the challenge of managing 14,000 items across all of its stores. Ensuring high levels of product availability and service with such vast product diversity was a daunting task. The company aimed to optimize the performance and profitability of its stores, warehouses, and transportation network, while ensuring that their stores stayed stocked. The goals were to improve store revenues via increased product availability, reduce inventory levels in warehouses, increase profitability through strategic pricing, and enhance overall efficiency and productivity across the supply chain.

Big W, a division of Woolworths Limited, operates 181 stores across Australia, generating approximately AU$4.4 billion in sales annually. Over the past few years, the retailer has experienced significant growth, making it more challenging to ensure that its seasonal merchandise was being delivered to the right store, in the right quantities, at the right time. Big W recognized that it needed to replace its 20-year-old allocation system, used to push 50 percent of its merchandise to its stores, with more sophisticated and advanced technology. Big W sought a solution that would enable its planning assistants to allocate multiple product lines at once, while ensuring that it was delivering an ideal product mix to its stores as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to improve stock availability, reduce markdowns and increase sales.

B&Q, a major retail brand under Kingfisher plc, operates 359 stores in the UK and Ireland, offering more than 40,000 products. To support its retail program, B&Q needed to transform its logistics function, replacing its manual, mainly paper-based legacy systems, which were no longer suitable for a business that serves more than 150 million customers a year. This required a flexible warehouse management solution (WMS) to provide real-time information. B&Q wanted to ensure a seamless transition of IT functionality across a network that had been established for 15 years, and needed a solution that would provide it with the ability to manage more than 100,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across its sites, integrate stock supplied by approximately 600 different vendors, improve inventory accuracy with real-time information and clear visibility of orders, manage cross-dock and flow through platforms, and consolidate and pick stock for each store, which is dispatched daily via 500 trailer loads carrying around 45 pallets of products.

As the second-largest grocery retailer in Sweden, Axfood operates 250 stores under the Willys and Hemköp brands and collaborates with approximately 820 proprietor-run stores. The company faced the challenge of managing space planning across more than 1,000 stores to ensure consistently high revenues and margins. The company's space planning team had to manage a large volume of planogram work, with each planner managing 200 to 300 planograms that needed to be updated three times a year. The level of collaboration between Axfood and its proprietor-owned stores varied greatly, making it crucial to support consistently high-performing displays and plans across all stores.

Ace Hardware Corporation, the world’s largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative, has been on a journey of global supply chain transformation. The company's needs became more complex as it expanded globally. Ace had been relying on two different replenishment solutions: JDA to support its domestic vendors and a third-party solution to handle its import vendors that weren’t integrated with the business. The company needed a solution that could support time-phased demand forecasting along with multi-echelon and multi-tier planning capabilities for its domestic and import vendors.

Tyco, the world’s largest fire protection and security company, was facing challenges with its distribution and logistics processes which were previously outsourced. The outsourced warehouse management solution was very manual and inefficient. In order to improve service levels and reduce costs, Tyco decided to automate and standardize its distribution and fulfillment environments. The company needed a robust warehouse management solution that could provide a standardized, high-velocity distribution model. The solution had to interface with seven different enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, driving consistency across the warehouse floor.

Teva UK Limited, a major supplier of pharmaceutical products to the UK health service, needed to optimize its supply chain to handle the growing complexity and scale of its business. The company adheres to stringent quality procedures to safeguard the integrity of its stock, tracking products both by EAN number and batch number. Stock must be kept in temperature-controlled conditions and in an environment that meets the highest standards of cleanliness. Due to the growing complexity and scale of its business, Teva decided to build a new logistics center that would support its increasing volume and provide new ways to service its customers. The company sought a warehouse management solution, with advanced features such as automated storage and retrieval, pick by light, a powered conveyor and a paperless operation, that would enable it to increase efficiencies, save costs and improve service in the new facility.

TE Connectivity (TE) needed to improve the sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes in each of its business units. The challenge was that every division was approaching this from a different perspective, and many, if not all, were simultaneously managing organizational, process or IT issues. While TE’s global IT organization supported all of the company’s business units, the company did not have a common S&OP platform or tool set, and business units were replicating information across multiple tools. TE needed an S&OP solution with the scalability to handle multiple business units and the ability to support flexible corporate hierarchies and various product coding, customer and other structures. Integration with current enterprise resource planning and other systems, as well as robust exception management capabilities, were also key requirements.

Sunny Delight Beverages Co., a leading producer of juice-based drinks in North America, was faced with the challenge of transitioning their JDA Warehouse Management production server to a new location. This transition was time-sensitive and needed to be completed within a 63-hour window. The company needed to partner with JDA to support the production server transition and consult with JDA experts before the transition to create a solid foundation of the support process. The company also needed to rely on the JDA Support Services team for troubleshooting and speedy resolution.

The 1995 merger of Scotts and MiracleGro to create The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company marked a major historical milestone for the company. However, for several years following the merger, the combined company operated with multiple customer invoices, multiple sales forces calling on the same customers, multiple supply chain designs, and multiple technology platforms. These factors resulted in low productivity and hampered customer service, making effective execution of the company’s primary selling season extremely difficult. ScottsMiracle-Gro realized it needed to evolve in order to address these post-merger challenges. In the period from 2000 to 2005, the company launched its “One Face to the Customer” initiative and invested $250 million in additional capacity and other capital programs as well as $100 million in technology system upgrades to support this forward-looking direction.

Sanitarium, the largest health food company in Australia, has been advocating the benefits of wholesome plant-based foods since 1898. Over the years, the company has seen a fundamental change in its business due to advances in technology. Sanitarium has partnered with JDA to adopt end-to-end supply chain solutions that include JDA Supply Chain Planner and Inventory Planner, to drive production, deployment, and capacity planning. These solutions have enabled high customer service levels and continued reduction in total stock holding. However, as the markets grew, Sanitarium saw an ongoing need to deliver profitable, high customer service levels to new and existing customer segments. Distribution space and working capital were also a constant challenge with the continuous need to reduce stock holding. The company embarked on a strategy to implement an order promising and allocation management system, using JDA Order Promiser, with the objective to ensure accurate promise dates and quantity, reserve supply for key accounts while minimising order shortage, and reschedule open orders based on the latest supply picture from JDA Supply Chain Planner.

Renault, a European automotive company, has built a reputation for quality, innovation, and service. A critical part of this equation is the automaker’s spare parts business. They pledge to deliver any one of 200,000 spare parts overnight through a multi-echelon distribution network. Renault maintained multiple layers of redundant safety stock in order to meet its overnight delivery promise even though its own supplier lead times range from two to eight weeks. Renault wanted to reduce inventory levels to free up cashflow without degrading its spare parts delivery commitment. Renault’s spare parts operations are supported by two master warehouses and a network of dozens of distribution centers scattered across Europe. Historically, Renault was able to honor its customer overnight delivery commitment by maintaining high spare parts inventory levels across its complex European distribution network, which includes up to five tiers of suppliers, dealers and regional distribution centers. This required stocking large amounts of redundant safety stock since supplier lead times vary from two to eight weeks. This was costly.

Positec, a China-based manufacturer and marketer of home improvement tools, was facing several challenges in managing its global supply chain. Despite its industry-leading growth and presence in 12 countries, the company's internal tools for managing the supply chain were not up to the mark. Positec lacked an aggregate forecasting tool and intelligent fulfillment capabilities to optimize inventory levels and profitably deploy products. The company had a long replenishment planning cycle that delayed its response times significantly. It also had no real basis for planning at the regional distribution center level and low visibility across its entire global supply chain.

Partner Communications, a leading cellular operator in Israel, is known for delivering superior customer service in a crowded market. The company has built a reputation for product and service innovation, being the first cellular provider to introduce 4G services in Israel. Speed of delivery is essential to their business in order to provide the best service quality to their customers. To support its commitment to providing outstanding customer service and product availability, Partner turned to Blue Yonder in an effort to improve service levels, increase productivity and reduce costs by automating product forecasting and distribution planning.

Oriflame, one of the largest direct sales companies in the world, was facing challenges in managing its fast-growing business. The company's annual revenue has increased rapidly over the past 20 years, placing pressure on its global production and distribution network. Oriflame also replaces or relaunches around 800 of its 2,000 products annually, making it especially difficult to forecast demand for these new stock-keeping units. Additionally, Oriflame publishes a new catalog every three weeks, with specific offers that are valid only for that three-week period. When a catalog expires demand can dip significantly, making forecasting and fulfillment more challenging. With that level of fluctuation in demand, the company wanted to determine exactly how much product to have on hand to ensure it wasn’t left with excess inventory.

Medifast, a rapidly growing company, was facing challenges in scaling its ERP system to accommodate the increasing volume in each of its distribution centers. The company's goals were to decrease labor costs in the shipping function, save in annual shipping costs, and reduce unloading time for trucks by optimizing their distribution center operations. Prior to implementing a new solution, Medifast employees were hand-selecting boxes, measuring efficiency based on speed, and required two employees to scan, weigh, and apply shipping labels. This process was inefficient and led to excessive use of void fill and delays from repacking.

ITC Limited, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate based in India, was facing challenges in managing its supply chain for its fast-growing packaged foods business, particularly biscuits. The biscuit segment was experiencing high demand volatility and materials cost fluctuations. ITC's existing spreadsheet-based tools were not accounting for its continuously changing cost structures, making it difficult for the company to see the macro effects of the supply chain decisions they were making. The frequent manufacturing changeovers required to produce its more than 120 distinct biscuit SKUs across its network of 17 factories and the dramatic price fluctuations in the agricultural sector that affect their materials costs added to the complexity of cost optimization. Furthermore, ITC’s spreadsheet-based planning did not allow them to make effective medium and long-range strategic plans.

The Hershey Company, a global leader in chocolate and confectionery, operates a complex and global supply chain. With eight U.S.-based manufacturing facilities, five finished-goods distribution centers, and over 100,000 outbound refrigerated truckloads per year, the company faced the challenge of reducing transportation costs while dealing with increased fuel charges. The company's supply chain had to handle more than two billion pounds in annual throughput in the U.S. and Canada, and its products were sold in more than 90 countries around the world. As part of Project Greenlight, an overall transportation initiative launched in 2007, Hershey decided to invest in transportation-related process and technology improvements that would deliver a high return on investment.

Grupo Flexi, a leading footwear manufacturer in Mexico, faced increasing complexity in its supply chain as it expanded its product assortment. The company produces over 13 million pairs of shoes annually, with each pair requiring up to 30 different components and several raw materials. One of the most critical materials, leather, has variable lead times ranging from three weeks to three months, depending on the supplier. Flexi sources materials from several countries and distributes them to its manufacturing operations, which include 30 company-owned and subcontracted factories. Eight years ago, Flexi decided to expand its product assortment, introducing new products for different market segments. This initiative increased the complexity of managing more raw materials and stock-keeping units (SKUs), as well as more construction of shoes, which required different specializations and capacities in different factories.

Grupo Damm, a prestigious brewery based in Barcelona, Spain, was facing challenges with its outdated transportation management solutions. The company's supply chain had become more complex, and its customers were farther away. This made it extremely important for the company to tightly control the distribution chain through integrated systems and better meet its customers’ needs. The existing solutions, which were implemented more than a decade ago, were becoming outdated. To reduce manpower and administrative costs — while also leveraging additional capabilities in the software — Grupo Damm decided to upgrade its JDA transportation management solutions.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the world’s seventh-largest auto manufacturer, faced challenges in increasing production speed and consistency due to the growth of global demand for automobiles. The company was running its plants and suppliers at full capacity, which led to capacity chokepoints. Identifying and managing these constraints became a priority for FCA. The company needed a solution that could help them identify these capacity chokepoints as early as possible and work to resolve them, thereby improving the speed of delivery.

Caterpillar Logistics, a leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives, sought to improve its existing processes, produce knowledgeable and effective users, strengthen customer relationships, and establish customized, in-house training based on industry best practices. The company has robust experience in many logistics processes, including inbound logistics, after-sales service support, finished goods distribution and reverse logistics. However, it needed a solution that could help it optimize these processes and increase customer satisfaction.

Delphi Automotive PLC, a key supplier to the world’s leading automakers, faced the challenge of incorporating increased delivery speed and product customization into its operations. The company assembles and delivers critical components to automotive OEM assembly lines, in a predefined sequence at short notice. This is particularly challenging due to the complexity of Delphi’s products. For instance, a single electrical harness may be composed of hundreds of miles of wire, connecting to thousands of points within the vehicle. Delphi recognized the need for an automated decision-support tool to help it support these increasingly complex build-to-order requirements.

Briggs & Stratton, the world’s largest producer of air-cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment, was facing a challenge in its warehouse labor management. The company's replacement parts division ships aftermarket and service parts worldwide from two facilities. It handles between 70,000 to 75,000 SKUs representing $40 million to $45 million in inventory. Prior to 2003, the Menomonee Falls Distribution Center (MFDC) had no standardized way for associates to do their jobs or to measure productivity. The MFDC management team felt they could get greater productivity if they standardized work methods, set goals and measured results. To help research this hypothesis the University of Wisconsin Supply Chain Consortium conducted a study that suggested there was significant opportunity for return on investment if the MFDC deployed labor management technology.

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, a global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring, was struggling to understand and meet demand. The company sells roughly 5,500 SKUs for the hemodynamic monitors and critical care products, and speed of delivery is an essential part of its business. When a customer orders a product, they are expecting to perform a surgery that’s been scheduled. If Edwards does not have the product or cannot deliver it quickly enough, surgeries have to be postponed or delayed. In the case of heart valves, not having the product or not being able to deliver it quickly could pose health risks to the patient who needs the heart valve. Prior to 2009, the company was struggling with forecast accuracy. The commercial team had a forecast that was 'aspirational,' and the supply chain side had one that tended to be statistically based. They initially couldn’t come to an agreement about which forecast to use, and as a result, they manufactured a lot of incorrect product mix.

L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company, wanted to optimize the effectiveness of its teams worldwide by improving knowledge transmission at all levels of the group. To achieve this, L'Oreal deployed 'Yammer,' a social web platform developed by Microsoft, for its employees in 2012. Three years later, 23,000 L’Oreal employees were using the internal social network on a voluntary basis. However, to intensify the qualitative aspect of conversations within Yammer, L’Oreal Operations wished to identify conversation leaders and incite actions for business knowledge transmission.

PagesJaunes.fr, the French equivalent of the YellowPages, is a leader in local advertising and information on web, mobile, and print, generating hundreds of millions of queries each year. The quality and relevance of results is a top priority for PagesJaunes. Category managers are responsible for maintaining the quality and relevance of the directory by creating the pertinent associations between terms and categories. The challenge was to improve user experience without increasing workload. The client wanted a solution that would help them measure and improve customer satisfaction, help Category Managers automatically detect and correct problematic queries, and optimize the quality of results to improve customer satisfaction.