Newell Rubbermaid, Conair Boost Supply Chain Visibility

Today's supply chain is challenged by increasing variability, uncertainty, and complexity. There is a need to plan globally and execute locally, but the intricacies are daunting. Multiple technologies, complex large data sets, supply chains, and geographies need to be aligned and synchronized in real time. The question is how? The answer drives the need for a new approach.

 

On October 12, 2011, during a CGT web seminar sponsored by Enterra Solutions, LLC, Newell Rubbermaid revealed how it is able to look out five days in advance and foresee what retail compliance related challenges it may face. Conair also explained how it extended visibility 21 days out into the future to see what shipping and manufacturing delays can affect inventory and delivery obligations to retailers. Below are some more highlights from the web event:

 

-- Lora Cecere, a partner in the Altimeter Group, shared how new approaches for supply chain management are redefining the business problem. For example, she talked about how the rules of supply chains have changed when it comes to instances such as natural disasters, mergers and acquisitions, market shifts and commodity price pressure. Cecere brings up the question: “What if we could have systems that were more adaptive; systems that could learn as situations change?”

 

-- John Mayorek, senior vice president at Conair Corporation, explained how his company is using Enterra proprietary technology to drive a dynamic response in international sourcing. “Every customer has different guidelines, requirements, procedures, and to follow these manually is very difficult,” Mayorek explained. Conair now sees late or delayed shipments on ships, railways, and trucks to help prioritize and allocate limited inventory on high-demand products to optimize fill rates for high value customers, and thereby reduce compliance penalties and increase customer satisfaction. 

 

-- Bill Shipman, group program manager, Newell Rubbermaid - Home and Family IT, and Nikki Van Dyke, group business process owner at Newell Rubbermaid - Home and Family, explained how they are using Enterra’s new approach to sense compliance rule changes by the retailer and adapt customer order requirements to improve customer service and reduce deductions. The challenge for Newell Rubbermaid was that it was difficult to proactively monitor and prioritize possible “at risk” orders, resulting in unnecessary violation of requirements and credits issued. “We were trying to identify potential process improvements by implementing a standard solution across multiple business units, across multiple departments, where everybody was using the same language about why these orders were at risk and how to eliminate those deductions,” said Shipman.

To listen to this web event in its entirety, click here.