Owens & Minor, a leading distributor of medical and surgical supplies, launched OM HealthCare Logistics (OM HCL) to enhance its leadership position in healthcare supply chain management. OM HCL is a full-service, third-party logistics (3PL) and business process outsourcing business unit providing end-to-end supply chain solutions for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. To establish a best-of-breed 3PL capable of addressing healthcare manufacturers’ toughest supply chain challenges, they needed a technology partner that offered best-in-class productivity solutions. As a healthcare-focused 3PL, OM HCL would be supporting a diverse client base within healthcare with varying and unique requirements. These varying requirements created a demand for an infrastructure that was more adaptive and more flexible to meet various clients’ needs beyond the capabilities of the current operating system supporting the Owens & Minor core business units.

Ambev, a leading South American brewer and PepsiCo International, Inc.’s bottler outside of the U.S., experienced a significant spike in order volume across its operating regions. This led to the company's decision to search for better transportation solutions that could handle increasingly complex demands from the company’s growing business. In addition to cost and efficiency concerns, Ambev also needed to ensure that customer service levels kept pace with increasing demand. Therefore, the company sought to improve asset utilization and processes while also positioning itself for continued future growth.

HEMA, a leading European retailer with approximately 650 stores across the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, was facing challenges in managing its workforce of over 10,000 employees. The company recognized that effective human resources management was critical to its success. HEMA wanted to implement a new workforce management system to optimize labor costs, ensure high customer service levels, and address all operations that characterize a multi-category retail business across all store formats. Another goal was to encourage collaboration and best-practice sharing among employees in different regions. The company conducted a rigorous process to identify the right technology solution, evaluating 12 vendors before making a selection.

Ernsting’s family, one of the largest cross-channel retailers, was facing challenges in maintaining consistent sales levels across their varying product ranges. The German-based company was also dealing with the tremendous upheaval in the marketplace due to the rise of online stores and digitization. Classic seasonal cycles gave way to faster trends and short-lived monthly collections, forcing new stock arrivals every two days. With more than 1,800 stores across Germany and Austria, the company needed a more strategic way to optimize pricing and promotions to quickly sell new collections within specified timeframes while increasing margins.

Tallink Grupp, a leading provider of premium mini-cruise and passenger transport services in the Baltic Sea region, was facing a challenge with its growing customer demand and business expansion. The company's largest revenue stream was on-board purchases, making it crucial to consider ancillary revenues in addition to ticket revenues when making pricing policies and revenue decisions. The company was also dealing with an abundance of last-minute online travel bookings, which made it difficult to make effective pricing decisions. Tallink felt that automation of pricing decisions would free them to focus on new trends that could boost revenue.

PepsiCo Australia & New Zealand, home to globally recognized brands such as Smith’s Chips, Red Rock Deli, Bluebird Chips and Twisties, sought to evolve from category management to category leadership. The company aimed to establish a total macro-snacking view, given the increasing importance of grocery. PepsiCo also wanted to improve its rankings in retail benchmarking surveys as a measure of its performance. The company aimed to better engage with retailers to create a macro-snacking total impulse solution and drive store-of-the-future concepts in order to increase basket value.

SELGROS, a wholesale company, was facing a challenge with its advertising strategy. Every two weeks, the company would mail up to one million brochures to its customers. The decision on which customer should receive a catalog was a manual process using segmentation and decision trees. This process was not only time-consuming but also inefficient as it did not consider all the elements that influence customer spending. As a result, the company acknowledged that its marketing budget was not being used efficiently. SELGROS sought a solution to automate the process, reduce advertising costs, and improve customer targeting.

Campbell’s Snacks team advises on a robust bakery product line, with 750 distinct items sold under 100 brands. The advisor team must routinely produce and update more than 4,500 planograms to cover this complex product line, especially as marketing strategies and demand patterns shift. Historically, it took up to 10 weeks to create these planograms manually, and there was frequent employee overtime. The challenge was to find a solution that could automate and accelerate the process of producing thousands of customized space plans.

Western Digital Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, was facing challenges with its resource-intensive spreadsheet-based planning process. The process involved four-week planning cycles with only basic planning assumptions. The company wanted a daily integrated supply chain plan that includes demand, material supply and capacity constraints and utilization, allocation and execution objectives. They also wanted visibility into demand and supply across the entire organization, including the inventory in each segment and channel, promotion plans and supply and production plans. Furthermore, they wanted to use customer segmentation and a multilayered postponement strategy to reduce overall inventory levels while better positioning products and materials to support improved customer service.

Rexall, a Canadian retail pharmaceutical company, was facing challenges due to its reliance on older technology and processes. The store replenishment process was initiated at the store level based on the results of daily physical inventory counts that leveraged handheld RF technology. Store managers had limited visibility to future store-level demand pattern changes, item cannibalization, safety stock requirements or days coverage prior to placing these manual orders. This resulted in frequent demand-supply imbalances. Additionally, purchase orders to vendors were conducted via non-EDI channels with patterns and volatility that resembled the patterns within the stores, causing similar imbalances with the DCs. As such, the organization sought to establish an advanced planning model that would eliminate the extremely labor intensive and manual replenishment process.

Bayer, formerly Monsanto, identified the need to standardize its end-to-end transportation processes globally, which previously followed different practices across operating regions. The company's logistics processes required responsiveness to meet time-sensitive customer demands, a pressure that was intensified by the company’s continuing growth in its global markets. The critical need for standardization paired with seasonality challenges, road transportation challenges and lacking adequate tools and processes to provide visibility into logistics raised awareness around the need for a complete digital logistics overhaul. Bayer’s goal was to improve the customer experience that could consistently provide better information to their customers, while staying efficient.

Mahindra & Mahindra Farm Equipment, part of the $20 billion Mahindra Group, is the world’s number-one tractor company by volume. Its Spares Business Unit (SBU) provides genuine vehicle and tractor spare parts via advanced capabilities in sourcing, assembling, warehousing and distribution. However, the SBU was losing sales revenues due to stockouts and tight working capital as a result of its high inventory investments. The business was relying on manual analysis and Excel spreadsheets to create demand and supply plans, but they were not adequate for the complexity and scale of the challenge. To gain greater responsiveness and ensure the availability of spares for different demand patterns, Mahindra sought Blue Yonder’s expertise and advanced technologies to optimize its parts inventories, spanning 100,000 SKUs and 21 distribution centers.

Marks & Spencer, a leading multinational retailer based in London, has been relying on Blue Yonder’s demand and fulfillment solutions, as well as workforce management, to optimize processes, manage complexity, and support responsiveness. However, the company needed to migrate all its Blue Yonder solutions to the cloud to achieve higher levels of agility and increased supply chain speed to provide the best service for customers. The challenge was to minimize business disruptions during the cloud migration as Blue Yonder demand and fulfillment is one of their mission-critical applications, which generates orders for their downstream systems. The company could not afford for their stores not to be replenished each day.

Alnatura, an organic supermarket chain operating 139 supermarkets across Germany, faced a challenge in managing its tight space constraints while maximizing product availability and minimizing stock-outs. This was particularly difficult due to the diverse local preferences across its markets and the high costs associated with waste in fresh foods. The company needed to drive more automation, greater accuracy and localization, and increased efficiency for its category management and space planning activities.

Supermercados Peruanos, the largest supermarket chain in Peru, was struggling to accurately forecast demand for fresh and ultra-fresh foods such as produce and meat. The retailer was using a manual and decentralized process, relying on Excel spreadsheets and manual processes to forecast ultra-fresh products, based on history. This approach was revealed to be problematic during the pandemic, as it was unable to manage uncertainty and go beyond human cognition. The company needed an advanced, automated tool that could manage uncertainty and go beyond human cognition. They have millions of dollars invested at their distribution centers and needed to protect those investments with precision, not with averages.

ThaiNamthip (TNT), Coca-Cola’s bottling partner in Thailand, was facing challenges in optimizing its warehouse operations. The company aimed to increase the productivity of both human workers and physical assets while minimizing errors. TNT's goal was to replace time-consuming, paper-based manual processes with speed and automation. As part of a long-term effort to digitalize its entire supply chain, TNT sought a solution that could help it maintain its market leadership position in the carbonated beverages market. The company recognized that continued investment in new technologies was crucial for its long-term success.

Henkel, a German multinational company and a leader in both the consumer goods and industrial sectors, operates hundreds of distribution facilities of all sizes around the world. These facilities were relying on time-consuming, error-prone manual processes and a variety of outdated technology solutions. To improve customer service while driving down costs, Henkel needed to adopt best practices, advanced digital capabilities and process standardization across its worldwide network. The company was looking for a solution that could provide improved process speed, accuracy, and efficiency, higher service at a reasonable cost, and increased visibility and control.

Microsoft manages more than 200 data centers in 34 countries, and it’s adding 50 to 100 new data centers every year. The global supply chain also includes traditional functions such as manufacturing and transportation, provided by third parties. Across this geographically distributed network, Microsoft needs to ensure uninterrupted, high-quality, reliable service. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the weaknesses in the world’s supply chains, as well as the need for a rapid, coordinated response when the unexpected happens.

Massdiscounters, one of the largest value retailers in South Africa, is expanding its presence in sub-Saharan Africa, including Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique. As part of its aggressive corporate growth strategy, Massdiscounters recognized the need to re-evaluate its best-of-breed technology strategy. The company has recently added food to its merchandise array, leading to increased market share but also adding to the complexity of Massdiscounters’ supply chain model. To support this move, Massdiscounters has invested heavily in new physical infrastructure, including three large distribution centers. The company decided to move from a best-of-breed to a best-of-suite strategy, selecting JDA’s demand management, replenishment, and promotions optimization solutions.

NFT, a leading provider of time-sensitive, chilled food and drink logistics services in the UK, was facing operational challenges that were preventing it from optimizing performance. The company's traditional pick-face approach was leading to underutilization of its 220,000 square-foot warehouse, immense SKU proliferation, and almost unmanageable replenishments and put-backs. Additionally, the way manufacturers produced their products was creating issues with sell-by dates and misrotation, leading to waste, extra administrative burden, fines, claims, penalties, returns, and rejections. NFT wanted to protect its business reputation, preserve customer sales, and improve performance.

Pepsi-Cola & National Brands Ltd., an independent retail distributor and bottler of Pepsi-Cola and Dr Pepper Snapple Group brands, was facing challenges with its immense number of stock-keeping units (SKUs). Rising wages, concerns around productivity, inventory visibility, breakage, and stock rotation led the company to evaluate its systems and seek new technology. The company decided to invest in a warehouse management system (WMS) and workforce management (WFM) technology to help reduce costs, improve processes, and enhance its relationship with union employees.

Fujitsu Network Communications, a provider of diverse range of products to the telecommunications and cable industries, was facing challenges in accurately forecasting demand and responding efficiently to changing customer needs. The company was using spreadsheets for all its forecasting and planning, which was a time-consuming and labor-intensive process involving around 25 people and taking about six weeks to produce a 12-month rolling forecast. This process was not providing their suppliers with the visibility they needed. Fujitsu wanted to reduce the number of people involved in the process, produce an 18-month rolling forecast every month, and improve forecast accuracy.

DSW, a leading U.S.-based footwear specialty retailer, faced a strategic challenge due to the fixed capacity of its branded locations. The stores, which average over 20,000 square feet and feature approximately 24,000 pairs of shoes and accessories, had limited backrooms to keep excess merchandise. This necessitated exacting assortment management for each market. The existing supply chain processes and technology tools only focused on the highest levels of the business and overall metrics. The planning was done in dollars at the department level, which was not sufficient for the company's needs. DSW saw an opportunity to drop down to a deeper level planning solutions and realize significant benefits.

Glazer’s Distributors, a company selling wine, spirits and malt beverages to big-box retailers, bars, restaurants and liquor stores, was experiencing rapid growth. Its total sales of $400 million in the mid-1990s would eventually reach $3.2 billion by 2010. Its inventory was also expanding to include more than 47,500 individual products, held in 29 regional distribution centers. The company could no longer rely on spreadsheet-based processes and legacy systems, and needed a more sophisticated platform to make faster and better supply chain decisions. The company needed a reliable demand-driven supply chain that focuses on customer service, supports vendor collaboration and optimizes inventory.

Shoppers Stop, India's largest department store chain, was facing challenges with its store replenishment process. The retailer was using a fixed-stock method of replenishment, which did not always ensure that the best-selling stores received new styles first. In some categories, inventory was over- or under-stocked, and stock transfers between stores added to internal supply chain pressures and costs. As the overall scale of the business grew, store replenishment was becoming more cumbersome. Shoppers Stop needed an automated, intelligent solution that would ensure that its stores receive the right amount of merchandise that will sell, and enable it to manage store replenishment by category.

Fairchild Semiconductor, a major player in the semiconductor industry, faced significant challenges following the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. The industry experienced an unprecedented downturn, followed by a dramatic upturn in customer demand, driven by computing and mobile technologies. Fairchild Semiconductor had to deal with extremely volatile demand, a global shortage of manufacturing capacity, growing lead times, and scarce supply. The company reported first quarter 2010 sales of $378 million, up 7 percent from the prior quarter and 69 percent higher than the first quarter of 2009. To offset this increase in demand, Fairchild Semiconductor needed to increase manufacturing capacity and capabilities with minimal capital investment.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS), one of North America’s leading refreshment beverage companies, was facing a challenge in mass producing store-specific planograms on a large scale to meet the changing needs of their retail customers without draining their time and resources. The company’s goals were to improve the accuracy rate, increase efficiency, boost retail partnerships without increasing headcount and reducing excess inventory to achieve increased cash flow. The company sells its diverse and popular soft drinks to top franchise businesses like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other independent bottling companies throughout North America. With category management a core competency, the beverage company’s space, assortment and speed-to-insight capabilities are continuously evolving.

Tnuva Food Industries Ltd., a major player in the food industry, was facing challenges in efficiently delivering its highly perishable products to the right place at the right time and in the correct quantities. The company aimed to achieve high service levels while minimizing excess inventory. The short lifespan of their products added to the complexity of the situation. The company needed a solution that could support operations in five dairies and distribution centers throughout Israel, including two of the most advanced and sophisticated logistics centers in the world.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, needed to increase its supply chain flexibility and responsiveness to customer demand. As the company's business grew, it needed to migrate from homegrown, spreadsheet-based planning tools to robust, scalable solutions that would support its expanding original equipment manufacturer (OEM) channels and retail presence. SanDisk sought an integrated advanced planning solution that would help the company maintain profitable growth and maximize its margins while continuing to meet customer demand and increase customer satisfaction.

Altera Corporation, a pioneer and leader in programmable logic solutions, serves more than 12,000 customers worldwide, with annual revenues of $1.9 billion. However, recent market changes and organizational growth over the past decade prompted Altera to reevaluate its supply chain strategy. Adapting to external changes like new government regulations and industry consolidation, as well as managing more complex products and various distribution channels, were impacting the company’s supply chain. The company recognized that change is the new norm, and therefore, it needed to be continuously evolving in order to ensure supply continuity and velocity. Altera increased external and internal forecast collaboration, and invested in business process improvement and integrated planning systems to accelerate the speed of information exchange.