Optiant Offers Advisor Services For Supply Chain Optimization

Optiant, the premier provider of inventory optimization solutions, recently announced the availability of a new class of issue-specific professional services for supply chain optimization, called Optiant Advisor Services. These pre-defined, fixed-price consulting engagements are executed by Optiant's Professional Services team, who bring industry-leading experience and a detailed understanding of inventory optimization best practices. Optiant Advisor Services combines Optiant PowerChain's inventory optimization technology with proven consulting methodologies to deliver dramatic cost savings and immediate inventory reductions.

"This new suite of professional services offerings is designed to help supply chain teams quickly get a handle on some of their key performance priorities," said Fred Lizza, CEO of Optiant, Inc. "Many organizations can realize rapid savings from getting just one or two key initiatives up and running quickly. Advisor Services engagements have well-defined inputs that take just a couple of weeks to conduct using senior Optiant consultants and our industry-leading PowerChain optimization technology."

Optiant Advisor Services engagements include:

• Inventory Profiling uncovers the unique causes of inventory across all production stages and distribution locations, solving the problem of too much inventory in the wrong form at the wrong location. Comprehensive right-sizing recommendations create an optimum inventory flow from raw materials to finished goods, freeing up working capital throughout.
• Target Setting Optimization examines the current inventory target setting process down to the SKU location level. Optimizing targets can result in dramatic cost reductions and higher planner productivity while actually improving customer service levels.
• Product/Customer Segmentation analyzes the relative importance of different products to your customers and to your bottom line. Balances priorities among product variants and indicates the most profitable product mix and appropriate service levels.
• Postponement Strategy identifies where certain stock items can be held in a pre-finished state. Making a few positioning changes can dramatically reduce inventory costs and obsolescence rates while mitigating risk and improving service level performance.
• SKU Rationalization "trims ship" by re-orienting inventories and pruning away low-profit, underperforming items. Analyzing cost vs. contribution and potential savings in production changeover expenses reveals practical trade-offs, improves profitability.
• Sourcing Strategy Assessment finds the best balance of regional vs. global suppliers, out-vs.-in-sourcing, and much more. Comprehensively models the dynamic effects of fluctuating transportation costs, potentially longer lead times and higher inventory holding costs, changes in service levels and responsiveness, exposure to changing customer demand, and more.
• Distribution Network Optimization attacks logistics issues such as determining the sizes and missions of distribution centers, best locations to serve markets, cost and lead-time trade-offs related to modes of international transportation.
• Network Consolidation combines facilities following an acquisition, merger, or downsizing event. It quantifies the cost of various options to identify the most cost-effective strategy.

Advisor Services provide a highly pertinent entry point to the broad world of inventory and supply chain optimization. "While some will use us just for the task at hand," said Lizza, "we know others will see this as an introduction to the strategic and tactical supply chain improvements that Optiant PowerChain can deliver to jumpstart competitiveness for the long term. These projects prepare your company for accelerated growth."

About Optiant
Optiant, a premier provider of supply chain network design, inventory optimization, and supply chain business intelligence solutions, helps Global 2000 companies optimize bottom-line performance by reducing inventories, freeing up working capital, optimizing supply chain asset utilization and delivering lowest total supply chain costs.

Optiant's PowerChain solutions optimally balance resources, total costs, and customer service across the entire, extended supply chain to deliver greater profitability, increased customer satisfaction, more efficient use of capital, and a resilient supply chain that fully handles uncertainty in supply and demand. Optiant has transformed supply chains for the world's leading manufacturers including Procter & Gamble, Kraft, HP, IKEA, Intel, Microsoft and Boston Scientific.

Delivering millions of dollars in returns, Optiant's solutions for consumer product, high tech manufacturing and industrial organizations generate quantifiable savings within 90 days of implementation. Optiant's solutions, certified for integration by SAP, are based on award-winning research from MIT and decades of experience dedicated to the identification and realization of supply chain efficiencies. For more information, please visit http://www.optiant.com.

SOURCE: Optiant