Computing Environment

In order to enhance competitiveness and reduce costs in today's challenging marketplace, forward thinking companies are bolstering their demand forecasting capabilities. SSL International-a leading manufacturer of healthcare products for consumers and medical professionals-is no exception. SSL focuses its strategy for global growth and success on three main areas: serving customers, developing brands, and leveraging employee expertise. SSL turned to PeopleSoft 8 Demand Planning to help satisfy customer needs while freeing up resources for brand development and other high-value activities.

Getting Inventory Levels Right

Historically, SSL's drive to deliver exceptional service to its customers-both the consumers who use its products and the retailers who sell them-has led them to maintain high inventory levels. "Our customers demand the highest levels of customer service of us and we demand it of ourselves," says Jim Hourigan, Vice President of IT and Logistics at SSL. "Anyone can meet demand with warehouses jammed with inventory. The goal is to satisfy customers without tying up excessive amounts of cash in inventory. If we can maintain lower inventory levels effectively, we're freeing capital to help us grow through brand and product development."

Given that SSL sources its products globally, long lead times are one of the hurdles SSL must account for when planning future product demand. "Our products come from as far away as India and Malaysia. With travel time, testing, and customs, we'll have periods where our production orders are frozen. So it's critical that we get the order right the .rst time. If we fail to anticipate demand, it can mean being out of stock or having to employ very costly international air freight."

SSL recognized the need for more accurate demand forecasting as the critical factor to more responsive inventory management. "We believe that forecasting is the foundation of a responsive supply chain," says Hourigan, "but we were devoting too much time to preparing the forecast, which left too little time to apply business intelligence to it. We just weren't able to drive our forecasts to the next level."

Increasing Forecasting Power with Demand Planning

Though SSL wanted to standardize its entire technology platform, its .rst priority was clear: improve demand projections to help drive down inventory levels while maintaining high levels of customer service. SSL selected PeopleSoft's integrated, best-of-breed applications-including Supply Chain Management, Financials, and Human Resource Management-as its enterprise-wide solution and implemented Demand Planning .rst. A key component of PeopleSoft's Supply Chain Manufacturing and Planning solutions, PeopleSoft 8 Demand Planning is enabling more collaborative, faster, and more accurate forecasting at SSL's US operations.

"PeopleSoft 8 Demand Planning is giving us a baseline forecast already prepared. We now have one set of numbers where previously sales might have one set, .nance another, and logistics yet another," says Hourigan. "With Demand Planning, we've got one reservoir for all our data. It's giving us the clearer picture of demand and helping us to put our business intelligence to work faster."

A Clear Choice

With pure Internet architecture, PeopleSoft 8 offered SSL the technical sophistication it needed to deploy quickly in its distributed computing environment. "Being able to deploy Demand Planning and the rest of the PeopleSoft 8 suite with no code on the client made choosing PeopleSoft easy," says Hourigan. "We're leveraging the power of mobile devices throughout our organization, particularly our sales force, and we don't want our people to worry about which application to use to access the information they need. Since we can provide the information they need securely via the internet with PeopleSoft 8, our people can devote themselves to what they do best-whether that's closing sales or interpreting forecasting data."

With the help of PeopleSoft Consulting, SSL was able to deploy Demand Planning on an aggressive timeline. As Hourigan recalled, "It made sense to choose PeopleSoft Consulting because of their deep understanding of the product. We went from de.ning the scope of the implementation to piloting to full deployment in only four months. And PeopleSoft was there with us every step of the way. PeopleSoft is just as focused on customer service as we are; if we're successful, then they're successful."

Reaping the Rewards of More Accurate Forecasts

According to Hourigan, SSL is already seeing tangible results with Demand Planning: "Since we began using Demand Planning, forecasting tasks that used to take two full days are being completed in half a day and the accuracy of our forecasts has already improved by twenty percent. But we're even more excited by the results we'll see down the road. The software is learning, changing, and getting smarter with every cycle. Our goal is to increase inventory turn times from 3.5 per year to 6 per year, and, with the help of Demand Planning, we're well on our way to making that happen."

"Since we began using PeopleSoft 8 Demand Planning, forecasting tasks that used to take two full days are being completed in half a day and the accuracy of our forecasts has already improved by 20 percent." Jim Hourigan — Vice President of IT and Logistics SSL International

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