Black & Decker, P&G, Others Share Inventory Optimization Best Practices at Annual Meeting

BOSTON, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Optiant, the premier provider of inventory planning and inventory optimization solutions, recently held the 2009 Optiant Customer Forum, an annual gathering of users of the PowerChain inventory optimization software suite. Attendees included supply chain experts from Procter & Gamble, Black & Decker, Hershey's, Havi Global Services, New Balance, Tempur-Pedic, Nestle and others.

"Our customers have outstanding expertise in making inventory optimization a crucial business asset to their organizations," said Fred Lizza, president and CEO of Optiant, Inc. "Our user community includes both very large, global enterprises and medium-sized businesses and supply chains spanning a range of industries. Every year the Optiant Customer Forum provides a unique venue for knowledge transfer and expertise sharing."

David Anderson, Managing Partner at Supply Chain Ventures and a member of the Optiant Board of Directors, gave the keynote presentation, "Managing Supply Chain Risk." With supply chain risk one of the top 3 concerns among supply chain executives, David suggested supply chain managers understand the 3 key failure points by looking beyond logistics to material and vendor performance, watching for evolving customer needs, and establishing data links into critical systems. He cautioned that an improved economy does not remove supply chain risks; they just change.

Presentations at the meeting covered best practices by industry-leading companies in consumer products, food and beverage, apparel, and other manufacturing industries. One customer discussed how to reduce inventory, protect fill rates, and manage commercial volatility at the same time. They shared their experience in developing a sound, consistent methodology that fits your business, rationalizing SKUs, and developing confidence in the process to drive quicker results. Another customer had previously implemented Optiant's PowerChain Inventory multi-echelon inventory optimization solution to improve supply network results and reduce business risk. This year, the company deployed PowerChain Planner to over 1000 planners in 140 sites globally to set inventory targets and further their optimization goals. A third firm discussed their optimization strategy, which includes using PowerChain Inventory for inventory optimization, where it helps define safety stock targets and gives supply chain managers the ability to understand trade-offs between batches and warehouse utilization.

In addition to these and other customer-led sessions, Optiant's Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder John Ruark presented enhanced capabilities for the PowerChain software suite, which included improved performance, advanced scenarios, and increased functionality. Optiant's customers requested these additional functions, which include new currency capabilities for global supply chains, enhanced security, and traceability features.

About Optiant

Optiant, a premier provider of inventory optimization, supply chain network design, 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, 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, often within 90 days of implementation. Optiant's solutions, certified for integration by SAP and other ERP systems, 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.

Optiant, the Optiant logo, and PowerChain® are registered trademarks of Optiant, Inc. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT:

John Brewer
+1 781 238 4165
john [dot] brewer [at] optiant [dot] com

Becky Boyd
MediaFirst PR - Atlanta
+1 770 642 2080 x 214
becky@mediafirst.net

SOURCE Optiant

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