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In global business today, suppliers can range from multinational corporations to smaller regional vendors and may be located throughout the world. As a result, companies are faced with such challenges as poor inbound supply visibility, the inability to match demand and supply, high inventory and stock-outs, and the management of multiple communication channels with suppliers. Many companies do not have systems that provide visibility into inventory that is housed at their suppliers’ locations, so they need effective replenishment in a just-in-time mode.
The i2 Solution: i2 Supplier Collaboration/Lean Replenishment
i2 Supplier Collaboration/Lean Replenishment, part of the i2 Collaborative Supply Execution suite, is designed to help companies manage multiple replenishment modes, including lean supply strategies across their supplier base.
The solution can allow companies to enable plan collaboration around forecast and capacity coordination, as well as short-term order execution, and shipment and inventory tracking.
The solution is designed to help companies implement and automate lean supply processes such as vendor-managed inventory (VMI), pull-based (Kanban) replenishment, and other just-in-time (JIT) programs. The solution can allow companies to transition to a demand-driven approach within their supply base. It can enforce process discipline through business rules and allow visibility into complete purchase order life-cycle management.
Capabilities of i2 Supplier Collaboration/Lean Replenishment can include:
- Multiple lean and traditional replenishment processes supported by the same system across suppliers and items
- Long- and short-term collaboration on forecasts, schedules, inventory, and orders
- Process discipline enforced through business rules
- Complete purchase order life-cycle management
Benefits of i2 Supplier Collaboration/Lean Replenishment can include:
- Reduced purchasing costs due to:
- Reduced grief resolution costs and expedited freight
- Fewer stock-outs
- Reduced order processing errors
- Improved supplier negotiation through supplier performance score-carding
- Improved productivity through:
- A single view of all procurements
- Automated processing of large portions of the workflow through business rules
- Lower inventory due to higher supply confidence
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