|
Press Release Smart Software Executive to Speak on Optimizing Military Spare Parts Inventories
Tom Willemain to lead session and tutorial at 2012 INFORMS Conference to help military logistics personnel manage $70 Billion worth of parts & supplies
Belmont, Mass., October 9, 2012 - Smart Software, Inc., provider of
industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization
solutions, today announced that Tom Willemain, vice president for research, will
have two roles at this year's INFORMS 2012 Annual Meeting, in Phoenix, Arizona,
October 14-17. Dr. Willemain, who is also a professor of Industrial and Systems
Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will present a tutorial on
managing spare parts on October 16, 8:00 - 9:30 am. He will also chair a session
on "Methods Supporting Military Logistics and Testing" where he will also
discuss "Accurate Forecasts of Spare Part Demand," October 17, 8:00 - 9:30
am.
Operations and support of military hardware, which includes maintaining,
refurbishing and overhauling, can be 60 to 70 percent of the cost of owning a
weapon system over its entire lifetime, which can be decades. Improving the
management of parts involved in those operations poses a significant challenge
for the U.S. military.
According to a study by Deloitte Consulting LLP, the Department of Defense
spends $70 billion a year on parts and supplies. Accurately forecasting spare
parts is a major problem for any parts organizations because as much as 70% of
spare parts have what's known as "intermittent demand" which is very difficult
to accurately forecast. This typically results in unbalanced inventories with
many items overstocked and others under-stocked.
In a book titled, Transforming U.S. Army Supply Chains: Strategies for
Management Innovation, retired Army Col. Greg H. Parlier, who is now a
defense logistics consultant, has proposed "mission based forecasting" software
tools that will help the military to stop buying things they do not need. Dr.
Willemain's experience has helped numerous companies with similar inventory
challenges do just that.
Dr. Willemain has been at the forefront of research on better ways to
forecast intermittent demand. With other colleagues at Smart Software, he holds
a patent that provides accurate service level forecasts and estimates of safety
stock and inventory stocking level requirements. Commercialized in Smart's
flagship product, SmartForecasts®, the patented technology has helped
numerous manufacturing, distribution, and service/spare parts organizations
optimize their inventories, save millions of dollars, improve cash flows, and
meet corporate cost reduction objectives.
INFORMS stands for The Institute for Operations Research and the Management
Sciences. It is an international scientific society, with 10,000 members,
dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making,
management, and operations. To learn more about INFORMS or its annual research
conference, see www.informs.org.
About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1984, Smart Software, Inc.
is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting,
planning and inventory optimization solutions. Smart Software's flagship
product, SmartForecasts, has thousands of users worldwide, including customers
at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Abbott
Laboratories, Otis Elevator, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney, Nestle, GE and The
Coca-Cola Company. SmartForecasts gives demand planners the tools to
handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional
hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods
items. It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the
optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve
desired service levels. Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont,
Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.
SmartForecasts is a registered trademark of Smart Software, Inc. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill
Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99
(800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com Back to Press Releases
|
