Supply Chain Strategies and Techniques

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Demand Planning

Inventory Planning & Optimization

Network Optimization

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Solutions

Supply Chain Transportation Solutions

Wine & Spirits Industry Solutions

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Demand Planning (432KB)

Inbound Logistics Article - 'Collaborate fo... (1MB)

Inventory Planning & Optimization (263KB)

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Lean Principles and IT Demand Management
IT spending level is typically based on historical or competitive benchmark levels. Given the current global economic climate many IT organizations face frozen budgets and cost-cutting efforts and this puts a squeeze on many innovative initiatives in the backlog. The only way for folks to get more done for less will be to plan and prioritize the IT portfolio based on strategic fit, business value, risk, and complexity.

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The What’s and How’s of ETL Architecture
This paper is basically a high level description of a highly technical subject - Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) Architecture. It is written for IT management and professionals to address and explain an area which often has been overlooked.

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Practical Considerations for Evaluating the Benefits of a Low Cost Country Sourcing Strategy
Is low cost country sourcing still a viable alternative for domestic companies that are looking to improve their bottom line? It is imperative for companies to consider all of the financial and risk management factors in determining the best source for new and existing parts and components.

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Managing Third Party Risk
Some sources of risk that may not be top-of-mind include your service providers, web hosting services, contractors, outsourcers, supply-chain nodes, consulting services, and travel services—any number of outside entities having custody of or access to your sensitive information. If your extended enterprise includes these third parties, you need a way to manage this risk.

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IT Asset Rationalization & Shared Services Management
Given the current global economic climate, companies are trying to run off the extra fat from everywhere. This includes IT budgets being squeezed and IT roles being switched to keep-the-lights running roles (operations instead of innovation). In this kind of ecosystem, it is no wonder that more and more IT initiatives are focused on bottom-line, and less focused on innovative top-line growth.

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Reducing the Excess: Using Vendor-Managed Inventory to Improve Productivity Without Sacrificing Customer Service
In this white paper, we discuss several aspects of vendor-managed inventory, including the business drivers behind its increasing popularity, risks associated with VMI, and implementation considerations. In addition, we provide a case study of a VMI system recently implemented at a major auto parts distribution company for use with its customers (auto dealers). After reading this white paper, you will have a greater understanding of the “what,” “why,” and “how” behind VMI, and will be able to determine if VMI is right for your organization.

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SAP Supply Chain Execution Solutions: IM, WM AND EWM - Which Solution is Right for You?
There are currently three options available for the SAP user who wants to optimize warehouse processes, including inventory management (IM), warehouse management (WM) and the latest development, extended warehouse management (EWM). This white paper describes those three options to help you determine which option best meets your organization needs.

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Process Automation for the Procurement of Direct Materials
This paper will present an analysis of a plan-driven procurement process for direct materials. This analysis includes not only the activities and steps in such a process, but also the data sets associated with each activity. Automation of this process will be explored to highlight where an organization can find process improvements that lead to positive impact on the bottom line. Several recent studies are referenced to identify the benefits companies have obtained by automating the plan-driven direct procurement process. Purchasing executives can use this information to analyze their own direct material procurement processes to determine what benefits might be obtained.

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Turning Brown into Green: Achieving Effective Business Process Improvement Using CIBER’s Brown Paper Methodology
Businesses do not launch software and business improvement projects because they have nothing better to do. They undertake them with the objective of creating incremental business value. The objective may be increasing productivity, improving customer service, gaining competitive advantage, reducing costs, or all of the above. Improve and align business processes with the organization’s vision, goals, and objectives and the desired results will follow.

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Business Intelligence Best Practices: Transforming Data into Information
The introduction of information technology systems decades ago helped organizations worldwide benefit from more efficient operations and greater productivity. Over the years, companies have acquired volumes of data in these applications, but much of this data is trapped in multiple, disparate systems which cannot easily communicate. As a result, firms must expend considerable effort to tap into the full potential of these data assets to strategically maneuver the business in a rapidly changing and competitive marketplace. The latest evolution in IT is “business intelligence,” which promises to help businesses better tap into and leverage their data assets. But what, exactly, is BI? How can it help? How is it implemented? And what can it do for your company? Essentially a primer on BI, this paper describes BI, how it can help you, and best practices to consider when launching or refining a business intelligence initiative.

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Achieving Best Practice Performance In Automotive Parts Distribution
Globalization and structural issues have caused the automotive market to become more competitive than ever, with pressure to deliver increasing levels of service at lower costs. The companies that establish themselves as dominant players in this market will have a streamlined supply chain that can deliver extraordinary customer service levels. Additionally, the flexibility to handle a variety of value added processes as easily as standard processes will be a requirement for success.

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RFID: An Introduction and Analysis of Gen 2 and SAP Auto ID Infrastructure
Implementing RFID systems presents many challenges and requires careful planning and understanding of several different technologies. This white paper introduces RFID systems, RFID components, and the new EPC™ Class 1 Gen 2 specification, and discusses advantages of Gen 2 over Gen 1 protocols. The final part of the paper discusses implementing RFID using SAP Auto ID Infrastructure (AII) and integrating RFID to the SAP R/3 back end.

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Warehouse Slotting Systems: Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions When Choosing a Slotting Package
As a supply chain systems integrator, CIBER is often asked about the benefits of warehouse slotting and slotting packages available (both integrated and stand alone) in the current marketplace. This white paper will address several of the most common questions posed regarding Warehouse Management System (WMS) slotting and slotting packages, and will provide answers based on CIBER’s 16+ years of implementing, integrating and supporting WMS and warehouse slotting packages.

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Conquering the Challenge of Global SAP Implementations: SAP Rollout Strategies and Best Practices
Implementing SAP on a global scale presents many challenges and issues that require careful planning and preparation. This whitepaper provides strategies and best practices on how to proactively manage challenges that arise for an international SAP project. It also evaluates various approaches to template development plans and rollout strategies. This whitepaper is a hands-on guide, based on real-life lessons learned, that IT and business leaders can use to achieve successful international SAP implementations.

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Using a Consultant in Warehouse Management Systems Software Selection: Prudent Choice or Waste of Money?
This white paper provides the business rationale for considering a consultant to help you with your WMS software selection. It also provides practical and tangible steps to develop a beneficial relationship with a consultant—from building a framework of responsibilities, to defining your costs, timelines, and deliverables to negotiating a contract and measuring results.

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Best-of-breed Warehouse Management Systems vs. ERP Applications: Is the Gap Narrowing?
This paper describes the strengths and weaknesses of best-of-breed and ERP providers and potential future trends in the WMS space. This paper provides the specific functionality, technology, and risk criteria you should consider to help you select the best WMS solution for your organization.

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The Five Key Ways Transportation Management Systems Can Rapidly Reduce Costs by up to 30 Percent
Maintaining competitive advantage in today's demanding business environment requires continual process improvement and cost reduction. Many companies focus on transportation in an effort to control supply chain costs and help ensure timely shipments. Recently, however, effective transportation management has become more complex due to several industry trends.

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Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Supply Chain: Roadmap for the Future
RFID technology is one of the hottest topics for retailers, manufacturers, and other industries where added visibility and control over items in the supply chain can provide competitive advantage. In our white paper, we introduce the concept, explain how it works, and offer some ideas for how to put it to work in your organization.

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Selecting a Warehouse Management System: Strategies and Tactics
Learn how to leverage supply chain software to reduce costs, improve profitability and drive bottom-line results across your supply chain processes.

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PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal
This white paper is designed to provide an overall informational perspective of the implementation of PeopleSoft’s Enterprise Portal into an organization.

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A Best Practices Assessment
The Best Practices Assessment ensures that people know what management think is right, and they have a series of recommendations for improving their business processes to achieve what is right. This implies that once the Best Practices Assessment is complete that the Best Practices are made known to all involved persons. A Best Practices Knowledge portal on the company Intranet, along with training how to use it effectively, is in itself a Best Practice.

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Uncork Your Distribution Bottlenecks: Best Practices in Wine and Spirits Distribution
Wine and spirits distributors face complex supply chain challenges. With the need to effectively manage seasonal variations in volume, shipments of all sizes, and high-volume replenishments driven by continued growth, maximizing distribution efficiency is critical.

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An article by CIBER’s Mike Krabbe was the cover story for the December 2007 issue of ’Industrial Engineer’ magazine.

Leverage Supply Chain Innovation

See how CIBER helped industrial wholesaler WinWholesale realize a 48% increase in picking efficiency at its distribution centers!

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For more information, or to learn how CIBER can help improve your supply chain, contact:

Mike Krabbe
Director, CIBER Supply Chain Solutions
(513) 607-6496
mkrabbe@ciber.com

14 Dec 2009
CIBER Achieves Platinum Status in Oracle PartnerNetwork Specialized Program
Read the press release | Take the PDF (25KB)

02 Sep 2009
CIBER to Present at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Annual Global Conference
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client spotlight
case studies
client quotes

MOPAR CIBER implements vendor-managed inventory distribution model and establishes long-term support methodology for MOPAR, the aftermarket parts division of Chrysler.

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An International Cruise Line
CIBER Collaboration Helps Cruise Line with Warehouse Management System Implementation
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Distro, Inc.
Distro Turns to CIBER for Help Redesigning Distribution Operations
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“CIBER had a proven track record of efficient project management and achieving results according to plan. They brought in talented, dynamic personnel that became partners in the design and execution of the project.”

Jerry Quell — Senior Manager of Inventory Planning, MOPAR

For more information about our Supply Chain Solutions, please contact:

303.267.3876
rcaputo@ciber.com

Robin Caputo
VP, Marketing

Today’s Supply Chain professionals are faced with more challenges and complexity than perhaps ever before. Global sourcing has extended the traditional supply chain, introduced new trading partners and service providers and dramatically increased the need for visibility across the total enterprise. Selecting and implementing the right technology platforms and solutions (e.g. ERP, WMS, TMS, etc.) to most effectively manage this increasingly complex supply chain environment is a daunting, time and resource consuming and expensive endeavor.

In addition, businesses across all industry verticals are focused on reducing costs in order to maintain profit and margin targets. Whether the initiative is to rationalize manufacturing or distribution footprints, reduce inventory investments, improve productivity and throughput through new technology implementation, or streamline transportation spending, many companies do not have the internal resources, experience or tools to effectively design, plan, implement and sustain these types of projects.

CIBER’s Supply Chain Practice provides knowledgeable resources and tools that allow companies to unlock the value of their various supply chain initiatives and investments. Through leveraging our people, processes and technology, we have built a solid track record of successful client engagements that have improved performance, reduced costs, and optimized asset utilization across the entire Supply Chain enterprise.

The CIBER Difference

There are hundreds of full -service and niche Supply Chain consulting companies in the market today. What sets CIBER apart is the combination of business and technical experience that we bring to each client engagement. Our specific differentiating criteria include:

Experience: Our Supply Chain consulting team has over 300 years of combined experience across multiple industry verticals in managing complex supply chain business models and technology solutions. With over 1,000 successful supply chain optimization and system implementation projects, CIBER’s Supply Chain Practice is uniquely positioned to support clients in achieving their end to end supply chain goals.
Tools & Technology: CIBER does not sell supply chain software. However, our Supply Chain Practice has partnered with some of the most robust and capable supply chain software developers to provide clients with complete solutions to address the specific environment and unique needs of their business. CIBER’s service offerings include the selection, project management, implementation and post-implementation support of ERP, WMS, TMS and Network Modeling/Simulation technology packages.
Local Accountability: Regardless of where CIBER Supply Chain Practice resources are deployed from on a given engagement, ownership of any project rests with locally based CIBER personnel located in CIBER’s more than 70 branch offices around the globe.
Value: Engagement costs for the typical supply chain project are very competitive, typically considerably less than what larger consulting firms charge.

CIBER’s Unique Credentials

CIBER's Supply Chain practice is uniquely qualified to help you get the most from your supply chain. Our credentials include:

More than 1,000 successfully completed supply chain optimization and system implementation projects.
Knowledgeable consultants who average more than 10 years of project and business experience.
A dedicated supply chain practice since 1989.
Extensive experience and partnerships with leading supply chain applications, as well as supply chain modules of SAP and Oracle (including PeopleSoft Enterprise™, EnterpriseOne™ and World™).
In-house technology consulting organization able to assess, design, acquire and implement comprehensive wireless and infrastructure solutions in distribution and manufacturing environments.
Active membership and involvement in associations that establish industry standards, such as CSCMP, UCC, WERC, Supply Chain Council, PMI and APICS.
Access to more than 8,000 IT resources in a wide variety of disciplines for complete project support and global reach.

CIBER's Supply Chain Offerings

CIBER has developed a complete array of consulting services to help organizations enhance the business value of their supply chain operations. These offerings include:

Warehouse Performance Audit
Software Selection and Implementations
Demand Planning
Inventory Planning & Optimization
Network Optimization
Sales and Operations Planning
Sourcing Optimization
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Solutions

Visit the individual solutions pages for details of each service offering.

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