Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Dynamic supply chain solution presented by Damco


Copenhagen, March 27, 2012 – Today Damco launches a simple and innovative solution to meet the typical supply chain challenges of today: How to deal with constant changes on the demand and supply side without adding cost, time, and complexity? 

Damco Dynamic Flow Control™ is the result of a long development effort done at Damco – together with a number of key customers. The solution allows supply chain professionals the flexibility to constantly re-plan shipments according to what is important - whether it is delivery date, cost, or carbon footprint - without the complexity and manual workload changing purchase orders normally entails.

“As market conditions become more volatile and more difficult to predict, the answer is not to improve your ability to plan, but rather your ability to adapt quickly to demand and supply fluctuations. Damco Dynamic Flow Control™ automatically adjusts planning to changing requirements while still ensuring true end-to-end optimization of supply chain performance – from Purchase Order to Final Delivery,” Damco CEO Rolf Habben-Jansen commented in a press release.

“We have developed this innovative solution together with our customers and we now have a robust and scalable solution that we would like to present to the market”, Rolf Habben-Jansen said.

Dynamic planning and re-planning provides more flexibility to adjust to last minute demand and supply changes which enables lower inventories, higher customer service, and timely response to market trends. 

In addition, increased delivery performance and reduced manual intervention can decrease lead times by up to 10% while lowering administration costs by up to 30%. Improved container utilization and mix, less administration, and reduced air-to-ocean ratio can help decrease cost (and carbon emissions) by up to 20%. The solution has already helped the development partner, a high-profile Damco global customer, to improve delivery performance significantly while achieving a simpler, agile, and cost effective supply chain.

“This solution truly integrates all existing supply chain partners, enabling automated interaction with vendors, carriers, 3PL’s and authorities to reduce errors, save time and money, and ultimately increase delivery performance – on time when needed. The feedback we are getting on this is very positive and promising for the future of supply chain management”, said Erling Johns Nielsen, Damco Global Head of Supply Chain.

 The shipment planning optimization engine generates plans based on predefined business rules and criteria such as delivery time, cost, carbon, transport mode, and carrier mix - all at purchase order and SKU levels. When changes occur, shipments are dynamically re-planned and automatically executed using the Damco proprietary decision tree methodology.

“This enables supply chain managers to continuously change delivery dates or switch between transport modes in order to optimize their supply chains – something many people have been looking for since a long time”, Erling Johns Nielsen stated in a press release.