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    Supply Chain Optimization

    While supply chain inventory planning addresses how to best match demand with supply in the short term, structural attributes such as uncertainty, business processes, information flows, capacity and lead times must be optimized and changed to achieve sustainable business improvements. We provide a prescriptive framework to identify, optimize and prioritize operational opportunities that yield the greatest potential improvement in performance. If your organization has an initiative to reduce working capital, adopt lean, implement an ERP or change production and distribution strategies, this course is a must.

    Issues Targeted in this Course

    • Inventory Optimization
    • Risk and Uncertainty Management
    • Outsourcing
    • Multi-Echelon Inventory Systems
    • Financial Justifications

    Objectives and Benefits

    • Quantify the financial and competitive value of supply chain improvements
    • Understand key supply chain system trade-offs between capacity, lead times, inventory and customer service
    • Optimize inventories in a multi-echelon distribution network
    • Establish optimal lot size, safety stock and reorder point parameters
    • Leverage the configuration of your ERP system to fit the needs of different business types (make-to-stock, assemble-to-order, configure-to-order, engineer-to-order, make-to-order)

    Day 1: Optimizing Performance

    • Optimize customer service and inventory performance
    • Quantify the operational and financial consequences of outsourcing/offshoring
    • Deal with seasonal demand, promotions, new product introductions and product phase-outs

    Day 2: Improvement Initiatives

    • Prioritize improvement opportunities
    • Assess the impact of performance measurements and organizational structure
    • Build and sell a business case

    James Rappold has served as a supply chain consultant in the analysis and improvement of manufacturing, distribution and information systems for dozens of organizations, including BASF, Briggs & Stratton, Corning Glass Works, General Mills, IBM, Merck KGaA (Germany), Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Rockwell Automation, Sunoco Oil, The U.S. Air Force, Sango Ceramics in Semarang, Indonesia, and Polioles in Mexico City. He is a recipient of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and has published articles in numerous journals such as Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Naval Research Logistics. Dr. Rappold holds a B.S. in Industrial Management and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

    Pedro Rodriguez is a management consultant and instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the former director of global materials planning at Rockwell Automation based in Milwaukee, Wis.. Rodriguez has led teams in procurement, strategic sourcing, operations, materials planning, logistics, and supply chain lean six sigma in the automotive, aerospace, industrial equipment, and automation industries. He holds a B.S. in marine engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, and M.S. degrees in both industrial engineering and business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.