Our Approach is Continuous Analysis For Supply Chain Operations 

Supply Chain Strategy Supply Chain Design and Infrastructure Planning Strategic Market Planning Strategic Procurement Planning Services Strategic Master Planning Quantifiable Benefits - Optmizing your Supply Chain Interim Management Services -Supply Chain - Logistics

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Does your organization operate in a dynamic environment where constant change threatens to erode the efficiency and effectiveness of your supply chain?. To minimize this slow, steady cost increase and service deterioration, organizations must quickly adapt to change that occurs in and around their supply chain operations. FES helps its clients react effectively to this change and capitalize on the benefits of improved strategic and tactical decision-making through its Continuous Analysis approach.

Many organizations approach these complex problems armed only with management intuition and crude spreadsheet analysis. This results in oversimplified solutions that offer suboptimal results or even erroneous recommendations. At FES, we help clients avoid these mistakes by applying advanced decision sciences to complex strategic and tactical decisions. Over the past 8 years, we have refined our Continuous Analysis approach, successfully identifying millions of dollars in improvements. This three-phase, combined with innovative approach enables clients to persistently evaluate supply chain performance and thus reduce total cost, enhance customer service distinction, and accelerate profitability through three main phases.

Phase 1 : Analyze                                                                                    back to top

Within our Continuous Analysis approach, We Identify and evaluate current strategies, policies, and supply chain cost and service drivers. FES helps a client understand its supply chain challenges and opportunities. By transforming a client's business into an analytical framework, FES evaluates all relevant scenarios for improvement, such as changes to infrastructure, inventory policies, or trading partners. To effectively analyze each supply chain operations that require realignment with strategic objectives:

• Creating a strategic and operational profile. During this phase, FES will gain a deeper understanding of a client's current and planned strategies and profile its unique business requirements and goals as it relates to products, branding, markets, and customers. The resulting conceptual model will define the scope of supply chain operations that require realignment with strategic objectives.
• Gathering and aggregating information. FES will identify data requirements and recommend a strategy for data collection, extraction, and use. For services like transportation procurement that require partner information, FES uses this step to collect, validate, and dissect additional details and proposals.
• Building and validating a baseline model. FES will create a baseline to accurately reflect a client's existing operations and desired goals. Using a variety of tools to model the supply chain, it's position can identify any 'fast-track' opportunities where rapid implementation and quick rate of return warrant immediate attention.

Phase 2 : Optimize                                                                                   back to top

While organizations might use approximations to make marginal improvements, to maximize supply chain value they need an analytical process that exploits sophisticated optimization, simulation, and predictive technologies, combined and a must logical thinking because technology is only one tool. Fes can evaluate millions of possible combinations and choose the alternative that best minimizes cost, respects real-world constraints, and insures realistic plans that will be within the client's goals by:

• Defining the analytical scope. FES identifies opportunities and creates alternatives that align with overall strategic objectives. Working with a client's management team and leveraging our experience and best practices, FES will identify the full range of alternatives that can realistically be implemented. FES will not try to advise our client's that only technology is the answer, it's expensive and not required in allot of restructuring.
• Analyzing alternative scenarios. By analyzing an exhaustive set of viable scenarios, FES gains insights into the benefits of adopting new supply chain and logistics strategies. To evaluate each scenario, we test multiple levels of cost, lead times, demand, and capacity to identify the impact to optimal plans and policies. The result will be a narrow subset of opportunities that best reduce cost and improve service in all areas.
• Performing risk analysis. By getting client's to consider additional alternatives, our analysis seeks all operations to uncover the most beneficial solutions. Through cross-scenario analysis, FES will evaluate this subset of alternatives that similar results but very different levels of service impact, business risk, implementation challenges, and customer perception. The resulting best-fit recommendations will not only reduce cost and improve service, but also reduce the risk of failure as the supply change evolves.

Phase 3 : Realize                                                                                     back to top

Organizations can save millions through better strategic and tactical decision - making. But even the best plans have no value if they are not properly implemented or effectively measured. Through our Continuous Analysis approach, FES helps client's monitor the major drivers that derail the supply chain and subsequently set up tolerance to trigger new analytical cycles. To insure that client's reap the benefits from our recommendations, FES will help client's: 

• Formulate strategy. Whether facility, logistics provider, or inventory deployment decisions, FES will help each client choose a strategy that best meets its goals. Once the best-fit solutions are identified, FES work with each client to validate conclusions and manage the impacts of any change. This includes providing high-level financial analysis and identification of near-term improvements.
• Plan the implementation. To implement the recommended changes, FES will help client's develop a two-pronged implementation plan: 1) a near-term plan focused on high-value, fast payback opportunities, and 2) a long-term plan focused on more substantial changes to a client's strategies and tactics. Included in this plan, FES helps each client determine the capital investment, explicit financial impacts of each change, and time line for managing the transition.
• Measure and monitor the performance. As a final step, FES will create a plan for metric-based Continuous Analysis so each client can evaluate supply chain decisions on an on-going basis. We will create strategic measurements and key operational targets to alert a client to suboptimal supply chain operations. Using Continuous Analysis, FES can quickly assess the precise impact of any event and suggest approaches that will improve performance. 

Supply Chain Strategy                                                                        back to top

Client's need a sound supply chain alignment that allows real world restraints that cause conflicts, because that is the reality of the world we live in. Client's who allow their supply chain operations to be too lean, usually end up with extra costs that were not implemented at the first stage and face upset customers that are seeking a reason.

Supply Chain Design and Infrastructure Planning                              back to top

This service provides clients with recommendations for facility location and capacity, customer service assignment, and general flow of materials and other goods through the network. FES can help client's determine how to most efficiently serve customers and is particularly helpful when a client is considering a merger / divestiture. FES can help clients avoid very costly mistakes when it comes to a merger, many organizations make a fatal mistake. Clients can use this service to answer the following questions:

• Where should current and new facilities be located? How large should they be? New or Retrofit Building? Buy or Lease?
• What transport modes and lanes should be used to move products throughout the network?
• When and where should capital be spent on to add additional production or warehousing capacity? Which customers  should be served from each facility and where should products be transported from?
• As a result of a recent or proposed merger, what would an optimal, combined supply chain network look like? 

Strategic Market and Brand Planning                                                back to top

Strategic market and Brand planning provides analysis similar to infrastructure planning, but focuses on profit maximization rather than cost minimization. Our analysis helps clients optimize product portfolios, pricing, and distribution strategies and is helpful when they enter new markets or roll out new products.

• What products should I make and sell? What customers should I serve to maximize my profit contribution?
• Should I maintain my current channel - focused strategy, adopt a "go - direct" model, or some combination of the two?
• What new markets or industries should I expand into? From what existing markets, channels, or product lines, should I withdraw?
• How will proposed changes in pricing affect the overall profitability and structure of the supply chain?

Strategic Procurement Planning Services                                        back to top

Strategic procurement planning provides analysis on a client's overall supply chain in conjunction with those of its suppliers. As a result, clients can evaluate different procurement strategies and help their suppliers to deliver more efficiently and effectively. Allot of client's do know understand the power they have in the majority of business dealings with suppliers, FES can help the client understand and utilize their power. Client's use this service to answer the following:

• Are there synergies between my supply chain and my vendor's that can be exploited to reduce additional costs?
• Are there opportunities for my suppliers to redesign their supply chains to create synergies?
• With what strategic vendors should I contract given my demand projections and my current supply chain network?

• Is my current supplier network capable of supporting my planned product roll outs?What are the cost and service tradeoffs of alternative procurement strategies? 

Strategic Master Planning                                                               back to top

Strategic master planning reviews a client's production, storage, and shipment capacity, accounting for seasonality in demand, supply, and costs. This analysis creates a policy for build - ahead inventories and identifies the necessity of additional capital or labor investment to meet peak demands. Clients use this service to answer the following:

• How much should I produce, store, and ship each month given expected seasonality in demand, supply, or costs, so that I minimize total cost but still meet all service levels?
• How does seasonality affect my build - ahead inventory policy?
• Is it good idea to invest in that extra set of tooling or replace equipment now, or should we continue to run extra costs due to overtime?
• How much discretionary demand should be served for a given demand region in a given month to maximize overall profitability?

Quantifiable benefits of optimizing your supply chain strategy include:  back to top

• Increased customer service fill rates and lead times up to 5% or more.
• Maximized service of the most profitable customers.
• Reduced operating costs up to 15% or more, including freight, handling, manufacturing, and procurement.
• Reduced facility and in - transit inventory up to 30% or more.
• Reduced fixed assets up to 5% or more by consolidating warehouses, plants and productions lines.

Interim Management Services - Supply Chain and Logistics

We can fill the void of an Executive Team Member in two ways or a combination of:

1 - We can immediately take over responsibilities; this just takes a quick meeting between FES and the appropriate Executives or Board of Directors. We then focus on any crisis or immediate demands that are not in sync with the company's business model. We then move the company forward. We can effectively manage top executive positions from our office. We would have the availability of a presence when needed, anytime.

2 - We can resume responsibilities at your location, again, a quick meeting between FES and the appropriate Executives or Board of Directors. We then focus on any crisis or immediate demands. We then move the company forward. This would be a daily presence.

Typical responsibilities and assignments might include:

 Evaluate vendor compliance, efficiency, pricing and service levels
•Manage and strengthen vendor relationships (software companies, third-party logistics, carriers)
•Present problems and solutions to company management