Products & Solutions / Supply Chain Intelligence

SAS® Inventory Optimization

Manage inventory to meet customer requirements while reducing costs

With SAS® Inventory Optimization, organizations can manage data on millions of SKUs, gather and consolidate huge data volumes throughout the distribution chain, then transform, standardize and cleanse the data for inventory optimization. SAS lets you simultaneously optimize inventory levels for every SKU at every location in your organization.

Benefits

  • Reduce product inventory levels, inventory carrying and expediting costs.
  • Planning support for distribution requirements planning (DRP) reporting, sensitivity analysis and scenario-modeling capabilities.
  • Distribution personnel can proactively plan rather than react to unforeseen problems.
  • Base distribution strategies on information from all systems across the enterprise.

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Features

  • Data management.
  • Inventory optimization.
  • Replenishment planning.
  • Information sharing.

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" Right now, zero back orders and a 100 percent customer service level are real possibilities."

— Gary Keathley

Custom Pak Materials Manager, Alcon

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Inventory Analysis Workbench


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How SAS® Is Different

Only SAS provides:
  • Visibility across the entire network so you know how much and what kind of inventory you should have at each location including all associated costs – transportation, ordering, inventory, holding, etc. – for every single product.
  • An integrated platform using the SAS® Supply Chain Intelligence Center built on SAS’ enterprise intelligence platform to take advantage of key capabilities such as inventory optimization, corrective action dashboards and watch lists, process optimization, and emerging issue identification – and fill the information gap by delivering results in a user-specific way to everyone who needs the information. 
  • Scalability because the SAS solution is well-suited for large distribution networks and is scalable to encompass hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of SKUs at every single location, so the solution can grow along with you.
  • A systematic, multi-echelon inventory optimization process that negates sequential optimization shortcomings to create a supply chain that runs efficiently and provides continuously improved value from existing ERP/SCM investments.
  • Enhanced usability via secure, customizable, persona-based interfaces that inventory control analysts and buyer/planners will appreciate – especially the robust "what-if" scenario development capabilities of the solution.

Benefits

  • Reduce product inventory levels, inventory carrying and expediting costs. SAS Inventory Optimization calculates optimal inventory levels and replenishment policies based on required lead times, costs and target service levels. It identifies items that have reached reorder thresholds and generates recommended quantities for each item based on cost and service-level targets. You can stock the right products in the right quantities without creating excesses by rationalizing or the bullwhip effect.
  • Planning support for distribution requirements planning (DRP) reporting, sensitivity analysis and scenario-modeling capabilities. SAS Inventory Optimization helps produce and compare alternate planning scenarios for multiple items, thus helping select the optimal policy from a policy set.
  • Distribution personnel can proactively plan rather than react to unforeseen problems. Planners can customize key replenishment policy drivers to streamline replenishment for specific items. Using scenario modeling capabilities, planners can compare planning scenarios to pick the optimal policy from a number of options.
  • Base distribution strategies on information from all systems across the enterprise. Gather and consolidate large volumes of data from every echelon of the distribution chain – regardless of format or location – and transforms, standardizes and cleanses the data (e.g., reconcile inconsistent naming conventions) to prepare it for accurate forecasting.

Features

Data management.

• Aggregate disparate sources of product distribution data, while overcoming inconsistencies and redundancy.
• Enable all factors that affect demand that you need to consider for accurate forecasts.
• Pull data from ERP and legacy systems.
• Maximize your return on your ERP investments.

Inventory optimization.

• Optimize your safety stock levels.
• Reduce redundant stock.
• Reduce or eliminate the bullwhip effect.
• Minimize ordering, inventory, holding and back-order penalty costs.
• Achieve targeted customer service levels and improve cash flow by having the right products at the right locations.
• Realize savings of 5 percent to 20 percent on your inventory costs.

Replenishment planning.

• Synchronize orders to reduce stock levels.
• Factor in the variability of supply into safety stock calculations.
• Minimize ordering costs.
• Reduce the number of expedited orders.
• What-if scenario development.
• Provides accurate cost analysis of inventory proposals before implementation.
• Allows for multiple scenarios to be developed at once.
• Enables the user to review how business decisions affect both single-echelon and multi-echelon networks.

Information sharing.

• Align distribution strategies by sharing appropriate information with professionals throughout the network.
• Deliver information on a timely basis in a secure, relevant format (e.g., high-level KPIs for executives, drill-down and ad hoc reports for planners, etc.) that focuses on user-specific capabilities.

Screenshots

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Inventory Analysis Workbench

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Order Suggestions Workbench

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Scenario Development Details

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System Requirements

Host Platforms (Server Tier)
  • HP/UX on Itanium: 11iv3 (11.31)
  • IBM AIX: 6.1 and 7.1 on POWER architectures
  • Linux x64 (x86-64): Novell SuSE 10 and 11; RHEL 5 and 6
  • Microsoft Windows on x64 (x86-64): Windows XP Professional for x64, Windows Vista* for x64, Windows 7** for x64, Windows Server 2003 for x64, Windows Server 2008 for x64
  • Solaris on SPARC: Version 10

Client Tier

  • Microsoft Windows (x86-64): Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista*, Windows 7**
  • Microsoft  Windows(x64):  Windows XP Professional for x64, Windows Vista* for x64, Windows 7**  for x64

Web Tier

  • IBM WebSphere 7.0.0.13 on: AIX, Linux x64, Solaris (SPARC), Windows x64
  • JBoss 4.3 on: AIX, HP/UX on Itanium, Linux x64, Solaris (SPARC), Windows x64
  • Oracle WebLogic 10gr3 and 11gr1 on: AIX, HP/UX on Itanium, Linux x64, Solaris (SPARC an x64), Windows x64

Supported Web Browsers

  • Internet Explorer 7 and 8: Windows Vista* (32-bit and x64), Windows 7** (32-bit and x64), Windows XP Professional (32-bit and x64)
  • Internet Explorer 9: Windows Vista* (32-bit and x64), Windows 7** (32-bit and x64)
  • Firefox 3.6 and 4: Windows Vista* (32-bit and x64), Windows 7** (32-bit and x64), Windows XP Professional (32-bit and x64), Linux x64

* NOTE: Windows Vista supported editions are: Enterprise, Business and Ultimate.

** NOTE: Windows 7 supported editions are: Enterprise, Professional and Ultimate.

Ready to learn more?

Call us at 1-800-727-0025 (US and Canada) or request more information.