February 21, 2005
Value of RFID in Supply Chain Planning.
Is your supply chain ready to take advantage of RFID data?

Wilmington, DE — RFID has been a buzzword for several years invoking fear in some and excitement in others. Time has shown that the infrastructure to support mandates from companies such as Wal-Mart is not ready to handle the conversion to RFID immediately. It will take time, effort and money to build the infrastructure through supply chains.

Much has been written about how to proceed with RFID and what to consider. More importantly, people are considering how the ROI for an RFID project is very low for manufacturers with payback periods expected to be over 2 years.

So is an RFID project something worth taking on or not? Imagine if you had POS data at the consumer level by storefront. With this data, you could improve your customer service level and optimize inventory levels at the appropriate locations. What if you could offer ordering and shipping advice for your products to your customers? Would that provide differentiation versus your competition? What if you could offer true vendor-managed inventory? Wouldn’t that help ensure a repeat contract, especially with larger customers? Moving forecasting further downstream - even to the ‘cash register’ level - is possible with RFID technology. Imagine how accurate your forecasting and demand planning would be with the ‘real-time’ data!

We can all agree that there are some potential business benefits once RFID technology and infrastructure become more main-stream. BUT, will you be ready when this is reality? Will you be ready to take advantage of this new realm of data? Having your supply chain data and processes optimized around currently available data is even more critical so that when RFID must happen, you can take full advantage of the new sources of data.

LeadTime Technology™ (LTT) is a supplier of supply chain optimization software that can clean up your existing data and put it to work for your company. Demand Forecasting, Inventory Planning, Master Production Scheduling and Distribution Requirements planning are some of the key modules LTT offers to let your data work harder for you. These modules can be implemented to get your inventory and production practices cost and service optimized. Optimized inventory levels at the right location go hand-in-hand with improved customer service.

So get your inventory and production/distribution activity optimized today using your current data, which will position your company to take maximum advantage of RFID data when it arrives.

About LeadTime Technology™
Founded in 1998, LeadTime Technology, Inc. is a market leading provider of technology-enabled process optimization to reduce and right-size inventory, improve forecast accuracy and service, optimize production resources, and reduce cycle time across the supply chain including manufacturing, distribution and retail. Its applications are developed by practitioners for practitioners to achieve world class operations improvement leveraging Lean, Six Sigma, and SCOR principles supported by patented algorithms and technology.

LeadTime Technology’s™ unique combination of consulting and software enables operational decisions to be clearly correlated to financial measurements to ensure rapid ROI and increased contribution to shareholder value on a daily basis. Based on Microsoft platform technology and independent of enterprise applications, the intuitive user interface distills all supply chain complexities into a simple list of recommendations for continuous flow management and synchronization in virtually any size or type of operating environment. Contact LeadTime Technology at 302-636-0866, or www.leadtimetechnology.com for more information.

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