Partnership to lower total cost of implementation, ownership for SAP, Bristlecone and SmartOps customers
Pittsburgh, PA May 16, 2005 — SmartOps Corp., a provider of supply chain optimization solutions, and Bristlecone, a service provider for extended supply chain solutions, today announced a strategic partnership between their companies.
Under the agreement, Bristlecone, which designs and implements extended supply chain solutions, including SAP supply chain applications, will provide SmartOps Multi-Stage Inventory Planning & Optimization (MIPO) software to customers in North America, Europe, and Asia. Bristlecone will also become a certified MIPO implementation partner.
"Bristlecone is excited about partnering with SmartOps and representing SmartOps' MIPO inventory optimization solution in the marketplace," said Gregory Mekjian, executive vice president of Bristlecone North America. "Our two companies complement each other's core competencies in supply chain management and the combined capabilities will produce order fulfillment improvements and cost savings for our customers."
Mekjian added that by bringing MIPO to the table as part of a complete supply chain solution, his company is better able to meet its customers' needs for a solution that enables them to analyze and set key planning targets within SAP supply chain applications. "The results are real-time, data-driven decisions that account for the inherent complexity and uncertainty in their multi-echelon supply chains," he said.
Mekjian explained that MIPO determines the best possible inventory and product availability plans given inherent uncertainties, time-varying data, multi-location and inventory stage complexities, and aggressive customer service goals.
MIPO generates optimal inventory targets for each stage of the supply chain while providing visibility into each inventory requirement, including safety, cycle, pre-build, pipeline and merchandising stock requirements, by item or stock-keeping unit (SKU), to meet desired service levels.
MIPO's optimized inventory targets serve as inputs for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and advanced planning and scheduling systems, so they deliver better intelligence for inventory planning and execution.
