Mars bears witness to supply chain improvement

James Pozzi speaks to Paul Myler, supply chain strategy director for Mars North America,
about its adoption of Witness software and how it was employed in its quest for continuous
improvement.

Mars stated it required more dynamic software than
ones used previously across the company. Which
specific areas did you look for in Witness for meeting
production demands?

Traditional planning software like JDA or SAP don’t perform
dynamic modelling well. They are really linear programs that
optimise to constraints, which is adequate for situations
where you can buffer with stock. Witness actually simulates
how your system will run under different scenarios and
provides probabilities of upset conditions. This is very
important for chocolate because you have very little buffer.
The implication is that an upset condition, instead of eating
into your safety stocks, can shut your operations down and
cost you a lot of money.  - more -

 

 

Mars bears witness to supply chain improvement _ The Manufacturer.pdf