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GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
CASE: GS-25
SGSCMF: 001-2001 DATE: 07/17/01 (REVISED 03/23/05)
This case was prepared by Paresh Rajwat under the supervision of
Professor Hau Lee at Stanford University. The case was prepared as
a basis for class discussion and not to illustrate either effective
or ineffective management practices. Copyright 2002 by the Board of
Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights
reserved. To order copies or request permission to reproduce
materials, e-mail the Case Writing Office at: [email protected]
or write: Case Writing Office, Stanford Graduate School of
Business, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
94305-5015. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without the permission of the Stanford
Graduate School of Business.
SEECOMMERCE: ENHANCING SUPPLY CHAIN VELOCITY AT
DAIMLERCHRYSLER SEECOMMERCE ENCOUNTER: MARCH 2000 Jerry Quell
was in a quandary. His company had begun to take a strategic look
at its supply chain two years before and had reinvented most of its
major supply chain systemsdemand collection and forecasting, order
processing, inventory control, and warehouse managementover the
previous five years. Because the companys supply chain was mature
and had been the focus of numerous improvement initiatives, Quell
was in a dilemma as to how he might further improve demand
forecasting and minimize inventory for the service parts group
while ensuring that customers were not left waiting for replacement
parts at a dealer. Quell was the senior manager of Materials
Operations Planning for the Mopar Parts group at DaimlerChrysler.
He had been with the company for over 15 years, and was involved in
most of the supply chain initiatives previously undertaken by the
division. Recently, in 2000, Quell became aware that one of
DaimlerChryslers weak areas was supply chain collaboration, and
that there was a pressing need for better visibility in order to
shrink Mopars decision-cycle times and react to unplanned changes
promptly. As he was exploring alternatives for addressing this
challenge, he came across a company called SeeCommerce, which had
recently received recognition from AMR Research. SeeCommerce
provided performance management solutions, a topic in which Quell
was interested. Accordingly, out of curiosity, he picked up the
phone to learn more about SeeCommerces offering.
SEECOMMERCE: HISTORY
Founded in 1996, SeeCommerce was a Palo Alto-based company with
over 120 employees. Since its inception, SeeCommerce had received
infusions of over $66 million in venture capital from A-list
investors such as Amerindo Investment Advisors, Integral Capital
Partners, Insight
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Capital Partners, Sierra Ventures, Voyager Capital, and others.
The company had also been awarded the APICS Certificate of
Excellence in Innovation, Arthur Andersen Best Practices Award, AMR
Researchs 12 Hot New Applications Market Leader, Red Herring 100,
Upside Hot 100 and the Enterprise Outlook Investors Choice Top 10.
As a result, it was clear that SeeCommerce was the leading provider
of supply chain performance management and improvement
applications, designed to enable business managers and trading
partners to continuously manage and improve business performance
across complex supply chains. SeeCommerce's products had been
adopted in a wide variety of industries, including high-tech,
automotive and packaged-goods manufacturing, retail and financial
services. In addition, industry-leading companies such as Ariba,
Siebel Systems, Deloitte Consulting, KPMG, and IBM Global Services
had endorsed SeeCommerce's products through strategic partnerships.
Furthermore, SeeCommerce had referenced more than 30 customers
across the United States and Europe, including Nestl Germany,
Pfizer, Philips, Polaroid, PNC, FIAT, Qwest, DaimlerChrysler,
Applied Materials, Charles Schwab, and SCI.
COMPLETING THE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT CYCLE
Quell was interesting in understanding what had made SeeCommerce
so successful, and why it outstripped its competitors in so many
performance areas. To learn more, he began to investigate the
product. SeeCommerce was intended to be an improvement on a basic
business process that was commonly used to operate a supply chain:
the PlanExecutePlan Cycle (Exhibit 1). Planning solutions provided
by i2, Manugistics, Adexa, and others gave what-if capabilities to
their users to help to improve a companys performance. Similarly,
order processing and management solutions provided by Oracle,
Commerce One, SAP, Ariba, and their competitors enabled the
execution of transactions. However, without a transparent and
real-time view of the supply chain, managers confidence could ebb
and, as a result, the entire supply chain would slow to a crawl.
Most managers still relied on manual reports for performance data
on each connection (manufacturing, warehousing, transportation,
etc.) of the supply chain. If managers could not look across the
enterprise at the various links to access information and tune
performance, it was difficult to act fast and address problems
before they occurred. SeeCommerce provided the required
transparency by adding a Measure dimension to the traditional
supply chain cycle, thus completing the management cycle to
PlanExecuteMeasurePlan. This new dimension enabled better
performance management, provided easy access to all data in the
supply chain and offered a what-is capability to business users. By
adding this crucial step, SeeCommerce had integrated all the
components (event management, visibility and business processes) of
supply chain performance management and improvement, to provide a
complete solution. Increasing Visibility through SeeCommerce Prior
to 2000, supply chains consisting of suppliers and customers were
usually connected through various channel masters that provided the
service of purchasing, transportation, planning, and sales, etc.
(Exhibit 2). Each channel master acted independently. Because of
this independence, they did not have the visibility of other
channel partners, and collaboration among them was infrequent.
SeeCommerce envisioned the post-2000 supply chain with suppliers
and
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p. 3
customers connected through a common business-to-business
(B-to-B) home page and a single channel master center which would
enable all supply chain processes (such as supply, demand,
material, production, inventory, and fulfillment) to share a common
data pool (Exhibit 2). The key to the post-2000 model was
transparency, making collaboration the big differentiator. The
suite of SeeChainTM applications (Exhibit 3) provided by
SeeCommerce allowed companies to measure the accuracy of forecasted
demand, raw material availability, production performance against
plan, finished goods availability, customer service fulfillment
etc. at various stages and collaborate on their performance over
the Web. Data in different information systems at different
locations could be assessed, aggregated, compared, and shared. This
dramatically reduced the time it took to make decisions and adapt
to market trends. (Exhibit 4 depicts the measured impacts through
SeeChainTM on decision-cycle time and other performance
parameters.) The solutions increased supply chain velocity by
replacing manual performance systems, or systems that did not
exist, with automated measurements and alert systems. SeeCommerce
empowered business managers to see problems and effects over time,
to take corrective actions and gain measurable supply chain
improvements. The solution also helped business users benchmark
company performance against industry standards, reduce operational
costs by automating information distribution, generate fewer
printed reports by making information available anytime, from
anywhere, using a Web browser; and also provide Web-based access to
critical information across the total supply chain. As a result,
executives did not need to be at their desks at all times but could
receive e-mail alerts and simply log onto the network and access
the required information. They could immediately see performance
measurements from demand to supplyacross product lines,
distribution centers, and their entire organizationfrom a single
screen view and could have all of the relevant information at their
fingertips, with explanations for changes in performance. (Exhibit
5 gives a sample of potential competitors of SeeCommerce.) Impact
of Timely Performance Measurements Through SeeChainTM In an age of
hyper-competition, continuous innovation and new product
development is a key to success. Companies need to manage the time
to new product introductions, and alert suppliers about product
changes during and between product life cycles. In the front part
of the product life cycle (Exhibit 6), the contribution of the new
product to a company increases with time, while in the back part of
the life cycle, the contribution decreases with the passage of
time. Ultimately, the product is replaced by another new product.
Managing successful product rollover requires close tracking of
operational data and demand trends of a product. SeeCommerce
provided this tracking and performance measurement functionality.
It supplied product performance snapshots and helped managers
identify the turning points when the contribution of the product
began to diminish. If production plans were to be changed,
suppliers could be immediately notified. This way, the product can
be transitioned smoothly from one generation to the next. Improved
product demand visibility helped companies to better plan the
timing of the ramp-up phase of the new product cycle relative to
the previous product, enabling a quick product transition and
avoiding costly product
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rollovers. Reduction in the decision-cycle time could result in
huge savings in inventories, and finished goods carrying costs (as
shown in Exhibit 6). Similarly, SeeChainTM applications could
quickly diagnose other problems (such as supply shortfalls, backlog
accumulation, delinquent deliveries, and other supply chain
operational problems), as well as pinpoint opportunities across the
global supply chain. When performance went outside acceptable
levels, SeeChainTM automatically alerted business managers so that
they could quickly investigate, collaborate and take corrective
action, all via the Internet.
THE MOPAR PARTS GROUP OF DAIMLERCHRYSLER
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, DaimlerChrysler
was the world's leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles with
brands like Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, smart,
Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Setra,
Orion, American LaFrance, MTU, TEMIC, and others. With global
alliances with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Hyundai Motor
Corporation, the company recorded automotive sales of 4.2 million
passenger cars in more than 200 countries, and revenue of over $144
billion in 2000. The company had 400,000 employees and
manufacturing sites in 37 countries. The Mopar group was the spare
parts division for the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler and a
primary distributor of parts and accessories for all Chrysler,
Dodge and Jeep dealerships in the United States. The group managed
more than 280,000 original equipment parts procured from about
3,000 different suppliers, and processed over 220,000 dealer order
lines per day. Mopars distribution supply chain consisted of four
national distribution centers or central warehouses (CW) and 15
domestic field parts distribution centers or regional warehouses
(RW). Mopars automotive parts and distribution business relied on
how effectively the company could forecast demand, manage parts
inventory and fill customer orders. Mopar had maintained a
five-year demand history for every dealer, and forecasted demand
for about 1.8 million different SKUs (stock keeping units) at the
RW level on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. These were then rolled up
to part level, and a Distribution Requirement Planning (DRP) system
was used to determine the required stocking level and the
associated material acquisition with suppliers. Mopar released
about 65,000 orders every week to its suppliers. Distribution and
fulfillment of dealer orders were achieved through the use of
dedicated delivery service (DSS). Referral dealer orders were
handled by the UPS Logistics Group. It operated two Order
Consolidation Centers. The UPS Logistics Group provided
DaimlerChrysler with a multimodal transportation system into and
out of those centers. More critical orders were consolidated and
shipped via UPS, using one-day ground or air delivery service.
Before SeeCommerce became involved, a daily cycle of order
fulfillment at Mopar worked as follows (Exhibit 7): During the day,
the global order processing system would try to fill part orders
from dealers using inventory at the respective regional warehouse.
Traditionally, Mopar had been able to achieve a fill rate of 89.5
percent from the stock at the regional warehouses. The unfilled
orders were routed to the central warehouses and, by the end of the
second day, these parts arrived at the dealers (if the central
warehouses had the stock on hand). The average
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fill rate at the end of the second day was usually 92 percent.
If the central warehouses did not have stock on hand, the orders
were referred to other regional warehouses based on stock position.
By the third day, Mopar could usually achieve a fill rate of 95.5
percent as a result of such inventory pooling. In the next two
days, a resourceful inventory planner might start looking for parts
that were in transit or available at suppliers, and use expedited
shipments to get the parts to the dealers. Although expeditions
could be very costly to Mopar, the average fill rate at the end of
five days was 97.5 percent. Finally, the remaining 2.5 percent of
unfilled orders were backordered and released when material was
received anywhere in the distribution system. Quell, as senior
manager of materials planning at Mopar, had been looking for ways
to improve customer service levels and reduce the expenses
associated with frequent expedited shipments. He recognized that
the key was to have a continuous and tight process of performance
measurements that would identify problem areas and opportunities in
the service parts supply chain on a timely basis. In 1998, Mopar
initiated a project to create tools that would allow the company to
measure customer service levels. The project therefore required the
development of a system of tools for the extraction of data from
operational databases into datamarts using OLAP (online analytical
processing) tools. After 18 months, a prototype system was created.
Teaching all users proficiency with the new system was quite a
challenge, as it was not user-friendly. The associated data files
were also enormous. There were 220,000 dealer order lines per day
from over 4,000 dealers. To monitor order shipment versus
allocation was the goal. The complexity of the system was such that
it was difficult to monitor performance on a weekly basis.
SEECOMMERCE AT DAIMLERCHRYSLER: APRIL 2000
At Quells request, the SeeCommerce team took a strategic look
into the Mopar Parts Groups supply chain. It revealed tremendous
opportunity of cost savings by improving performance in terms of
lower inventory costs and better order flow. The key was to enhance
supply chain visibility and shorten the reaction times to problems.
The solution proposed by SeeCommerce showed a lot of promise, and
since the previous internally developed system was going nowhere,
Quell decided to give it a try. In fact, the Mopar Parts Group
conducted an internal benchmarking study to evaluate what it would
take to develop a similar solution in-house. They realized that
their IT (Information Technology) group would require 9 to18 months
to develop an internal solution. Also, since most of Mopars IT
systems were mainframe based, the solution would not have utilized
the latest peer-to-peer technology on which SeeCommerce was based.
Peer-to-peer technology could provide the ability to dynamically
unify diverse and widely distributed elements of contents, systems
and services, without removing control from the peers on the
network. By enabling peers to find and collaborate with each other
at will, this technology could promote greater efficiency,
openness, and choices for information systems. It could even enable
a global virtual marketplace where anyone was literally enabled to
conduct business with anyone else. The SeeCommerce project at Mopar
started in April 2000. The SeeChainTM applications extracted
transactions and planning data from a multitude of data systems.
Data was retrieved from Mopars homegrown legacy ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) system, which was based on IMS and DB2 on an IBM
Mainframe, Forecast Planning and Inventory Planning System. The
data was then organized and presented using SeeCommerces patented
technology, from which
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metrics and key performance indicators (KPI) were calculated and
reports generated, based on business rules and control hierarchies
(i.e. the span of control for the respective KPIs, which affects
the level of aggregation in the reports). Using personalized
MyCommerce home pages, users could have the screen layout designed
according to taste, and set up different forms of information
retrieval (performance alerts, e-mails, reports and annotation
notifications, etc.). SeeChainTM had a simple tree structure for
navigation, which allowed users to easily probe and find
performance indicators for different products/locations, and at
different aggregation levels (see Exhibit 8). This way, users could
get all required information in one place for fast decision-making.
Based on the respective information, users could launch the
appropriate application directly. Initially, Quell was expecting a
payback by the end of year 2000, but SeeCommerce offered the
payback within 12 weeks after implementation. After three months of
using the SeeChainTM application, a cumulative fill rate of about
98.5 percent could be achieved (Exhibit 9) within the first three
to five days. Advanced alerts of inventory and supply conditions at
the regional warehouses, and improved visibility into supplier
delivery quantity, timelines and quality enabled the immediate fill
rates to improve by 1 percent, at the field parts distribution
center (PDC) level. This improved fill rate represented an
equivalent of $10 million savings annually in transportation costs
by eliminating referral orders while increasing market share.
Prompt creation of exception reports enabled early warning of
potential problems and immediate reaction by inventory planners.
Finally, increased flexibility allowed planners to address
remaining inefficiencies in inventory management. SeeChainTM
Demand, SeeChainTM Inventory, and SeeChainTM Supplier offered the
Mopar Parts Group real-time supply chain performance visibility,
and helped planning and forecast managers see how they were doing
daily, in terms of forecasted demand versus actual shipments to
dealers and stocking levels. As a result, managers could quickly
pinpoint problems, take proactive actions, and promptly respond to
unplanned changes. The applications improved business velocity by
shrinking decision cycle times. The Mopar Parts Group discovered
$4.5 million in avoidable on-order inventory within a week after
implementation, and expected to save tens of millions per year from
reduced safety-stock inventory and dealer order-line improvement.
The use of SeeChainTM Supplier also improved supplier performance
substantially. The Mopar group expected to reduce backorder of
about 2,200 line orders out of 220,000 total line orders daily.
Quell was pleased with the success of the SeeCommerce
implementation:
SeeCommerce gave us information at our fingertips. We have 12
forecast demand measurements, 17 inventory measurements and 30
supplier performance measurements that allow us to keep a close
watch over the key operating parameters. By reducing the decision
cycle time we are now able to do many things. For instance, by
reducing the forecasting error, we have reduced safety stock by
$7.5 million within the first six months. We believe, with their
help, we can further reduce safety stock by $20 million in year
2001. By improving the customer service level, we expect to save
about $10 million of excess transportation charges.
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The SeeCommerce implementation was undoubtedly a great success.
However, Quell was now faced with another major challenge. Since
the economy had slowed down, he had to figure out how he could
further improve the service supply chain in this environment. As he
entered into the conference room for his meeting with top
executives, he wondered which performance measures would be most
critical for the Mopar Parts Group to monitor in this new era.
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p. 8
Exhibit 1 Supply Chain Management Cycle
Source: Created by the authors from publicly available
information.
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p. 9
Exhibit 2 Pre and Post-2000 Supply Chain Environments
Source: Information provided by SeeCommerce.
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
ChannelChannelMasterMasterCenter Center SupplierDemand
Material
ProductionInventory
Fulfillment
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
B2B PortalB2B Portal
Common DataCommon DataShared ProcessesShared Processes
PostPost --20002000
Fig. 2
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Channel Channel Master Master
Purchase Purchase
Channel Channel Master Master Transp Transp
Channel Channel Master Master
Planning Planning
Channel Channel Master Master Sales Sales
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
Pre Pre - - 2000 2000
Fig. 3Fig. 2
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
ChannelChannelMasterMasterCenter Center SupplierDemand
Material
ProductionInventory
Fulfillment
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
B2B PortalB2B Portal
Common DataCommon DataShared ProcessesShared Processes
PostPost --20002000
Fig. 2
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Channel Channel Master Master
Purchase Purchase
Channel Channel Master Master Transp Transp
Channel Channel Master Master
Planning Planning
Channel Channel Master Master Sales Sales
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
Pre Pre - - 2000 2000
Fig. 3Fig. 2
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
SupplierSupplier
ChannelChannelMasterMasterCenter Center SupplierDemand
Material
ProductionInventory
Fulfillment
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
Customer Customer
B2B PortalB2B Portal
Common DataCommon DataShared ProcessesShared Processes
PostPost --20002000
Fig. 2
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Supplier Supplier
Channel Channel Master Master
Purchase Purchase
Channel Channel Master Master Transp Transp
Channel Channel Master Master
Planning Planning
Channel Channel Master Master Sales Sales
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
CustomerCustomer
Pre Pre - - 2000 2000
Fig. 3Fig. 2
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Exhibit 3 SeeCommerce Suite of Products1
SeeCommerce enables business managers and trading partners to
continuously manage and improve business performance across complex
supply chains. The SeeCommerce suite of SeeChainTM applications
drive performance management, organizational synchronization and
workflow coordination throughout the entire supply network.
SeeCommerce improves a companys ability to compete in the global
marketplace, significantly improves ROI and expands market share by
optimizing supply chain performance and creating effective supplier
relationships. SeeCommerces applications leverage domain expertise
in online analytical processing (OLAP), data warehousing, knowledge
management, Internet technologies and supply chain management. The
products are based on industry standards such as JavaTM, XML,
relational databases and standard Web browsers. The SeeChainTM
family includes the following seven applications: SeeChainTM
Supplier SeeChainTM Supplier measures and improves supplier
performance, identifies top performers, tracks performance over
time and negotiates performance-based agreements. The application
also helps in collaboration of supplier-related information to
correct problems and improve performance. SeeChainTM Demand
SeeChainTM Demand application measures and improves demand
forecasting performance, measures sales accuracy by comparing
forecasted sales to actual sales, improves forecasting accuracy of
items not meeting acceptable levels and thus enables better
management of raw materials inventory, production planning and FGI
to ensure that supply meets targeted service levels. SeeChainTM
Materials SeeChainTM Materials measures and optimizes raw materials
availability by measuring inventory levels of raw materials and
semi-finished goods. The application also helps in identifying
potential inventory shortages and sees value of excess inventory in
warehouses or distribution centers. SeeChainTM Production
SeeChainTM Production measures and improves production performance
by measuring the accuracy of the production plan for a time frame.
It identifies which products may affect customer service levels and
notifies sales representatives to manage corresponding customer
1 For detailed product descriptions and information refer to
www.seecommerce.com/products/. SeeCommerce,
SeeChain, Dynamic Commerce Server, the SeeCommerce logo, and the
SeeChain logo are trademarks of SeeCommerce in the USA and other
countries. All other products and company names may be trademarks
of their respective owners.
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p. 11
relationships. The application also helps in determining if
manufacturing capacity is able to support the planned production.
SeeChainTM Inventory SeeChainTM Inventory measures and optimizes
FGI levels by measuring inventory levels and identifying potential
shortages of finished goods. The application also helps in managing
finished goods levels to avoid obsolescence and take into account
the product life cycles. SeeChainTM Fulfillment SeeChainTM
Fulfillment measures and improves order fulfillment performance,
measures on-time shipping performance and improves customer
satisfaction levels by identifying shortages that impact customers.
The application also helps in managing impacted customers, thus
signaling to improve future deliveries, ensuring customer retention
and market share growth. SeeChainTM Logistics SeeChainTM Logistics
enables the timely delivery of the right product, in the right
quantity, to the right location at the right cost. It provides
companies with visibility into supply chain velocity, reliability
of process accuracy and asset utilization for the logistics
network. Dynamic Commerce Server is a Web-centric enterprise
information portal that allows all levels of users - management,
employees, customers and suppliersto share and collaborate on a
wide range of corporate information within a secure environment.
Through their existing browsers, users can access all information
to which they have security privileges. They can dynamically
navigate, publish, subscribe, collaborate, design, generate and
share the information in context in an easy-to-use single screen
view. Source: Information provided by SeeCommerce.
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Exhibit 4 Measured Impact on Decision Cycle Time and Other
Parameters
Decision Cycle Time
RevenuesInventoriesOperational ProductivityAdministrative
ProductivityDepreciationScrapDelivery Lead
TimesTime-to-MarketReturn on Assets
0% 20 40 60 80 100%
= AverageImprovement
DCT Reduction Impacts
Source: Information provided by SeeCommerce.
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p. 13
Exhibit 5 A Note on Potential Competitors
At the time the case was written, SeeCommerce did not have any
direct competitor providing applications like SeeCommerces
SeeChainTM solutions. Instead, there were companies supplying tools
that addressed specific features and functions. These tool vendors
could provide a basis for others to develop packaged applications.
Typically, these companies fell into three categories: visibility,
exception/event management, and business process management. Supply
chain performance management was a comparatively new market, so
competition was moderate. Some of the companies in this broad arena
were InfoRay, Vigilance and Oracle. Unlike SeeCommerce, most of the
companies in this market provided a portion of the complete
performance measurement and improvement solution. Inforay aimed at
providing visibility, Vigilance focused on event management while
Oracle strove to address the business process aspect. Oracle
(streamlining business processes) Oracle Corporations software
products could be categorized into two broad areas: systems
software and Internet business applications software. As an
e-business solutions provider, Oracle integrated and streamlined
both internal and external processes for any business, allowed
users to access information, and automated the performance of
specific business data processing functions for financial
management, procurement, project management, human resources
management, supply chain management, and customer relationship
management. InfoRay (visibility) InfoRay provided personalized
business monitors and infostructure for performance measurement in
high-speed businesses. InfoRays patented solutions allowed users to
track key business indicators to impact a companys performance at
any level. Founded in the Netherlands, InfoRay moved its
headquarters to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1999 and had offices
in the U.S. and Europe. Vigilance (event management) Vigilance,
Inc. provided a supply chain monitoring/event management system
that enabled people to create personal 1:1 agents that detected any
desired event, ubiquitously notified the appropriate community, and
collaboratively resolved an event through workflow. Source:
Compiled by the authors from publicly available information.
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p. 14
Exhibit 6 Potential Improvements Realized through SeeChainTM
Time
FGILevel
$$$
Without SeeChain
UsingSeeChain
Trend Identified / Demand Drop
Old Product Completely Replaced
Reduced Carrying Cost
Fig. 5
Note: The top line represents the old way of doing business; the
bottom line represents the new way. Traditionally, the trend would
not be identified until time period 6. SeeChainTM enables the trend
to be identified in period 2. Source: Information provided by
SeeCommerce.
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p. 15
Exhibit 7 Daily Order Fulfillment Performance Prior to
SeeCommerce
Source: Information provided by SeeCommerce.
Unfilled orders immediately referred; orders created
Day 1
Weekly Plan
RW fulfills dealer orders
89.5%
Unfulfilled orders referred immediately
Day 2 Unfulfilled orders shipped from CW
92.0%
Day 3 Unfulfilled orders sourced via
cross-ship from RW
94.5%
Days 4 & 5
Unfulfilled orders sourced from in-transits headed for alternate
RW
Other, unfulfilled orders drop-shipped from supplier
Remaining orders backordered 96.5%
Cumulative Fill Rate
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Exhibit 8 The Tree Navigation Structure of SeeChainTM
Source: Information provided by SeeCommerce.
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p. 17
Exhibit 9 Daily Order Fulfillment Performance with
SeeCommerce
Source: Information provided by SeeCommerce.
Unfilled orders referred immediately
Day 1
Weekly Plan
Advanced alerts and improved visibility into supplier delivery
quantities, timelines and quality enables improved fill rates
Exception report of unfulfilled orders created
Day 2
Increase level of service from RW decreases the amount of cross
shipment and drop ship and lowers expediting costs.
Days 3-5
Increased flexibility allows planners to address remaining
inefficiencies in inventory management
Cumulative Fill Rate
97.5% --> 98.5%
98.5%
91.5% --> 92.5%
96.5% --> 97.5%