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Vendor-Managed Inventory at NIBCO Essay

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NIBCO has 100 years history and $ 400 million revenues. The main product is flow control like valves, fitting, and hangers so on. Compare to other same types of manufacturers, NIBCO wants to provide low price and differentiation of flow control products. In these days, the product quality is not only a requirement among the commodity markets. The value-added services also are good ways to attract more customers. However, when NIBCO wants to give value-added services to customers, the old system cannot suit their needs. The managers of NIBCO decided to use SAP R/3 implementation project, which helps them to deal with issues. From 1998 to 2001, SAP R/3 implementation has run smoothly in NIBCO. As a supply chain business processes, the …show more content…

• Decreased in inventory levels from $102 million to $76 million
• Inventory turns enhanced by 17% (from 3.66 to 4.27).
• Reduction in administrative costs and annual sales by 19%.
• Decreased cost of annual distribution by 20%.
• Decreased costs of annual purchasing by $6 million.
• Overall support staff was decreased by 16%.
• Customer service center staff was decreased by 40%.
• Financial closing cycle was decreased from 10 to 2.5 days.
• Approximately $40 million (per year) decrease in baseline procurement costs.

Discussions:
Q1: The key advantages of SAP supply chain investments
1. Improved customer service by focusing on order accuracy and product available
2. Developed multichannel customer service capabilities and electronic partnerships for customers and suppliers.
3. Increased the effectiveness and reduced the costs of doing business through continuous business process improvements in both its internal and external supply chains.

Q2: Describe what types of transactions are involved in NIBCO’s VMI program?
NIBCO’s domestic wholesale and retail customers have already made an investment in EDI. For those who need to start from the bottom, investment doesn’t only include technology but also ongoing technical support personnel. But another choice for that is outsourcing to an EDI trading partner. 4 different types of EDI transactions are currently involved in NIBCO’s VMI program.
1.

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