Supply Tech: INSIGHT'S new supply chain suite

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INSIGHT President Dr. Jeff Karrenbauer can’t help but chuckle at some company’s approach to supply chain management technology.

“I’ve been in the supply chain advanced analytics business since 1978, so my response to IBM and their current initiative is ‘Welcome to the club, guys, we wrote the book,’” Karrenbauer said.

In keeping with the company’s approach to being at the forefront of supply chain management technology, INSIGHT has introduced a new set of programs that add value to the supply chain software industry.

“We think they meet legitimate supply chain industry needs,” Karrenbauer said.

The first of four programs is INSIGHT’s Inside Supply Chain Optimizer (SAILS) program, which is a new version of the company’s flagship program.

The network design tool and supply chain strategy tool incorporates just about everything in the supply chain, starting with where suppliers should plant their business.

“We look at it comprehensively and include everything in the supply chain,” Karrenbauer said of the SAILS program.

The second program is an add-on of the SAILS program and is a real breakthrough in the supply chain software industry. The Inside Enterprise Optimizer (IEO), adds marketing strategy to the equation, which Karrenbauer feels is a game-changer.

“Nobody has pulled this off before,” Karrenbauer said of the inclusion of marketing into a supply chain network design program. “It fully integrates marketing and supply chain at a truly optimum level. Now you don’t just have a supply chain strategy, you have a corporate strategy.”

The company’s third program is also new, and is called the Transportation Optimizer (ITO). The program uses a day-by-day supply chain simulation, focusing on transportation costs, and can show inefficiencies and problems within a company’s transportation service.

“This thing is the most aggressive shipment planning/consolidator in the business,” Karrenbauer said.

INSIGHT’s final program is called the Bid Optimizer (IBO), a package that handles bid types ranging from simple to complex packages, and can sort through thousands of bids based on criteria a user plugs in.

“Some companies receive thousands of bids on a project, and while there are usually only 100 or so that are worth going through, this program identifies that group of 100 qualifying bids,” Karrenbauer said. “You can’t do this in a normal spreadsheet.”

The four programs are all designed to fit in with the direction of the global supply chain, which is using more software design tools now more than ever.

“The trend is to look holistically at global supply chains, and the ideal tool for that is a network design tool, because it can look at everything,” Karrenbauer said.