A recent Sun benchmark run in Sun's Newark, CA, Customer Benchmark Center tested real-world scenarios for inventory and supply chains using Sun technology and an i2 solution. The results demonstrated improved forecast accuracy and optimized inventory to meet customer demands.

The benchmark configuration consisted of i2 Service and Parts Management v6.0.3, a Web-based solution, and Sun FireTM 6800 midframe server with the SolarisTM Operating System (Solaris OS) and an UltraSPARCR processor-based architecture and Sun StorEdgeTM T3 arrays.

Engineers simulated a time-phased forecast, inventory and replenishment plan for 10.1 million part locations. They generated an end-to-end plan over a 90-day horizon in one hour, 31 minutes, with peak planning throughput recorded at two-point-seven billion part location periods per hour.

The end-to-end plan consisted of a complete planning process, including forecasting, inventory and replenishment planning. The replenishment planning process was successfully completed within 20 minutes with only 24 CPUs, demonstrating the i2 SPM capabilities for timely solving large scale service parts and retail replenishment planning problems running on the Solaris OS (SPARCR Platform Edition).

Real-world scenarios tested ranged from two million to 10 million part locations. The benchmark emulated typical supply planning needs of the world's largest distribution and parts management centers. Benchmark results can be highly influential as customers weigh price and performance -- along with trust, reliability and ROI -- when selecting mission critical solutions to power their business.

i2 Service and Parts Management (SPM) utilizes business logic specific to the service and aftermarket parts industry with a three-tiered workflow:

1. Forecasting -- i2 SPM can forecast demand for spare parts based on historical data, equipment usage and failure rates

2. Inventory Planning -- i2 SPM can set target inventory levels for service parts based on cost, parts criticality and budgetary constraints

3. Replenishment Planning -- i2 SPM can generate replenishment plans that consider the forecast for repairable and returned parts, as well as the possibility of substituting alternate parts.

The Sun and i2 alliance delivers total business solutions for optimized supply chain operations. In addition to the supply chain management from Sun and i2, the alliance also offers solutions for customer relationship management, supplier relationship management and more. See:

http://www.sun.com/solutions/third-party/global/i2 [...read more...]

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