Ventana Supply Chain Models

Ventana® Supply Chain Models focus on distribution network service and costs, including the near- and long-term effects of shortages and overstock. They are used to determine optimal ordering and replenishment policy at each level, evaluate options in logistics discipline and branch procedures, and test system changes from order rules to entire network re-designs before implementation.

Examples
> Aircraft fleet sparing
> Retail grocery stocking

Retail grocery stocking
For a large and very successful grocery chain, Ventana evaluated the company's sales forecasting system, which the retailer believed to be state-of-the-art. Using historical sales data with a simulation model, Ventana benchmarked existing forecasting skill for the first time, and examined the role of forecasts in the client's overall product distribution system. Ventana showed that unjustified, but widely held, textbook prescriptions about customer behavior and inventory management were limiting the retailer's profitability, and found several opportunities to improve operational performance by re-designing the client's logistics algorithms and supply system policies. The client tested the new policies, first by simulation and then in multi-store trials, and found they could reduce system-wide inventory by 50% without lowering service levels. The client went on to implement Ventana algorithms throughout the company.