Del Monte Inventory Metrics Beat Industry Average

In an effort to enhance a lean and responsive supply chain, Del Monte Foods has implemented a demand-driven inventory planning service from Real Time Value Network (RTVN), provided by One Network Enterprises (ONE).
 

“The Real Time Value Network’s Inventory Planning service has allowed Del Monte to obtain additional inventory savings over and above the already-significant results driven by the earlier-announced demand-driven project with One Network,” says Rob Ferguson, vice president, Value Engineering and Customer Service at Del Monte.

Traditional inventory management systems aggregate historical data over long periods of time, set safety stock and order polices on a weekly or monthly basis, and are disconnected from replenishment systems. Because of this, carrying excess inventory becomes necessary to prevent stock-outs.
 

By contrast, Del Monte’s inventory planning with ONE’s RTVN computes optimal safety stock levels at all of Del Monte’s finished goods inventory locations across thousands of SKUs in real time, optimizing multi-tier inventory by computing the inventory targets for specific service levels.
 

It captures multi-party variables such as lead times, manufacturing frequency, batch size, and ordering policies from across the value chain, and using a proprietary mix of micro-simulations, complex algorithms, exception-based forecasts, and real-time downstream demand signals, suggests and automatically adjusts inventories for specific SKUs to their optimal levels.
 

More than 30,000 companies — such as Kroger, Lockheed Martin, Safeway, Menlo Logistics, the US Department of Defense, and the US Marine Corp — are already connected to the RTVN for demand-driven services that have reportedly lowered inventories and operational costs, improved service, and increased profitability.