Supply Chain Excellence: Tactics to Minimize Costs and Enhance Quality.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Increasing emphasis on superior quality and the crucial bottom-line are compelling world-class companies to implement build-to-order/mass customization principles. Dramatic inventory reduction principles and speedy distribution systems are additional key elements of their strategic

Companies like the Raytheon Company, whose Missile Systems business won the 2004 Global Award for Supply Chain Excellence in the Industrial Division, use Best Practices, LLC's benchmarking metrics and networking to compare their own performance against top companies to learn & share best practices to achieve excellence.

Designed to further assist supply chain executives, a Supply Chain Research Bundle is now available at http://www3.best-in-class.com/dr100.htm. Access to these insights costs only $899.95, but provides key tactics that influence billions of dollars in savings.

For example, research profiles how one computer manufacturer renowned for its super-efficient supply chain utilizes a build-to-order manufacturing program to curtail its inventory to a two-hour supply, while shipping 95 percent of customer orders within eight hours. In an industry characterized by plummeting materials costs and rapid rendering of obsolete technology, this strategy has provided this firm with a significant competitive advantage as a low-cost producer.

Topics covered in the Supply Chain Research Bundle include:

--Managing Supplier Performance - improve products and cycle time by requiring suppliers to develop and implement internal quality programs and meet cost requirements.

--Inventory and Cash Management and Supply Chain Productivity Initiatives - practices and metrics from best-in-class companies. Metrics include inventory days of supply, days sales outstanding, days payables outstanding and cash-to-cash conversion.

--Using Technology to Manage Your Supply Chain - EDI/XML data exchange and the latest supply base technologies, including web-based software that boosts supply base performance.

--Measuring Order-to-Cash (OTC) Cycle Times to Enhance Customer Service - operational tactics companies use to measure order-to-cash processes.

To purchase online access to these documents, visit http://www3.best-in-class.com/dr100.htm. These documents came from the Business Operations section of the Best Practice Database. Access to the entire database of best practices - including sales and marketing, human resources, business development, customer service and financial management topics - costs only $4,400 per individual.

For more information about this bundle or other database documents, contact Sue Silverstein at (919) 403-0251 ext 251 or at ssilverstein@best-in-class.com.

ABOUT BEST PRACTICES, LLC

Best Practices, LLC is a research and consulting firm that conducts work based on the principle that organizations can chart a course to superior economic performance by studying the best business practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of world-class organizations. For more information, call 919-403-0251 or visit http://www.best-in-class.com.