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

Business Editors

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2004

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

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/rr377.htm. Access to these insights costs only $900, 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/rr377.htm. These documents came from the Business Operations section of the Best Practice Database. Access to all business operations documents costs $1,000. Access to the entire database of best practices - including sales and marketing, human resources, business development, customer service and financial management topics - costs only $4,000 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

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.