Mis Mobile Platform

The improved supply chain information from RapidResponse enables

Cannondale to respond to customer orders much more rapidly with lower

levels of inventory and safety stock. Cycle times and lead times for producing

products have also been reduced. The company's dates for promising deliveries

are more reliable and accurate.

Sources: Kinaxis Corp., "Cannondale Improves Customer Response Times While Reducing

Inventory Using RapidResponse," 2010; www.kinaxis.com, accessed June 21, 2010; and

www.cannondale.com, accessed June 21, 2010.

Cannondale's problems with its supply chain illustrate the critical role of

supply chain management (SCM) systems in business. Cannondale's

business performance was impeded because it could not coordinate its sourcing,

manufacturing, and distribution processes. Costs were unnecessarily high

because the company was unable to accurately determine the exact amount of

each product it needed to fulfill orders and hold just that amount in inventory.

Instead, the company resorted to keeping extra "safety stock" on hand "just in

case." When products were not available when the customer wanted them,

Cannondale lost sales.

The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by

this case and this chapter. Like many other firms, Cannondale had a complex

supply chain and manufacturing processes to coordinate in many different

locations. The company had to deal with hundreds and perhaps thousands of

suppliers of parts and raw materials. It was not always possible to have just the

right amount of each part or component available when it was needed because

the company lacked accurate, up-to-date information about parts in inventory

and what manufacturing processes needed those parts.

An on-demand supply chain management software service from Kinaxis

helped solve this problem. The Kinaxis RapidResponse software takes in data

from Cannondale's existing manufacturing systems and assembles