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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HENKEL PARTNERS WITH OPTIANT AND INSIGHT FOR SUPPLY CHAIN DESIGN
X-System®, INSIGHT's Proprietary Optimization Engine Powers Solutions
Manassas, VA & Burlington, MA -- October 28, 2003 -- INSIGHT, Inc., the leading provider of optimization-based planning and scheduling systems for solving the most complex issues of the world's top companies, and Optiant, Inc. announce that Henkel Consumer Adhesives will use Optiant's PowerChain21® Suite in conjunction with INSIGHT SAILS 21® to design enhanced supply chains that will support the company's rapid growth. The North American division, which manages an extremely complex product line, will use the combined solution to build flexibility and efficiency into the heart of its supply chain.
Henkel Consumer Adhesives is a subsidiary of Henkel Group, the 127-year- old consumer and industrial goods manufacturer, based in Dusseldorf, Germany. Its consumer adhesives group, known for its Duck21® brand duct tape, produces hundreds of consumer products at more than 80 sites worldwide. Several years of impressive sales, along with a combination of new products, acquisitions and market expansion are creating new opportunities for Henkel to treat its supply chain as a strategic weapon.
Henkel is harnessing the optimization and analytical capabilities of Optiant's PowerChain suite and INSIGHT SAILS to quickly determine a supply chain strategy that consistently pinpoints new efficiencies, opportunities for cost-savings and improved customer service. The combined solution is extremely robust and handles Henkel's two largest concerns: successful product line, network, and supply base rationalization during mergers and acquisitions; and precise service level optimization as the retail industry consolidates.
Henkel will increase production managers' visibility across the global supply chain by rigorously analyzing key business information, including lead time, service-level requirements, and inventory-holding costs, and linking this critical data to hard-dollar costs. As a result, the division expects to explore new 'what-if' scenarios that could impact core business goals and reduce the time-to-decision from weeks to hours, or even minutes. The goal: superior responsiveness and adaptability that will provide dramatic competitive advantage.
"A winning supply chain strategy will improve our ability to hit a constantly moving target," said Brian Bastock, Vice President, Strategic Sourcing of Henkel Consumer Adhesives. "The partnership with Optiant and INSIGHT delivers the intelligence we need to make unbiased supply chain decisions that overcome market uncertainties and capitalize on our growth potential."
The joint solution from Optiant and INSIGHT, the combination of network design and inventory optimization, is the most powerful means to achieving superior supply chain design that aligns with corporate goals for time-to- market and profitability. The one-two punch of INSIGHT and Optiant allows organizations anticipate real-world supply and demand uncertainties and bring profitable products to market quickly. Many customers report double-digit gains in market share while cutting millions from production costs.
"Henkel Consumer Adhesives faces the challenges unique to the most successful manufacturers: rapid growth, expanding product lines, and limitless opportunity -- along with the challenges of successfully managing global supply networks," said Jim Lawton, vice president of Optiant. "By bringing strategic supply chain design into the center of its operation, Henkel, INSIGHT and Optiant will uncover new opportunities that drive even more growth."
About Henkel Consumer Adhesives
Henkel Consumer Adhesives, Inc. develops and markets a broad array of imaginative products for the home, school and office under the Duck and Loctite brands. In Canada, the company markets products through Henkel Canada Corporation, Consumer Adhesives. Henkel Consumer Adhesives is part of the Henkel Group, a worldwide leader in adhesives and a European leader in laundry/home care and personal care products. In 2002, the Henkel Group generated sales of 9.6 billion euros and currently employs 48,515 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit http://www.henkelca.com.
About Optiant
Optiant is a pioneer in the emerging market of supply chain design and optimization. Optiant's flagship software solution, the PowerChain(R) suite, enables global organizations to design and configure optimal supply chains, solving real-world problems today. PowerChain determines cost-effective inventory placements and integrates supply chain strategy into sourcing and distribution processes for quantifiable results in less than ninety days. Optiant has proven that intelligent inventory policies improve customer service levels and provide rapid ROI by driving out millions of dollars of associated costs from complex supply chains. Our roster of blue-chip clients, including Global 1000 discrete manufacturers, utilizes Optiant's expertise to design competitive supply chains and innovative inventory policies. PowerChain solutions are built on patent-pending optimization technology based on more than ten years of leading-edge research and industry partnerships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Optiant is a privately held company headquartered in Boston and can be reached at http://www.optiant.com or (781) 238-8855.
About INSIGHT, Inc.
INSIGHT software and consulting provide optimization-based planning and scheduling to solve the supply chain management issues of the world's top companies. INSIGHT solves these latest, critical, and most complex problems for 40% of Fortune Magazine's top fifty, 70% of Business Week's most profitable corporations, and 70% of the companies judged to have the best supply chains. Clients often select INSIGHT when other solutions have failed. These clients rely on INSIGHT to gain the greatest competitive advantage from the best answer. Clients include Abbott Laboratories, BASF, BPAmoco, Clorox, HP, ExxonMobil, Ingram Books, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Levi Strauss, Motorola, Pennzoil, PepsiCo, Perrier, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Toyota.
The X-System®, a proprietary optimization engine, powers a network of planning and scheduling solutions. Examples include crew scheduling, production planning, design of global supply chains, and transportation planning within TMS® from MercuryGate International. Increasingly, INSIGHT provides optimization components, partnering with third party software providers, such as Optiant, to deliver best-of-breed solutions. Call INSIGHT offices in Virginia at (703) 366-3061. On the Web, visit INSIGHT-MSS.com.
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