Lotte Completes Implementation of Manugistics' Demand Management Solution
Japan's Leading Confectionary Maker to Reduce Inventory and Stockouts by Combining Supply Chain Management System together with Business Process Reengineering Efforts
Manugistics Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANU), a leading global provider of synchronized supply chain and revenue management solutions, and Lotte Co., Ltd., one of Japan's leading confectionary makers, today announced that Lotte has successfully implemented Manugistics' forecasting system to improve their demand and fulfillment planning processes. The system went live in December 2004.
For more than a decade, Lotte has implemented a number of business process reengineering (BPR) initiatives that achieved certain results. The company combined its BPR efforts with the recently implemented Manugistics' system to further reduce inventory and stockouts that had previously led to missed sales opportunities.
As part of the BPR efforts, Lotte has enabled its sales staff to focus on sales of new products and renewal products thereby reducing their workload for sales planning operations on existing products, which have been relegated to the company's manufacturing division. As a tool to help support that sales environment, Lotte evaluated and chose Manugistics' system as the best fit for enhancing their operations.
"Within the consumer goods industry confectionary is most susceptible to the changing demands of its consumers' tastes," said Manugistics President of the Asia Pacific Region Ken Wallett. "Achieving accurate demand and fulfillment planning is no easy task. In such a changing market, Manugistics' value lies in its ability to simulate differing demands. Our ability to separate product basedemand from demand created by sales campaigns and/or events is key to the process. Manugistics' systems have helped provide Lotte improved planning processes that once relied heavily on an individual's experiences. With a successful implementation completed, we look forward to continuing our support of Lotte's efforts for improved planning accuracy."
"For more than a decade we have worked on reducing inventory and preventing missed sales opportunities by implementing various BPR efforts," said Lotte's General Manager Supply Chain Management Manufacturing Division Hisato Yoshioka. "With the implementation of Manugistics' solution completed, Lotte intends to further improve operation levels by effectively giving our sales teams feedback on verification results of sales campaigns or events, as well improvingdemand and fulfillment planning accuracy."
Lotte will further improve accuracy of demand and fulfillment planning by accumulating data, analyzing how much impact past sales campaigns or events have on these activities and determining the data that should be shared throughout the company.
About Lotte Co., Ltd.
Number of employees: About 3,600
About Manugistics Group, Inc.
Manugistics powers the synchronized supply chain. Clients depend on Manugistics to position them one step ahead of demand. With Manugistics' unparalleled supply chain and revenue management solutions, clients achieve improved forecast and inventory accuracy, leverage industry leading pricing and yield management solutions to maximize profits while ensuring constant supply for constantly changing demand. Its clients include industry leaders such as AT&T,BMW, Boeing, Caesars Entertainment, Canadian Tire, Cingular, Circuit City, Coca-Cola Bottling, Coty International, Delta Air Lines, DHL, Diageo, Dixons, DuPont, Eurostar Ltd., Georgia-Pacific, Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), Harley-Davidson, Harrah's Entertainment, H.J. Heinz, John Deere, LL Bean, Limited Brands, Kraft Foods, Marriott, McCormick, Nestle, Nissan, RadioShack, The Scotts Company, Sears, Sinotrans, Unilever and Wickes Building Supplies. For more information, go to www.manugistics.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, continuing cautious capital spending by corporations, especially for information technology such as enterprise application software, the ability of the Company to effectively align its cost structure with revenues, unintended adverse effects of the Company's recent restructuring and cost containment initiatives and recent organizational changes, and the effectiveness of the company's system of internal control over financial reporting.More information about factors that potentially could affect Manugistics' financial results is included in Manugistics filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 28, 2005. Manugistics assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained on this announcement.