LINDO API
by Lindo Systems
Supply Chain Redesign
Optimising of product sourcing and distribution systemWhen you make and globally market over 300 brands of consumer goods with operations in over 70 countries worldwide, efficient work processes are critical. If you want to remain a worldwide market leader in everything from diapers and acne products to antacids and denture creams, you cannot afford unnecessary duplication. Procter & Gamble knows this, and they know just the tools to use to streamline their supply chain.
P&G underwent a massive effort to reexamine and reengineeer their product sourcing and distribution system in their North American operations. The undertaking involved no less than 500 P&G employees working together over a period of several months. The methodology developed to solve the problem combined information technology, integer programming, network optimisation, a geographical information system, and a copy of LINDO. The result was an overhaul of P&G's manufacturing and distribution system that is saving well over $250 million per year mostly from lower manufacturing expenses.
This work was published in a paper titled "Blending OR/MS, Judgement, and GIS: Restructuring P&G's Supply Chain" which appeared in the January-February 1997 issue of INTERFACES. It was a Franz Edelman Award Finalist and the authors were Thomas Chorman, Franz Dill, and Glenn Wegryn of Procter & Gamble and Jeffrey Camm, James Evans, and Dennis Sweeney of the University of Cincinnati.