“Supply Chain Strategist allows us to take scenarios, run them independently, and compare them to each other.
We can come up with the right decision in a matter of hours. In the past, that would have taken weeks.”
—Mike Griswold, Strategic Process Leader, Shaw’s Supermarkets
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Industry
Retail i2 Solution i2 Supply Chain Management i2 Success Story
#203
Recognizing that it needed to make better decisions regarding its supply chain, and that it needed to optimally align its stores with its distribution centers, Shaw’s Supermarkets embarked on a value chain management initiative using i2 solutions. With i2 solutions in place, Shaw’s Supermarkets significantly reduced decision-making time and anticipates a full return on investment within one year of implementation.
Faced with razor-thin margins and increasing competition, the grocery industry must look to cut costs while better meeting customer demands.
which Shaw’s believed it could build a mutually beneficial working relationship.
Increasing numbers of food retailers are looking to cut costs by optimizing their supply chains. More complicated than the traditional retail supply chain, the grocery industry’s supply chain has many perishable items that must move quickly from end to end.
“We were exposed to i2 and were very pleased with the tool,” said Mike Griswold, Shaw’s Supermarkets’ Strategic
Process Leader. “We realized that for a company our size, we needed i2 solutions to help guide us in making highlevel decisions. With a more efficient supply chain, we can lower our costs, which will benefit the customer.”
With 185 stores throughout New England, Shaw’s
Supermarkets had a clear understanding of the complicated supply chain inherent in its industry. Shaw’s recognized that, given the size and scope of its business, it needed a tool to help make high-level supply chain decisions.
i2 solutions enable retailers to merchandise, source, buy, move, and sell products with greater visibility and velocity across the value chain, delivering increased sales and profits, improved vendor performance, and reduced logistics costs.
The high volume of transactions that went through its two distribution centers – up to 600,000 cases shipped per week – also convinced Shaw’s that it needed a better understanding of the relationship between its stores and its distribution centers.
i2’s Contribution
To optimally align its retail stores with its distribution centers, Shaw’s Supermarkets implemented i2 Supply
Chain Strategist, ™ part of the i2 Supply Chain Management ™ suite of solutions.
Why i2?
After researching potential solution providers, Shaw’s
Supermarkets found that i2’s ability to transform the value chains of its retail customers was well-documented in industry publications. Highly recommended by other retail businesses, i2 was also the solutions provider with
“When you have 185 stores, two distribution centers, and a partnership with a third-party wholesaler, there are a lot of possible combinations as to which distribution center is going to support which store,” Griswold said. “Without a tool like Supply Chain Strategist, it is difficult to manage that.”
Challenges
–Make better high-level supply chain decisions
–Gain a better understanding of the relationship between stores and distribution centers
–Optimize supply chain to lower costs
Solutions
–Utilize “what-if” scenarios
–Automate the alignment process for its 12,000 dry grocery items
–Make more fact-based, analytical decisions
Results
–Reduced decision-making time from weeks to hours
–Reduced running time of optimization scenarios from days to minutes
–Achieve full ROI within 1 year
Headquartered in West
Bridgewater, Mass., Shaw’s
Supermarkets operates 185 stores throughout New England.
With annual sales totaling
$4 billion, Shaw’s employs nearly 30,000 people.

“Shaw’s Supermarkets’ implementation of i2 solutions has been great. I have been on my own, running the system full time. I haven’t had to contact i2 with any technical problems. From a training perspective, i2 has been excellent.”
—Jim Holland, Corporate Inventory Manager, Shaw’s Supermarkets
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In addition to aligning its distribution centers with its stores, Supply Chain Strategist is also enabling Shaw’s to automate the alignment of its 12,000 dry grocery items with its distribution centers – adding intelligence to decisions on where items will be stored and who will deliver them.
“Before Supply Chain Strategist, we would do some analysis, use some intuition, and hope that it was the best decision to make,” Griswold said. “The i2 solution provides us with the ability to make more fact-based, analytical decisions that we foresee improving our base cost in different areas.”
“Before i2, the first idea of what to do would come as a suggestion from somebody’s mind within Shaw’s,” said
Jim Holland, Shaw’s Supermarkets’ Corporate Inventory
Manager. “We would do an analysis of whether or not the idea was better than something we’ve done in the past and go from there. The analysis was done manually, and did not consider multiple solutions at the same time.
We can do that with Supply Chain Strategist.”
With one of its main focal points for improvement – the speed of optimization – Shaw’s Supermarkets has experienced even better results than it anticipated.
Before its implementation, Shaw’s Supermarkets expected the optimization process to run for about an hour. However, Supply Chain Strategist has dramatically decreased that time frame.
Along with more informed decision-making, Shaw’s now has the ability to utilize “what-if” scenarios.
“At one point, one hour wasn’t a big deal because it took us days to do that manually,” Griswold said. “But now, we can literally turn scenarios around in minutes.”
“Supply Chain Strategist allows us to take scenarios, run them independently, and compare them to each other,” Griswold said. “We can come up with the right decision in a matter of hours. In the past, that would have taken weeks.”
From a technical standpoint, Shaw’s Supermarkets is extremely pleased with i2 solutions’ ease of integration with its legacy system. In addition, due to the quality of its training from i2, Shaw’s Supermarkets has achieved its goal of self-sufficiency.
Shaw’s Supermarkets’ Results
Although still in the implementation stages, Shaw’s
Supermarkets has already realized significant value using i2 solutions.
“Shaw’s Supermarkets’ implementation of i2 solutions has been great,” Holland said. “I have been on my own, running the system full time. I haven’t had to contact i2 with any technical problems. From a training perspective, i2 has been excellent.”
Prior to implementing i2 solutions, Shaw’s relied heavily on instinct to guide the business decisions at hand.
Using Supply Chain Strategist, Shaw’s Supermarkets expects a full return on investment within one year of its implementation as well as significant dollar savings.
i2 Success Story
#203 i2 and i2 Technologies are registered trademarks of i2 Technologies US, Inc. i2 Supply Chain Strategist and i2 Supply Chain Management are trademarks of i2 Technologies US, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective owners. ©Copyright 2002 i2 Technologies US, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. CSS-7042 (06/02) (09/02)
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