Foster Grant Honored with Technology Partnership Award

(October 28, 2002) Nashville, TN — APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management, a professional society headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia presented its annual Corporate Awards of Excellence today to companies that value workplace education, are innovative, and reward the benefits of partnerships for the betterment of their companies…

APICS also recognized the recipients of the technology partnership award—Prescient Systems and AAi.FosterGrant.

The award demonstrates how a partnership between a technology provider and a corporate client can increase the client’s success. AAi.FosterGrant, a leading supplier of sunglass and optical products, wanted to reduce inventory levels and boost fill rates when sales were down. Long lead times hindered forecasting seasonal items, like sunglasses, and the time between placing orders and delivering product was close to five months.
“The company needed a demand management system that could support sales, finance, and operations forecasts, while managing and maintaining the demand history,” said Darrin Weigle, AAiFosterGrant vice president of supply chain management.

AAi.FosterGrant selected Prescient Systems to help develop and deploy a supply chain strategy involving people, process, and technology that would drive cash out of the company’s inventory while simultaneously supporting corporate growth plans.

“Prescient Systems delivered a demand management solution that was able to achieve a highly flexible, responsive, and interactive demand management process to serve as the major cornerstone to AAi.FosterGrant’s overall supply chain management strategy,” said Kelly Vizzini, vice president of marketing for Prescient.

According to Weigle, “AAi.FosterGrant’s inventory levels fell between 33 and 46 percent, order fill-rates rose nearly 99 percent, and we can now forecast point-of-sale demand five months in advance with only 30-35 percent forecast errors, which translates to higher fill rates.”