Helping you master complexity ...
Our ideal: Decisions your experts would make, if they had the time, data, business insights, and computer support.

Who we are | What we do | Our focus | Software we have developed
Making forecasting more useful | Complexities we handle

Who we are...

Our group of associates has more than a century of multidisciplinary, indepth systems experience in widely varied industries: aerospace to food producers, metal products to apparel.

This expertise helps us quickly recognize common problems and identify features unique to your firm.

Lloyd Malmstrom, founder/president, led Systems Research at Levi Strauss & Co. for 12 years. He previously had developed optimization for Hughes Aircraft lasercutters. Education: B.E.P.(Engineering Physics), Cornell University; M.A., Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Harvard University.

What we do...

Our operations consulting helps you see where and how your business could benefit from "smart" systems. We identify a cost-effective high value solution, and help your people learn to use it effectively.

We also develop customized software modules, for cases where they would give you greater value than a packaged solution. Using your test data, we verify the benefits of our logic.

Our PC-based modules interface easily with your systems, by exchanging data files and/or reading your databases.

We often can provide useful initial versions that get you started quickly.

Our focus...

We focus on the thousands of detailed decisions your firm makes every day: how much of a SKU (StockKeeping Unit) to make, how much to stock in each store, who to postpone if supply is low...

These decisions all impact smoothness and efficiency of operation, profit, and customer satisfaction. Yet they are often clerical functions with high turnover, or rarely checked output from software that uses ordinary textbook methods.

"Smart" systems can often help you improve speed, efficiency, and profit. But most MIS departments can't quickly develop them. And "one size fits all" software packages are a compromise designed for a broad market.

We have found many cases where special mathematics and attention to your firm's unique needs and opportunities give you greater value and ease of use.

Our help could be valuable if...

• Your firm has special challenges and/or opportunities.
• You need quick help, and don't want to redo databases just to fit a package.
• You want performance years ahead of today's packages.
• You have a vision that packages don't fulfill.

Software we have developed...

• Our product- and SKU-level forecasting analyzes individual big customers for size percentages and volatility. Our logic identifies trends faster than commonly used techniques.
• Other forecasting modules estimate the likely range of demand over varying timeperiods; and analyze results for new products.
• Our Intelligent Rounding® programs automatically plan production releases that both meet SKU-level inventory needs and can be produced efficiently.
• Our need-to-make programs analyze SKU and product inventory coverage over increasing time windows, based on your production plans and lead times.
• Our fast, automatic cut-order planning software has given pant and career apparel makers major fabric savings over lesser systems.
• Our "smart" marking analysis software automatically monitors marking results and recommends predictors, increasing mastery of your marking process.
• Our dynamic retail model stock management and replenishment help improve sales turns; reduce lost sales; and allow effective micromerchandising down to individual SKUs for a store.

Making forecasting more useful...

Making smarter business decisions often takes better forecasting.

Textbooks use simple models that lead to convenient formulas. Flipping a coin many times leads to a "bell curve"...

The textbook may not match your needs:

• The model may be too simple. You may have dominant big customers with unique demand patterns, for example.
• Demand may be too irregular for the formula to work reliably. A single item in a store may go weeks or months between sales, then have multiple-unit sales or repeat customers.
• You may need more insight about what's going on.

We go beyond the textbooks:

• We take into account what you know about the problem.
• We look at your detailed data, to gain insight and check for problems and opportunities.
• We check for big customers and other important features.
• We use special techniques where they give you better performance.

Complexities we handle...

We have successfully handled complexity for large apparel firms, far beyond what many industries face:

• Products come in multiple SKUs (sizes and/or colors). Having too much of slow-selling SKUs, while not having what is selling, can be a big problem.
• Big customers for a product order their own mix of the SKUs offered.
• Inventory risks often are greater; fashion choices can change fast.
• Demand can be slow and irregular, especially for SKUs in a store.
• For cost-effective production, a single production order must contain carefully related quantities of many sizes or SKUs.

Our expertise can help you master these challenges and more.