Hp Deskjet Printer Supply Chain
SGSCMF-003-2001
HP DeskJet Printer Supply Chain
Global Supply Chain Management Forum
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY
GSS3B MAY 2001
Hewlett-Packard Company DeskJet Printer Supply Chain (B)1
Brent Cartier, Manager of Special Projects in the Materials Department of the HewlettPackard (HP) Vancouver Division, was enjoying a hot cup of coffee after lunch on the long flight to Germany. The last few days had been exhausting. Meetings, conferences calls and non-stop phone calls had been his daily routine. The next few days would be worse, he thought, and so he had better try to get some sleep. Brent recalled his meeting a few days ago with Billy Corrington and his team, David Arkadia and his lieutenants. “The inventory model that we built for you can take care of the magnitudes of forecast errors, lead times, and the service targets that you want. The use of such a model would certainly bring discipline and rationality to the safety stock setting process. It is nice, but I do not think that we should stop with the implementation of the model.” David showed excitement when the idea of redesigning the DeskJet so that it could be localized remotely at the DCs was brought up. This meant that the power supply module would have to be redesigned so that it could be added to the printer at the last minute as a simple plug-in operation. This would be followed by simple testing and then adding the other localization materials, such as manuals and final packaging, to the product. He was especially pleased to hear that Billy’s model could quantify the benefits in terms of inventory reduction and service improvement resulted from such a change. David was quick to secure the blessings of the manufacturing manager, Al Gracio, to start working out the details of such a redesign. Brent spent two days meeting with the Engineering group to outline the Materials Department’s recommendation. It was not an easy sell. There were a number of engineers who could not
HP DeskJet Printer Supply Chain
Global Supply Chain Management Forum
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY
GSS3B MAY 2001
Hewlett-Packard Company DeskJet Printer Supply Chain (B)1
Brent Cartier, Manager of Special Projects in the Materials Department of the HewlettPackard (HP) Vancouver Division, was enjoying a hot cup of coffee after lunch on the long flight to Germany. The last few days had been exhausting. Meetings, conferences calls and non-stop phone calls had been his daily routine. The next few days would be worse, he thought, and so he had better try to get some sleep. Brent recalled his meeting a few days ago with Billy Corrington and his team, David Arkadia and his lieutenants. “The inventory model that we built for you can take care of the magnitudes of forecast errors, lead times, and the service targets that you want. The use of such a model would certainly bring discipline and rationality to the safety stock setting process. It is nice, but I do not think that we should stop with the implementation of the model.” David showed excitement when the idea of redesigning the DeskJet so that it could be localized remotely at the DCs was brought up. This meant that the power supply module would have to be redesigned so that it could be added to the printer at the last minute as a simple plug-in operation. This would be followed by simple testing and then adding the other localization materials, such as manuals and final packaging, to the product. He was especially pleased to hear that Billy’s model could quantify the benefits in terms of inventory reduction and service improvement resulted from such a change. David was quick to secure the blessings of the manufacturing manager, Al Gracio, to start working out the details of such a redesign. Brent spent two days meeting with the Engineering group to outline the Materials Department’s recommendation. It was not an easy sell. There were a number of engineers who could not