News & Research: Client Successes

Case Study: Materials Management Leading Practice Assessment

A major electric generation and transmission authority in the Southeast requested that ScottMadden conduct an assessment of the companys current materials management practices and identify opportunities for further improvement.

• Utilities today face increasing demands to reduce operating costs while maintaining or increasing reliability and customer service. Meeting these demands means examining every opportunity to drive operating efficiency and improve performance. One way to help achieve these objectives is to optimize asset management, including the utility's MRO inventories
• The client's supply chain management team requested that ScottMadden conduct a high-level assessment of the company's current materials management practices. The objective was to compare the companys practices to available leading practices and identify opportunities for improvement
• The assessment was conducted separately for the Fossil Generation, Nuclear Generation, and Transmission Business Units
• ScottMadden also undertook a high-level customer satisfaction survey involving 15 different sites
• Management also requested that ScottMadden examine in more detail, four "deep-dive" practices that would be selected following the high-level analysis

• Used ScottMadden's database of more than 300 leading practices in the area of materials management to compare the company's current practices to supply chain leading practices
• Summarized the results into Leading Practice Adoption (LPA) scores for each of the following areas: inventory management, warehouse management, and transportation management
• Sorted and prioritized individual practices to focus on those with the greatest gap between current and potential use, as well as the greatest potential for positively impacting future operations
• Conducted a survey of user satisfaction with the services provided by the materials management team
• Conducted a deep-dive analysis in the following areas: automated data capture, inventory optimization, service level agreements and outsourcing

• ScottMadden prepared a series of reports summarizing the team's findings and observations with respect to leading practice adoption, customer satisfaction, and current performance
• These reports were reviewed with the respective business unit teams and supply chain management team
• ScottMadden's recommendations for leading practice adoption were subsequently incorporated into the client's budget and improvement program for the following calendar year