Case Studies

Manufacturing Company

Business Objective

Eliminate reliance on expensive refrigerated warehouse space, intake more scrap product faster and at a lower cost, and plan for the addition of a new manufacturing facility.

SimpleRose worked with a manufacturing company to understand their raw materials intake process and together uncovered new insights that changed the way they thought about their business. SimpleRose developed a custom web application that can be run regularly to minimize their expected freight cost over the upcoming 12 months for one of their lines of business. This lets the company plan out their production schedule and allocate which of their suppliers each production facility is going to use for the upcoming year. This planning not just minimizes their freight costs but allows the production facilities to have more consistent inventory levels. Not having to worry about carrying additional inventory means they can completely reduce their dependence on refrigerated warehouse space, which they had spent over $2.5 million on in the 18 months prior to the project.

In addition to optimizing the company’s yearly strategic plan, SimpleRose developed another application that takes their strategic plan and allows them to use it on a daily basis, recommending each day which freight movements should happen. This application accounts for both the yearly strategic plan as well as the day-to-day perturbations in the business, using their own live data.

Telecommunications

Business Objective

The global fiber optics market is expected to continue growing at a rate of nearly 7% each year. Companies are deciding where to expand their networks and place their access points to maximize coverage and service with minimal installation costs. These challenges arise for both new installations and for upgrading existing equipment.

Optimization allows companies to be able to balance competing priorities. We develop models that can be configured to maximize profit by calculating potential new revenue and associated installation costs. The decisions can be evaluated simultaneously for both where to place new access points as well as how they should be connected to the network.

Optimization can also support telecommunication companies in their other activities like marketing campaigns, supply chain management, and workforce planning. Marketing optimization is used to decide what demographics to target, to determine promotions, and to offer products and services to customers more effectively. Supply chain optimization enables access to the correct materials when they are needed. Workforce planning facilitates optimal labor scheduling using models built on real data, eliminating time-consuming manual scheduling and outdated rules of thumb.

Sports Scheduling

Business Objective

There is a virtually unlimited number of possible combinations of dates, locations, and opponents that sports leagues must juggle to  schedule games. A good schedule is important to reduce unnecessary travel, generate excitement for key matchups, and create fairness across teams while also being efficient.

Our solutions incorporate the many factors that go into a sports schedule from field and team availability to travel restrictions for support personnel such as referees. We can formulate decisions with the goal to maximize fairness among the teams or to minimize the deviation between the team’s desired and actual schedule. Maximizing competitive fairness can take into account travel considerations, the number of away games in a row, a reasonable number of late games throughout the season, and more.

An initial agreeable set of games is locked in, and the remainder of the games is optimized in subsequent model runs. Using optimization provides more and better scheduling, faster.

Our solution is flexible to adapt to changes that may occur throughout a season including games canceled by weather or players unavailable due to injury. . These conditions are input to the model to re-optimize the schedule.

Meeting Emissions Targets

Business Objective

Companies are seeking to reduce, or even eliminate, their carbon footprint in the coming years. Supply chain emissions are, on average, 11x operational emissions so these initiatives often fall on supply chain teams. This is particularly true for retail and apparel companies who have the highest level of emissions on average.

Oftentimes there are overlaps in reducing your costs and your carbon footprint. Using optimization can help you decide which warehouses to use, which transportation modes to use, which shipments to bundle, and more. Both long-term strategic decisions, e.g., facility location, and day-to-day operational shipping decisions can be incorporated into your optimization model.

Optimized forecasting helps balance supply and demand, reducing waste and improving inventory management. . By integrating optimization into your business, you can reduce both your costs and your carbon emissions.

Ingredient Mixing

Business Objective

Food manufacturers, and others who are tackling mixing problems, seek to reduce costs and waste, and to efficiently manage their inventory levels. They also want to continuously improve their nutrition and product quality. Food and beverage manufacturers have reported that formula modifications have been critical for them to remain successful.

SimpleRose helps companies select the right ingredients from the right vendors at the right time. For instance, companies making granulated sugar can choose from an array of sugars to combine into their final product. The choices include cane sugar, beet sugar, and other sugars. Each of these ingredients can be sourced from various suppliers, each with their own costs, and in various amounts, each with their own limit on availability.

SimpleRose optimization supports decision making with regard to which suppliers to purchase from, when to purchase, and how much to purchase. Our optimization models take into account the strict nutritional requirements and product quality requirements that companies desire. Having the correct amount of the right of inventory increases a company’s sustainability through reducing waste and improving their overall efficiency.

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