Distribuidora Flexi, the largest manufacturer of footwear in Mexico, recently went live with solutions from i2 Technologies, Inc. (Dallas). The company uses i2 solutions to perform consensus demand forecasting, constrained manufacturing planning, capacity planning and materials planning across its entire product lines.
Distribuidora Flexi has been in the business of designing, manufacturing and selling quality footwear for approximately 70 years. The company runs seven integrated plants and one central warehouse in Leon, Mexico. In addition to the manufacturing capabilities, Distribuidora Flexi also owns and operates a network of 60 stores located in Mexico. The company selected i2 solutions because they felt they were the best suited to help manage the global nature and constantly changing landscape of the footwear manufacturing and retail business.
"We selected i2 based on our discussions with i2's industry leading footwear customers as well as the company's capabilities in process, organization and performance measures. We implemented i2 solutions in order to be well prepared to adapt to changes in market demand and global pressures," said Roberto Plasencia T., commercial director, Distribuidora Flexi. "Robust planning processes and superior forecasting capabilities will keep our company ahead of the curve well into the future. We intend to work closely with i2 now and in the future to further extract value from our supply chain for more efficient business processes."
The project started with a six-week consulting engagement enabling the i2 consulting group to introduce Distribuidora Flexi to i2's thought leadership in supply chain planning best practices, identify areas of opportunity and develop a roadmap to implement i2 solutions. The i2 consulting engagement primarily focused on conducting strategy sessions with Distribuidora Flexi's core team, enabling the joint team to compare supply chain industry best practices against current business processes to identify key areas of opportunity. This process resulted in the Distribuidora Flexi and i2 team making several key recommendations for process, organization and technology improvements and a roadmap to implement these recommendations. Distribuidora Flexi then worked together with i2 to implement the recommendations and install i2 solutions to improve demand management and master planning process across their entire product lines and facilities.
"Our proven success in the footwear industry has enabled i2 to establish industry-leading best practices for supply chain excellence," said i2 Senior Vice President of Consumer Products Steve Estrada. "i2 customers can gain the most benefit by working together with our consultants to diagnose their supply chain key focus areas and then implement solutions that address the areas that can bring the most significant impact areas first. This approach helps our customers to map out the business process changes, solution implementation effort, and better plan for the change management initiatives these projects require for success."
Source: i2 Technologies, Inc.
