Elekta, the manufacturer of equipment for the treatment of cancer and brain disorders, has selected inventory planning and forecasting technology from Inform to help it deliver replacement parts to customers in the quickest possible time.
Inform’s add*ONE Inventory Optimizer will allow the company to forecast demand for spare parts for customers which are spread across 60 countries.
Mark Purchase, project manager at Elekta, said: “We run a low-volume but complex operation to install, maintain and support 2,000 sites globally. Because of the mission-critical nature of the parts support operation, we need to ensure all of our customers maintain maximum use of their investment in patient treatment systems.”
Elekta’s central spares division is located in Holland and distributes 12,000 – 15,000 shipments per year to customers in the America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions.
Inform’s product will be integrated into Elekta’s existing Enterprise Resource Planning system, to enable 98 per cent in-region availability of spare parts – so that engineers can resolve customer problems within hours.
“We have worked closely with Elekta to create a specific demand and inventory model. It’s based on our standard software and proprietary forecast and optimisation engines. These will allow them to accurately predict fluctuations in customer demand and propose cost-optimised replenishments from their global central warehouse into the regions,” added Cathy Humphreys, UK country manager at Inform.
Installation and testing will begin in February, while the software is expected to go live in April 2010.
