Supply & Demand Chain Executive, the executive’s user manual for successful supply and demand chain transformation, has selected AIMMS as a recipient of an SDCE 100 Award for its work with online retailer Peapod.

The SDCE 100 is an annual list of 100 great supply chain projects. These projects can serve as a map for supply chain executives who are looking for new opportunities to drive improvement in their own operations. They show how supply chain solution and service providers help their customers and clients achieve supply chain excellence and prepare their supply chains for success.

Winning at Warehouse Slotting Optimization with AIMMS
The project selected for this award was Peapod’s Warehouse Slotting Optimization solution, built on the AIMMS Prescriptive Analytics Platform in collaboration with Districon, a longtime AIMMS partner. Peapod, a leading U.S. online grocer and subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, was trying to optimize product placements in its warerooms. Items for e-commerce deliveries can be picked from these warerooms, or if needed, from stores. They wanted to minimize the number of picks and time spent in the store vs. what they picked in warerooms, which are smaller and carry items just for online customers. AIMMS provided a flexible and easy to use environment to model the many variables involved in slotting decisions such as seasonality, product location, number of facings and whether a product can be stacked. The calculations that determine which items to move happen behind the scenes and are fully automated. The tool also optimally slots fast moving items, placing them at ideal grabbing height and minimizing reaching or crouching. Overall, it makes work much easier for wareroom employees. Besides contributing to a 20% reduction in out-of-stock occurrences, the AIMMS-based tool has reduced the amount of time needed to slot new warerooms from scratch.

“Wareroom slotting used to take around 500 hours to do in the past. The new warerooms only took 4 hours. So, this will be a big benefit for our wareroom openings in the future,” says Daniël van Gool, Director of Fulfillment Strategy & Network Expansion at Peapod Digital Labs

“We’re proud of what Peapod has achieved with AIMMS technology and are honored to accept this award,” says Chris Gordon, AIMMS VP & Product Lead SC Navigator.

“Every year our list of submissions for the SDCE 100 continues to grow as more companies rely on the expertise of supply management for innovative decision-making. Our winners raise the bar for what is achievable in the supply chain,” says John R. Yuva, editor for Supply & Demand Chain Executive. “With a variety of company sizes and industry sectors represented, our Top 100 are leading examples for how to approach and solve supply chain challenges. Congratulations to our 2019 winners and the projects that delivered greater operational efficiencies and bottom-line results across the supply chain.”