The Legacy of HP
Hewlett-Packard spun out its Life Sciences, Electronics and Communications
divisions in 1999, creating Agilent Technologies. At that time, service
parts planning was done in a piecemeal fashion, with each division running
in-house custom applications. Many of these systems had been hard-wired
into HP legacy systems, making upgrading and optimizing them difficult
and expensive.
With customers demanding near-perfect service levels on same-day contracts,
Agilent knew that something needed to be done to free them from the constraints
of their legacy systems. They could build a new custom system in-house, but
that would only fix the problem for a short time. They could force-fit an ERP
solution, but the major vendors' out-of-the-box functionality was not suited
to sophisticated, geographically diverse service organizations like Agilent's.
Finally, Agilent decided they needed a focused solution designed specifically
for parts planning that could help them raise service levels while keeping
inventory down. They needed Baxter.
The Baxter Solution
Baxter was the logical choice for Agilent for service parts supply chain optimization
software.
Baxter Planning Systems won their business based on their
ability to go beyond mere cost savings to using service excellence as a strategic
weapon.
Prophet by Baxter™ is Baxter's software suite that helps Agilent determine
the precise geographic locations for their parts warehouses as well as the
optimal stocking levels for each part at each location. Because Prophet is
a web-based, proprietary ASP solution, Agilent does not have to worry about
expensive IT resources or integration worries. Prophet seamlessly integrates
with all of Agilent's legacy systems.
The Results
The Baxter solution was implemented for Agilent in a matter of weeks, and the
company began seeing customer service improvements immediately. Missed service
calls on same- and next-day contracts dropped by a dramatic 62%, and inventory
levels dropped 24%. These improvements had a direct impact on Agilent's bottom
line. Improving service levels while cutting inventory costs is how Baxter
helps Agilent turn parts into profit.
