Panasonic has leveraged i2 solution and managed service to boost sales and improve order fulfillment. panasonic Consumer Electronics, a household name in the global consumer electronics market, has succeeded in beating the price competition with effective channel management. While evaluating the performance of its fast growing plasma TV business Panasonic realized that the rapid price erosion of both the finished products and components left it with razor-thin margins. Panasonic executives evaluated the company's partner processes and mandated a redesign, which was aimed at improving the company's collaborative relationship with key retail partners nationwide.

As a supply chain partner of Panasonic, i2 helped design a new supply chain planning and fulfillment strategy for channel management. As a result, the new process utilizes distribution center (DC)/store-level point-of-sale trends for forecasting and replenishment, allowing Panasonic to gain greater visibility into retail supply chains and avoid stock-outs at store level. Also as part of a redefined collaboration process, i2's competency center in India works closely with Panasonic and its channel partners to analyze forecasts, replenishment and promotional data, and then provides detailed analysis to all parties. This outsourced planning service, coupled with tighter coordination between Panasonic and its retail partners, has improved the supply chain performance at Panasonic.

"We selected i2 for this supply chain initiative because the company is not just anther solution vendor, but also a trusted service provider," said Mike Aguilar, executive vice president of Supply Chain Strategic Initiatives, Panasonic. "Their consultant role and managed service are critical to the success of our new supply chain process. We are extraordinarily happy with what we have been able to achieve to date."