Ashley Furniture optimizes supply chain operations

Optimizing shipments between warehouses and customers' homes is not an easy task.



For Ashley Furniture this process becomes even more complex as it continues to create more efficient means to manages more than 7,000 storekeeping units (SKUs) filtering through the company’s retail network, which is comprised of 660 Ashley HomeStore locations in 35 countries.



Needing to move merchandise more efficiently and cost-effectively between their distribution center and into their customers’ homes, the company needs a reliable supply chain system. By partnering with Llamasoft, the furniture chain is adding an integrated suite of supply chain solutions that will enable the company to design and optimize its supply chain operations as a means of improving cost, service, sustainability and risk mitigation.



A unified database will support end-to-end modeling, from analysis and simulation to optimization. Using the most current data, users can visualize current operations and bottlenecks. By applying maps, charts, graphs and dashboards, users can model operations in different ways to ensure performance.



Meanwhile, a transportation optimization system enables analysts to baseline existing routing strategies and test new ones to predict actual costs and service levels. These additions will help the company “to improve and extend its supply chain, and use it as a differentiator in an increasingly competitive market,” according to a company statement.