Smart Software Executive to Speak on Optimizing Military Spare Parts Inventories: Dr. Thomas Willemain, Forecasting and Demand Planning Expert, to Lead Session and Tutorial at 2012 INFORMS Conference

BELMONT, MA, October 09, 2012 (Press-News.org) Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that Tom Willemain, vice president for research, will have two roles at this year's INFORMS 2012 Annual Meeting, in Phoenix, Arizona, October 14-17. Dr. Willemain, who is also a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will present a tutorial on managing spare parts on October 16, 8:00 - 9:30 am. He will also chair a session on "Methods Supporting Military Logistics and Testing" where he will also discuss "Accurate Forecasts of Spare Part Demand," October 17, 8:00 - 9:30 am.

Operations and support of military hardware, which includes maintaining, refurbishing and overhauling, can be 60 to 70 percent of the cost of owning a weapon system over its entire lifetime, which can be decades. Improving the management of parts involved in those operations poses a significant challenge for the U.S. military.

According to a study by Deloitte Consulting LLP, the Department of Defense spends $70 billion a year on parts and supplies. Accurately forecasting spare parts is a major problem for any parts organizations because as much as 70% of spare parts have what's known as "intermittent demand" which is very difficult to accurately forecast. This typically results in unbalanced inventories with many items overstocked and others under-stocked.

In a book titled, Transforming U.S. Army Supply Chains: Strategies for Management Innovation, retired Army Col. Greg H. Parlier, who is now a defense logistics consultant, has proposed "mission based forecasting" software tools that will help the military to stop buying things they do not need. Dr. Willemain's experience has helped numerous companies with similar inventory challenges do just that.

Dr. Willemain has been at the forefront of research on better ways to forecast intermittent demand. With other colleagues at Smart Software, he holds a patent that provides accurate service level forecasts and estimates of safety stock and inventory stocking level requirements. Commercialized in Smart's flagship product, SmartForecasts, the patented technology has helped numerous manufacturing, distribution, and service/spare parts organizations optimize their inventories, save millions of dollars, improve cash flows, and meet corporate cost reduction objectives.

INFORMS stands for The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. It is an international scientific society, with 10,000 members, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. To learn more about INFORMS or its annual research conference, see www.informs.org.

About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1984, Smart Software, Inc. is a leading provider of enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization solutions. Smart Software's flagship product, SmartForecasts, has thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, Metro-North Railroad, Siemens, Disney, Nestle, Nikon, GE and The Coca-Cola Company. Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found online at www.smartcorp.com.

For more information, please contact Jeffrey Scott at Smart Software at 1-800-762-7899 or jeffs@smartcorp.com

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