Press Release July 2012

Oliver Wight EAME Release New Executive Guide to Performance Benchmarking

Supply chain design and optimization specialists Oliver Wight, have published an executive guide to performance benchmarking which reveals how organisations can provide best-in-class service whilst halving their supply chain costs. The guide is designed for any organisation with an end-to-end supply chain, to provide an insight into the benefits and methodology behind supply chain benchmarking for business success. Benchmarking has become an essential tool in todays business environment, explains Oliver Wight Partner, Jerry Shanahan. Whatever your industry, an optimized supply chain is vital for delivering excellent customer service, reducing costs and gaining that competitive advantage. But unless you know how well you are performing and what best-in-class looks like, you wont know where you can improve or by how much. Oliver Wights supply chain benchmarking has become an extremely popular business management tool as a way for businesses to identify performance gaps, whilst providing a financial evaluation of the gains that can be made off the back of improvement action. Performance Benchmarking places a different lens on your business from an external perspective, explains Shanahan. Instead of asking what can we do to improve? the question becomes what can we do to become best-in-class? Recognised globally as thought leaders in Integrated Business Planning and Supply Chain Design and Optimization, Oliver Wight has built up over the past 40 years an unrivalled database of organisations for companies to benchmark themselves against. The executive guide to Performance Benchmarking can be downloaded from the Oliver Wight website: http://www.oliverwight-eame.com/en-GB/library-events/white-papers/m/product/view/33 For more information contact Zoe Davis on +44 (0) 1452 397 209

Notes to editors About Oliver Wight Oliver Wight has a 40 year track record of delivering business improvement to some of the worlds best-known organisations. With a team of professionals offering a wealth of experience, Oliver Wight is the largest consultancy of its type, with offices throughout Europe, South Africa, North and South America, and the Asia Pacific region. We believe that sustainable business improvement cant be delivered by external consultants but only by our clients own people, so unlike other consultancy firms, we transfer our knowledge to them, helping deliver performance levels and financial results that last. Integrated Business Planning At the leading edge of management thinking and practice, our Integrated Business Planning (IBP) model lies at the heart of our clients journey to outstanding business performance. Oliver Wight are the originators of sales and operations planning (S&OP) and IBP can most simply be described as advanced S&OP. However, unlike S&OP, IBP brings a truly strategic perspective, integrating diverse processes - in the extended supply chain, product and customer portfolios, customer demand and strategic planning - into one seamless management process. Supply Chain Design and Optimization Oliver Wight supply chain design and optimization allows organisations to understand their position within the extended supply chain; identify where value is being created and destroyed; develop profitable relationships with suppliers customers and consumers; and optimize their supply chain (however complex) for the ultimate in customer service and business performance. Performance Benchmarking for Supply Chain Oliver Wight Performance Benchmarking provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of supply chain performance, allowing organisations to identify opportunities for improving customer service at the same time as dramatically reducing supply chain costs. Meeting the Class A Standard The Oliver Wight Class A Checklist is the longest standing and most successful business assessment tool. The latest, Sixth Edition, raises the bar, and sets ever more demanding standards for companies on their journey to business excellence and the Oliver Wight Class A standard.

More information Carol Collins Oliver Wight EAME carol.collins@oliverwight-eame.com www.oliverwight-eame.com Steve Lipscombe RONIN Marketing Limited +44 (0) 20 3326 5040 stevel@roninmarketing.co.uk www.roninmarketing.co.uk