Reengineering the replenishment planning process : the case of Whirlpool. A significant improve in the Trento FDC performance by implementing a process reengineering project

The purpose of this project is to describe the methodology followed in order to carry out a complete redesign in the Replenishment Planning Process of the Trento Factory Distribution Center (FDC) of Whirlpool EMEA; as well as point out the improvements achieved with the reconfiguration in the main performance indicators. The idea of the project arose after noticing the frequent poor performance of the replenishment process. It was decided then to start a redesign of the replenishment planning structure using a Reengineering process approach. The first part consisted in the characterization and mapping of the process, followed by an analysis to identify the criticalities, which led to the identification of the initial situation as a reactive process. Then, by following the methodology, it was proposed and implemented a new completely redesigned process with an inclusion of an IT solution, which made possible to transform the replenishment planning into a Proactive process, improving the main performance indicators, such as Stock Level and Cost per unit, and thus the results of the whole FDC.