Price and margin erosion, high logistics cost, increasingly shorter life cycles, the acceleration of product introductions and a competitive imperative to maintain product availability "on the shelf" is driving change in supply chain management strategies. As brand owners accelerate new product introductions globally and strive to promote customer brand loyalty, the challenge to optimize the supply chain becomes increasingly more complex.

To synchronize all these elements of the supply chain, intelligent tools and operating techniques are required to better manage the balance between the supply side of the equation with the demand side. The traditional supply chain strategy of assembling consumer products in a significantly lower-cost region of the world, such as China, and shipping these products fully configured and packaged to other regions of the world is increasingly being challenged.