With expansion in mind, the fast food chain needed to optimize their manufacturing and distribution strategy. Their current network used plants as distribution centers in single-tier strategy.

The network design needed to consider trade-offs between fixed, inbound, outbound and handling costs. In addition, efficiencies were evaluated related to purchase of some products rather than internal processing.

3TO built and exercised a Supply Chain Architect model to develop a long-term expansion strategy for the rapidly growing fast food chain. We developed a strategy for using a combination of manufacturing plants and cross-docks. The model identified optimal food manufacturing and cross-dock locations accommodating product quality and freshness requirements.

The key to arriving at the optimal network was leveraging Supply Chain Architect's extensive fixed costs and step functions. 3TO's team was also able to closely collaborative with the customer using secure cloud technology.