DISH Network fine-tunes repair parts planning with the Anaplan platform

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Satellite television provider DISH Network built a supply planning solution in Anaplan to manage 10,000+ SKUs across two U.S. manufacturing sites. The solution, which also connects contract manufacturers and suppliers, saves DISH about eight hours per planner per week and improves supply chain production, lead time, order quantity, and costs.

By delivering end-to-end visibility across the supply chain, Anaplan enables us to manage by exception, which has added tremendous value.

Sid Powar, Senior Manager of Supply Planning and Inventory Control


Challenge

The DISH Network repair supply chain team was relying on more than 500 Excel® spreadsheets in their efforts to provide refurbished receivers for the company’s 13 million subscribers. The spreadsheets, however, were not only incredibly slow and prone to crashing, they also created redundancies and disconnects and lacked real-time visibility. This limited forecasting accuracy, decision-making, collaborative capabilities, and scalability.

Solution

The Anaplan platform was implemented as a planning solution for repair parts for DISH Network receivers. Customized to DISH processes, the Anaplan solution was designed to manage 10,000+ SKUs and included DISH’s two U.S. manufacturing sites, as well as connecting planning capabilities across contract manufacturers and suppliers.

Results

With Anaplan, DISH has gained real-time visibility into continually changing data, enabling the team to manage by exception, improving forecast accuracy, boosting productivity, and cutting costs. Since using Anaplan, the company has saved approximately eight hours per planner each week, a 20 percent improvement. Employees have been transformed from “data monkeys” into decision-makers, improving their productivity along with their job satisfaction.

Why Anaplan

After a comprehensive system review, DISH selected Anaplan to handle its complex supply planning for repair parts. Not only did Anaplan check off all the boxes DISH was looking for—enabling everything from “what-if” analyses and capacity planning, to dashboard creation and collaborative planning with contract manufacturers and suppliers—its cloud-based, customizable design meant that implementation was fast and easy, delivering a rapid ROI. Plus, Anaplan’s built-in flexibility and scalability help DISH seize new opportunities in real time while supporting future growth.