Success Stories

AtTask Provides Visibility, Accountability, and Enterprise-Wide Collaboration for BDM Client Nevada Energy

Background

BDM Consulting develops global supply chain management solutions for the utilities, energy and semiconductor industries by optimizing business process and workforce strategy. BDM specializes in maximizing lean manufacturing and operational strategies. This includes innovative asset management solutions for materials demand, inventory optimization solutions, best in class sourcing strategies, and lean enterprise risk assessments. As an AtTask Partner, BDM Consulting helps organizations implement timely supply chain solutions with MRO FrameWorX, a proprietary risk assessment tool.

NV Energy has supplied the power needs of northern Nevada and northeastern California for more than 150 years, and Southern Nevada since 1906. NV Energy’s Generation Department selected BDM Consulting to strategically transfer thousands of internal inventory items used for maintenance, repair, and operations on plant systems, from a company owned inventory to a consigned vendor-managed inventory (VMI) model.

The Challenge

Because NV Energy’s power generation system has a service area of 54,500 square miles, the project required BDM to introduce a project management solution that would accommode a geographically diverse and departmentally dispersed workforce. To implement these new business processes at NV Energy, BDM’s project management solution needed to:

1. Provide transparency into the VMI initiative so BDM, NV Energy, the individual power plants, and the selected vendor had complete visibility and accountability into the new inventory management process and its implementation
2. Enable BDM to efficiently manage the implementation of new business processes vertically with NV Energy’s selected supplier, and horizontally across the plant fleet and supporting departments
3. Facilitate collaboration among NV Energy management and power generation locations separated by hundreds of miles
4. Quantify the cost savings of the vendor managed inventory initiatives to NV Energy, and manage issues throughout the project

The Solution

To support BDM’s objectives and meet the needs of NV Energy, AtTask provided:

Immediate Visibility and Accountability

AtTask reports and dashboards are refreshed every time task status is updated, and everyone involved in the project is notified via time-stamped email anytime status changes. This gave BDM and NV Energy visibility into every initiative, enabling them to efficiently manage issues with suppliers in real time. The software kept everyone in the process accountable—if anyone missed a deadline or milestone, everyone on the project team knew about it. AtTask’s issue management capabilities collected key data used to negotiate corrective action with the vendor when challenges developed during implementation.

Streamlined Implementation of New Inventory Control System

Using AtTask to manage the inventory project empowered NV Energy to keep the selected supplier accountable for performance and provided an effective metric for evaluation. AtTask allowed NV Energy to implement the project across the company, ensuring that the VMI implementation met the needs of their organization and plant management.

Real-Time Collaboration

Regardless of location, AtTask allowed BDM and NV Energy project teams to collaborate and coordinate in real time. Accessing AtTask’s on-demand SaaS solution via the Internet allowed project teams throughout the system access to accurate and up-to-date information every time they logged into AtTask.

Verifiable ROI

AtTask’s configurable reporting allowed BDM to capture direct and indirect cost savings of the VMI implementation with customized reporting that captured cost savings at the task level and overall project level. By consolidating vendors and reducing the number of individual transactions flowing through NV Energy’s Accounts Payable (that average between $25-$50 per transaction), BDM quantifiably reduced inventory expense on maintenance items by 10x.

Results

AtTask allowed NV Energy to successfully collaborate with team members and vendors— regardless of where they were located. Complete visibility into the VMI implementation allowed NV Energy to efficiently manage inventory requests and keep vendors accountable to the needs of every power generation facility. AtTask also provided BDM Consulting a means to verify ROI with metrics that demonstrate substantial cost savings for NV Energy. NV Energy and BDM Consulting jointly presented these results at the National Utility Supply Maintenance Conference in May, 2008.

“The vendor-managed inventory control initiative was successful; AtTask enabled NV Energy to realize the value of thinking in terms of a fleet-wide, value-added strategy, which is paying off for them,” reported De La Pena. “We use AtTask to efficiently manage all customer engagements to ensure timely project delivery and cost management. What’s more, AtTask helps us demonstrate our value to our customers. In the case of our NV Energy client, we quantified a positive ROI of greater than 10x on just one of several project engagements.”