News

Jim Lawton Named "Pro to Know"

Experience and Vision Deliver Innovation in Supply Chain Design

BOSTON (February 25, 2004) -- Jim Lawton, vice president of marketing for supply chain design leader Optiant, has been selected for Supply & Demand Chain Executive's 4th annual 'Pros to Know' list. Lawton joins an elite group of practitioners, analysts and providers, nominated by their peers, for outstanding contributions to supply chain innovation.

The distinction recognizes Lawton's industry-shaping drive for supply chain excellence over the past two decades. Today, companies can succeed or fail based on supply chain performance and Lawton consistently has been tapped by the Fortune 500 to drive transformational change. As a practitioner at Hewlett-Packard, Lawton navigated the company's mobile computing business through an operational overhaul that quadrupled inventory turns and drove an under-performing business to profitability. At ECnet, a provider of supply chain solutions for global manufacturers, Lawton launched the tech industry's next-generation supply chain platform and steered the company's supply chain integration strategy for its leading electronics manufacturing customers including Seagate, Solectron and Matsushita. Lawton's vision resulted in those companies deploying a collaboration model across their manufacturing and supplier bases that significantly sped up new product time-to-market and dramatically reduced inventory in the total value chain; results that helped triple ECnet's business. As a headliner at major industry events like Supply Chain World, an influencer of manufacturing curriculum at MIT or guiding Optiant's current Global 2000 customers, Lawton is on the front lines of a revolution that is moving supply chain management from a tactical exercise in inventory control to a business strategy that drives competitive advantage.

"We're committed to helping our readers - supply and demand chain executives -stay ahead with the tools, technologies and strategies that cut through the complexity of delivering products to market," said Andrew Reese, editor of Supply & Demand Chain Executive. "Jim's efforts represent the kind of forward-thinking leadership that our audience finds valuable."

More than 200 individuals were nominated in the category of 'Provider Pros to Know' this year. The editors and a panel of experts evaluated the nominees based on the depth of domain knowledge and innovative thinking within the industry. The honorees chosen were those who demonstrated real-world experiences in helping manufacturers adopt, implement and measure the value of supply chain transformation.

Optiant's PowerChain® suite is at work in many of the world's leading manufacturers, as the driving force behind a groundbreaking approach to managing the thousands of variables required to bring a product to market. The award-winning software leverages advanced optimization technology to evaluate infinite what-if scenarios and build optimal operations within real-world constraints. By identifying and recommending the critical triggers for inventory, suppliers and distribution channels, PowerChain ensures that products - everything from duct tape to lifesaving arterial stents - are brought to market profitably.

Supply and Demand Chain Executive is a monthly business magazine that aims to provide the intelligence, news and tools that supply and demand chain professionals and business executives need to make informed supply chain management decisions. News on the award can be found at: Supply and Demand Chain Executive is a monthly business magazine that aims to provide the intelligence, news and tools that supply and demand chain professionals and business executives need to make informed supply chain management decisions. News on the award can be found at: http://www.isourceonline.com/article.asp?article_id=5175.