AI Lead Time Prediction Tool Revolutionizes Supply Chain Management For Border States And GAINS

In a strategic move to enhance supply chain efficiency and lead time accuracy, Border States has announced its collaboration with GAINS, utilizing the innovative GAINS Halo360° Decision Engineering and Orchestration Platform. This partnership aims to harness machine learning (ML) solutions to tackle the challenges of lead time variability, a pressing issue that significantly impacts working capital optimization and procurement decisions in today's volatile market.

The GAINS Lead Time Prediction (LTP) tool is at the heart of this initiative, offering Border States a more precise method to forecast lead times. This advancement is expected to not only improve customer service levels but also align inventory management and procurement strategies more effectively, thereby enhancing overall working capital.

Utilizing AI and ML technologies, the GAINS LTP tool employs lateral learning techniques to adapt quickly to changing supply chain conditions, providing reliable lead time predictions even for items with scarce or no historical supply data. By integrating Border States’ specific data into this model, the tool is tailored to the distributor’s unique supply chain needs, ensuring increasingly accurate lead time calculations as the model evolves with new data.

Richelle Bishoff, VP Procurement at Border States, emphasized the company's commitment to innovation within the supply chain, stating that this technology represents a significant leap forward in inventory and demand planning. The partnership with GAINS is seen as a critical step towards supporting the needs of their customers and stakeholders effectively.

Amber Salley, Vice President of Industry Solutions at GAINS, highlighted the mutual drive for excellence that propels this collaboration. She pointed out that the Halo360° platform's ML capabilities offer a superior level of accuracy compared to traditional forecasting methods, enabling companies like Border States to make more informed replenishment decisions and achieve their service, cost, and capacity objectives amidst market volatility.

Border States serves a wide range of customers in the construction, industrial, and utility sectors. As a 100% employee-owned entity, it stands as the sixth-largest electrical distributor in the United States, according to Electrical Wholesaling magazine. The company boasts over 3,200 employee-owners across 120 branches in 29 states, with its Branch Support Center located in Fargo, North Dakota.

GAINS specializes in supply chain performance optimization, offering solutions that transcend traditional ERP and supply chain planning barriers. Their GAINS Halo360° platform is designed to manage the complexities of today's markets by enabling integrated and intelligent decision-making across all planning horizons. This partnership between Border States and GAINS marks a significant milestone in leveraging AI and ML technologies to address supply chain challenges effectively.