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Mack Tech provides complete turnkey assembly for eight configurations of a media drive storage device for Avid. In its simplest form, the unit includes 15 components; and in its most complex, 200 assembled parts. In any case, the product is shipped from Mack Tech's docks the same day the order is received.

"We are linked directly into Avid's inventory system," explains Carlos Silva, Mack Tech business unit manager. "So when a customer places an order with Avid for one of the products we manufacture, it automatically prints out at our Westford, Mass., location, where we pick and ship the unit. Everything is transacted within Avid's inventory system, including shipping information and serial number, packing invoice," says Silva.

According to Bellomo, the program was driven by two goals:

• reduce order fulfillment cycle time and
• take inventory out of the supply line.

"We've accomplished both of these objectives by removing ourselves from part of the supply chain," explains Bellomo. "Now instead of shipping finished goods from Mack Tech to Avid to the customer, Mack Tech ships directly to our customer. The hidden advantage is that it allows us more time to focus on value-added activities-probably the major benefit to Avid," he concludes.

Currently, the system is set up for finished, independent products. The next step will be to "merge" shipments. "We'd like to get to a point where we can ship a system out of Avid, and at the same time, ship the accompanying storage device out of Mack Tech, with both arriving on the re-seller's dock at the same time," adds Bellomo. "It should be transparent to the customer that the product was shipped from multiple sites." Bellomo expects to implement the dock-merge phase of the order fulfillment program by summer's end.

Avid Technologies, Inc. is an international, Oscar award-winning provider of digital audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications. The company spends about 80 percent of its dollars with some 15 suppliers, and would like to transition or of them over to order fulfillment.

"During the first quarter of operation with Mack Technologies, all shipments were defect-free, meaning they were shipped correctly and on time," says Bellomo.

"Mack Tech has the process controls, high quality levels and corrective action processes that prove its capabilities in shipping quality product," he concludes, "and that's what it takes."

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