HP SPaM

Infobox Organization
name=HP SPaM


caption=HP SPaM Logo
type=Internal consulting organization
headquarters=Palo Alto, CA, USA
formation=1989

HP SPaM (Hewlett-Packard Strategic Planning and Modeling) is an internal consulting group that aims to support HP businesses on mission-critical strategic and operation decisions. SPaM's mission is to drive innovation and data-driven decisions in HP through assisting with analytics, consulting, and operations management. As evidenced by its publications and awards, SPaM has been a prominent example of the deployment and practice of OR/MS (operations research and the management science) in large companies. Together with HP Labs, SPaM represents HP at the INFORMS Roundtable, a group of organizations whose purpose is to promote OR/MS excellence in practice.

History

Contributions

SPaM pioneered [Davis T. (1993) Effective supply chain management, Sloan Management Review, v34, 35-46 and Lee H. L. and C. Billington. (1992) Managing supply chain inventory: Pitfalls and opportunities, Sloan Management Review, vol, 65-73 and http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA195292.html] and leads innovation in supply chain and procurement practices. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3002/is_/ai_n7865015 Visions of a supply chain crusader: Corey Billington sets the standard of efficiency at Hewlett-Packard and beyond. | IIE Solutions | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] They created dramatic improvements in manufacturing [Feitzinger E. and H. L. Lee. (1997) Mass Customization at Hewlett-Packard: The Power of Postponement, Harvard Business Review, vol, 116-121 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=172478] , distribution [ [http://www.hsor.org/case_studies.cfm?name=hp HSOR.org: Case Studies ] ] , procurement [ [http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA195292.html HP cuts risk with portfolio approach - 2/21/2002 - Purchasing ] ] , product design [Olavson T. and C. Fry. (2007) Value Driven Variety Management, Sloan Management Review. Vol 48, No. 1, 63-69 http://www.scmr.com/article/CA629939.html, Cargille B. and C. Fry. (2006) Design for Supply Chain; Spreading the Word Across HP, Supply Chain Management Review, July-August, 34-41, and http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA451858.html] , forecasting [Kakouros S., D. Kuettner, and B. Cargille. (2002) Measure, Then Manage – improving forecast accuracy at HP, American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS), October, 24-29 and Burruss J. and D. Kuettner (2002) Forecasting for Short-Lived Products: Hewlett Packard's Journey, The Journal of Business Forecasting, v21, 9-14] , and inventory control [Callioni, G., X. DeMontgros, R. Slagmulder, L. Van Wassenhove, and L. Wright. (2005) Inventory-Driven Costs, Harvard Business Review, March, 1-7, http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/1992/spring/6/ and Cargille B., S. Kakouros, R. G. Hall. (1999) Part Tool, Part Process: Inventory Optimization at Hewlett Packard, Operations Research/Management Science Today, October, 18-24] effiencies; leading to the publication and adoption of their methods outside HP [ [http://www.springerlink.com/content/w27161/?p=37f93c9760484ff2a06e57f455f2de02&pi=0 SpringerLink - Book ] ] . Notable contributions include:

:* Popularizing and helping to drive the adoption of postponement in high-tech products, as a breakthrough in efficiency in building responsive supply chains that support a high variety of product versions (SKUs or stock keeping units) and configurations [Feitzinger E. and H. L. Lee. (1997) Mass Customization at Hewlett-Packard: The Power of Postponement, Harvard Business Review, vol, 116-121 http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/search/searchResults.jhtml?userView=CORPORATE&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&Ntk=main_search&N=0&Ntt=fetizinger]

:* Developing and popularizing the concept of using a single metric to measure the full end-to-end costs associated with carrying inventory, to support better supply chain decisions. [Callioni, G., X. DeMontgros, R. Slagmulder, L. Van Wassenhove, and L. Wright. (2005) Inventory-Driven Costs, Harvard Business Review, March, 1-7 http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0503J&ml_action=get-article&print=true]

:* The use of simple, practical spreadsheet tools to deploy the power of advanced statistical inventory target setting to a broad range of businesses. [Cargille B., S. Kakouros, R. G. Hall. (1999) Part Tool, Part Process: Inventory Optimization at Hewlett Packard, Operations Research/Management Science Today, October, 18-24. http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-10-99/cargille.html]

:* Popularizing the concept of product design for supply chain; leading product development teams to minimize end-to-end costs for design, production, distribution, and support instead of focusing solely on minimizing material costs and development schedules as was previously common practice. [Cargille B. and C. Fry. (2006) Design for Supply Chain; Spreading the Word Across HP, Supply Chain Management Review, July-August, 34-41 http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/product-management/6327517-1.html]

Founders

The team was established in 1989 [Lee, Hau, Corey Billington, and Brent Carter. "Hewlett-Packard Gains Control of Inventory and Service through Design for Localization," Interfaces 23, no. 4 (July/August 1993): pp. 1-11. Members of SPaM discussing their own goals.] by Corey Billington [ [http://www.imd.ch/about/facultystaff/billington.cfm?bhcp=1 Professor Corey Billington ] ] (currently a Professor at IMD) who had recently joined HP and was working with Sara Beckman [http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/beckman.html and http://www.atypon-link.com/POMS/doi/abs/10.5555/ijop.2005.14.2.115] (currently a Senior lecturer at UC Berkeley). Billington asked then HP CEO Lew Platt for $100K to start a team focusing on efficiency and inventory within HP. Soon after, Corey added Tom Davis, Paul Gibson, Steve Rockhold, Rob Hall, Marguerita Sasser, and Ed Feitzinger to the team and began a fruitful collaboration with Hau Lee [ [https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/facultybios/biomain.asp?id=09967688 Faculty Profiles - Bio Main ] ] (then a young Professor at Stanford and currently the Thoma Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business).

The name SPaM came from HP internal location code (LOCXXXX STRAT PLAN MODEL) initially assigned to the group during the days of limited identification fields. SPM and SM were two initial possibilities but the group settled with the more pronounceable SPaM. This was the day before internet era where spam was not yet synonymous with unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic message.

Directors

:* Corey Billington (1989 – 1996):* Rob Hall (1996 – 2000):* Gianpaolo Callioni (2000 – 2003):* Scott Ellis (2003 – 2007):* Thomas Olavson (2007 - Present)

Logo

The triangles in SPaM logo represent inventory – the largest asset on the balance sheets of most consumer electronics manufacturers and certainly the largest asset of HP. The blue bell shape represents uncertainty (including bell-shaped normal distribution) which exists in most decision making situations. The combination of the shapes is meant to represent SPaM's intention of using analytics to enable decision making under uncertainty to improve asset management performance.

Inside HP

Locations

SPaM has been supporting HP businesses from 3 strategic locations;

:* Palo Alto, USA (Headquarter) : Worldwide and America:* Grenoble, France: Europe, Middle East, and Africa:* Singapore: Asia Pacific

Recently, SPaM decided to no longer work out of Grenoble, and will serve Europe, Middle East, and Africa clients through Palo Alto and Singapore offices.

ervices

SPaM employs consulting engagement model where HP businesses pay SPaM for each engagement (project). Key practice areas include:

:* Supply Chain Analysis and Design:* Data Driven Strategic Planning:* Decision Support Tools & Processes:* Forecasting Analytics

Members

SPaM members share strong interests in addressing business decisions from analytical and data-driven perspective. Typical members possess domain expertise as well as consulting and project management experiences from management consulting firms, or companies in their own industries. Most have earned MBA, Master’s, and/or Doctoral degrees in technical fields such as economics, engineering, management science, operations research, science, and statistics. Some individuals who are members of SPaM are also recognized both in the academic community and/or across various industries.

Outside HP

Awards

:*In 2000, Wal-Mart named Hewlett Packard Supplier of the Year. HP's innovative supply-chain-management models developed by SPaM members helped reduce the retailer's inventory-related stock outs. [HP Press Release, January 2000]

:*In 2002, INFORMS gave Hewlett Packard an award for effective integration of Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS) into organizational decision making, attributed to partnership between SPaM and HP business divisions. [ [http://www.informs.org/index.php?c=500&kat=INFORMS+Prize+Past+Winners INFORMS Prize Past Winners - INFORMS: The Institute For Operations Research and The Management Sciences ] ]

:*In 2004, Hewlett-Packard received Purchasing Magazine’s Company Medal of Professional Excellence. Product design for supply chain and procurement risk management -- two innovations developed by SPaM -- are mentioned as contributions that led to the receipt of this award. [ [http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA451858.html Hewlett-Packard wins for the 2nd time - 9/2/2004 - Purchasing ] ] :*In 2005, design for supply chain and procurement risk management -- innovations developed by SPaM -- were honored by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) as two of the Top 10 Supply Chain Innovations of the Year. [ [http://www.glscs.com/archives/12.05.Intro.htm?adcode=5 SupplyChainBrain: The Library ] ]

Publications

SPaM members have published more than 50 articles [see reference section of this article for numerous examples] on the applications of operations research and management science to solve HP business decisions. Many have appeared in widely referenced business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review. Members have served as an editors to supply chain textbooks used in graduate school programs, and HP supply chain innovations developed by SPaM are cited in many supply chain textbooks. [ During his time at SPaM, John Neale edited "The Practice of Supply Chain Management: Where Theory and Application Converge http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Supply-Chain-Management-International/dp/0387240993/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208401004&sr=8-1 Other textbooks citing SPaM innovations include "Designing & Managing the Supply Chain" by Simchi-Levi http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Managing-Supply-Student-CD-Rom/dp/0072845538/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208401598&sr=8-2] Brian Cargille, currently a SPaM member, has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Supply Chain Management Review, an industry magazine, since 2006. [ [http://www.scmr.com/info/CA6471414.html Editorial Advisory Board - Supply Chain Management Review ] ] Many MBA programs teach techniques created by SPaM members as part of their curricula. [Examples include UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 247.1 taught by Professor Artale, the Rutgers School of Management Supply Chain Strategies course taught by Professor Yao Zhao, MIT's Sloan School of Management New Product Development course taught by Professor Dahan, core MBA operations course at IMD taught by Professor Billington, and MGT 472 taught by Professor Dilts at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University]

References

ee also

*Hewlett Packard
*Strategic planning
*Management

External links

* [http://www.futurestudio.org/tools%20methods%20documents/Innovation/Building%20an%20Innovation%20Factory.pdf] a Harvard Business Review article in .pdf form, Building an Innovation Factory, about knowledge-brokering in several organisations, such as IDEO, which mentions HP SPaM on pages 163 and 164.
* [http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/pfeffer.htm] a book The Knowing-Doing Gap by Harvard Business School Press which mentions many businesses including HP SPaM (as in Hewlett-Packard's Strategic Planning, Analysis, and Modeling group) for knowledge-brokering management within Hewlett Packard.
* [http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=15999&SectionID=2]