Academics / Undergraduate Program / Client Project Challenge / ProjectWhen to replace IT assets?
When to replace IT assets?
July 16, 2024
IE and Operations Research can be applied in many different areas. Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the U.S., wanted to apply IE techniques to help give a data-driven answer to the question of when to replace IT assets. Currently, the Coca-Cola Consolidated team is responsible for all the laptops, desktops, iPads, and other equipment. They decide when to replace equipment and how much inventory they should keep for replacements. They wanted to better understand the trade-off between replacement costs (buying a new asset), repair costs (when an item fails and isn’t under warranty), downtime costs, and inventory costs.
To answer these questions, Coca-Cola Consolidated worked with a student team, Bella Kirkwood, Luigi de Lima, JoonWoo Park, and Siddhika Swarup, from Northwestern University. Their faculty advisor was Professor Andreas Waechter.
“They did a great job asking the right questions and getting us to think about the variables we had overlooked or just taken for granted,” said Rory Regan, Director – Infrastructure Center of Service, Coca-Cola Consolidated. “From the beginning, we told them their job was to go where the numbers took them and not be afraid to challenge our assumptions. They took that advice to heart and ran with it.”
Besides the main deliverables, the team identified new data to collect that would be helpful and gave Coca-Cola Consolidated a model they can expand to other assets.
“I was very impressed with how quickly Bella, Luigi, JoonWoo, and Siddhika climbed the learning curve and added value,” said Sharon Campbell, IT Director, IT Strategy and Operational Excellence, Coca-Cola Consolidated. “Each of them was very engaged throughout the project and asked thoughtful questions. From a value perspective, I know they confirmed one of our team’s key assumptions through data analytics and modeled a potential opportunity for inventory savings. Well worth the time invested,.”
The full Coca-Cola Consolidated team was Sharon Campbell, Rory Regan, Adam Bennett, Justin Resor, and Brett Frankenberg.
About Coca-Cola Consolidated:
Coca-Cola Consolidated is the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States. For more than 122 years, we have been deeply committed to the consumers, customers, and communities we serve and are passionate about the broad portfolio of beverages and services we offer.
We make, sell, and distribute beverages of The Coca-Cola Company and other partner companies in more than 300 brands and flavors across 14 states and the District of Columbia to approximately 60 million consumers. We are based in the Southeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic portion of the United States.
We were honored to be named “World’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune and “America’s Most Successful Midsize Company” by Forbes in 2024.