Fortna today announced that their methodologies, data and alternative analysis, design tools and business case development techniques are highlighted in a newly published engineering textbook.   Facilities Planning - 4^th Edition is a foundation text for teaching undergraduate and graduate school engineers how to analyze and design facility operations. Used in dozens of universities across the U.S., Fortna’s design approaches, tools, diagrams and charts are featured as examples for operations analysis and design.

Fortna is again proud to participate in the 7th annual PetSmart Charities Golf Classic and Desert Adventure.  Over the past several years, this worthwhile charity has helped save the lives of millions of homeless pets.  To be held April 7-8 in Phoenix, Fortna is happy to be a part of the success of this event for our client, PetSmart!

To learn more about helping save lives of homeless pets, visit:  www.petsmartcharities.com

Fortna continues to position for the next decade of success as supply chain industry veteran, Kevin Mitchell, joins the team in the role of Vice President, Integrated Delivery Services.  Kevin brings over 22 years of consulting experience from Accenture and Garr Consulting Group in supply chain strategy, solutions development, process optimization and execution.

Longtime client, Avnet Logistics, has successfully teamed with Red Prairie and Fortna to implement a new WMS in their Chandler, Arizona distribution center.  Teams from Fortna, Red Prairie and Avnet worked together to integrate the new software with a Fortna-designed operations and materials hanlding system.  The new systems will help increase the overall efficiency and productivity of this facility.

Fortna Group Sales Vice President, Mike Dunn, contributed his views on planning successful supply chain software upgrades in this article from DC Velocity.  Read more about the warning signs that your company may need an upgrade as well as how to plan a roadmap for its success.

Fortna positions for the next decade of success as our executive management team is updated.  Peter Counihan moves up from his current twenty year position as President, to Chairman and CEO of Fortna Inc.  John A. White III is promoted from Executive Vice President to President. 

The Chairman of the Board for the past 17 years of success, Peter Gould, will continue to serve as a Director of Fortna.

Albert Avalos, Executive Vice President, will work closely with Peter Counihan to grow Fortna's service offerings and expand into Latin America and new geographies.  Additionally, Mike Dunn was appointed to the position of Group Vice President of Sales.  David Farmer and Mike will jointly manage U.S. and Canadian sales and marketing activities.

Jacques Hasbani and Justin O'Toole, both supply chain industry veterans and assets at Fortna, participated in a DC Velocity article that focused on effective planning for disruptions in DC operations and materials handling equipment.  Jacques emphasized the power of centralized control points and the value of a solution such as the FortnaWCS(TM).  Justin summed up the article with a reminder to thoroughly test all back-up processes as well as ensure their flexibility.

Fortna is proud to announce our partnership with ASICS America for the design of their new distribution center in Mississippi.  The new facility is scheduled to be live in 2011.

Peter Counihan, Fortna's president, was recently interviewed for an article in Supply Chain Digest that discussed the state of the materials handling industry.  Peter's comment, "We are seeing more activity than we saw six months ago.  We are seeing a combination of distribution center consolidations, retro-fits, expansions and new facilities being designed and implemented across a variety of industries," is in line with other industry leaders interviewed for the piece. 

Fortna is proud to announce that John A. White III, Executive Vice President and Partner, was a finalist for Supply Chain Professional of the Year 2009 at the Metro Atlanta Chamber Supply Chain Leadership Council annual awards luncheon on November 17th.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Supply Chain Leadership Council recognizes supply chain professionals who have made an impact in their profession as well as contributed to the local Atlanta community.

Fortna associates often give back to their communities through involvement in local charities or through participation in university alumni events.  Fortna is a regular participant at Georgia Tech job fairs and continuing education classes, for example.

This month, Fortna associate Patti Satterfield participated on a panel of local supply chain leaders at the University of Akron's College of Business Administration.   The University boasts a strong Supply Chain Students Association that frequently invites supply chain professionals to share their knowledge and experience with students.

Independent competitive research firm, wRatings Corporation recently completed a report stating that companies partnering with Fortna over the past ten years have out performed their direct industry peers in terms of economic profit and customer advantages.   

Based on a year-over-year analysis, the Fortna Customer Group has built superior customer strength over Non-Fortna Customers of 15% and 13.2% on average over the past three and five years respectively.  This growth parallels the 2007 expansion of Fortna's supply chain service offerings. 

Steven Johnson, Director, Supply Chain Consulting for Fortna, was a featured interview in this month's issue of Modern Materials Hanlding magazine.  The article highlighted receiving as "the gateway to a distribution center" and Steven discussed best practices for maximum impact in this area as well as its impact throughout the facility.

"Receiving is the gateway into your facility, and everything that happens there has a ripple effect."

The recent merger of O'Reilly Automotive and CSK is one of the largest supply chain integrations in the nation today.  Merging two distribution systems with different customer service needs is a complex endeavor.  Fortna is proud to be on the team that is making this supply chain integration a successful reality!

Each year DC Velocity names several supply chain industry movers and shakers to its "Rainmaker" list.  Fortna is proud to announce that our client, Greg Johnson, from O'Reilly Automotive, has been named to this prestigious list.

Strategic location in California’s Central Valley creates speed, cost efficiencies.

This week our industry lost a valuable professional to cancer with the passing of Mark Buffum.  Our Fortna family and the entire industry will miss Mark.  We want to extend our deepest sympathy and well wishes to Mark's family.

Mark worked with a respected competitor, Tompkins Associates, as a strong supply chain thought leader, a passionate person and a true advocate for his associates and clients. He was a well respected professional and his contributions made our industry better.  Many of us knew Mark very well and he will be missed.

NASHVILLE (April 30, 2009) – Fortna Inc. today announced the successful transformation of Burlington Coat Factory’s supply chain with new systems and enhanced operational processes designed to optimize efficiencies and customer service at their Burlington, NJ site. This effort is part of BCF’s 5-year supply chain strategy.  

Nashville - April 24, 2009 - Fortna today announced the release of FortnaWCStm Version 8.0.  FortnaWCStm is the leading Warehouse Control System that optimizes material handling systems - the brains of the material handling environment. This new version provides additional management tools that allow multi-level visibility across various stakeholders within the enterprise, enhanced functionality to optimize work flow, and added features for configurability.  Version 8.0 has enhanced integration layers to further drive reliability, performance, simplicity and maintainability.

"Tough Economy Redifines Competitive Landscape with Over 50% Turnover of the Top 20 Most Competitive Companies for Retail & Consumer Goods in 2009"  The wRatings Corporation, an independent stock research firm, announced today the results of the annual Most Competitive Retail & Consumer Goods Study, which was sponsored by Fortna Inc. a leader in designing, implementing and supporting complete supply chain solutions. 

The 2009 edition of Most Competitive Retail & Consumer Goods companies shows a breakdown of the top 20 in each industry, unveils critical trends in consumer expectations and pricing power, and spotlights several companies from the top 20.   The Most Competitive report series from wRatings identifies the best performing companies through a patented method that blends financial and consumer data.  The 2009 report examines many of the shifting consumer preferences that companies can tap into to generate revenue. 

Integrated Delivery Model - A Faster, Easier, Better Approach.

Fortna continues to provide thought leadership for supply chain professionals. Our most recent white paper explores the external partner sourcing strategy of a cross-functional, supply chain project from strategy through implementation. The tenet behind this paper is that external service providers with an "integrated delivery model" provide supply chain leaders with an opportunity to more effectively manage the time, cost and risk of such projects.  These partners have the skills and experience to lead and integrate the lion's share of cross-functional responsibilities throughout the project.  And, their approach guards against siloed, functionally focused communication and accountability, which is symptomatic of a poorly executed project.  In essence, the integrated delivery model offers a faster, easier and better approach.

How to Thrive in an Economic Downturn

Learn what you can (and should) do now to be sure you and your operation are perfectly positioned to survive the current economic environment and poised to reach greater success as the market rebounds.

Sponsored every two years by the Materials Handling Institute of America, the Promat show is a barometer of business conditions in the supply chain industry.  At this year's event in Chicago, the economy was at the top of every attendee's and exhibitor's list.

Fortna's president, Peter Counihan, was interviewed at Promat by DC Velocity for his insights on how the company is moving forward into 2009.

Fortna Inc. has completed an in-depth analysis of L.L.Bean’s complex multi-channel order fulfillment environment, allowing them to increase throughput capacity and forego investment in a new distribution center or use outside storage this holiday season. 

Auburn University and Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) have kicked off the inaugural study of retail supply chain management issues.

We are working with leading retail executives to investigate and understand the most critical SCM issues in this huge sector of the U.S. economy. Key trends, fundamental financial and service benchmarks, and emerging strategies are being analyzed.

The research questionnaire is now available for download. We encourage retail supply chain executives to share their thoughts regarding current trends, strategy, and operations.  www.retail-scm.com

November 20, 2008 - In a celebration of the successful opening of their Reno Distribution Center, PetSmart noted that "We could not have achieved the success we had without our partner Fortna".  It has been over six months since their go-live, and the performance of the DC has well exceeded their expectations.  The celebration was to recognize those who significantly contributed to the success.  Fortna was invited to attend as the sole outside services provider. Peter Counihan, Fortna President, was called up to receive recognition for the entire Fortna team and their extraordinary efforts.

At ProMat 09, both Fox Racing and OH Logistics will present their case studies along with Fortna. 

Robby Dhesi, Director of Distribution, for Fox Racing will talk about their WMS Implementation and the factors that led to success. 

Jennifer Longard, Manager Operational Excellence, OHL, is presenting how developing a path to organizational excellence provided measurable improvements in Productivity, Labor, and Quality.

Noviembre 20, 2008 – Al celebrar la apertura exitosa de su Centro de Distribución en Reno, PetSmart comentó que "No habríamos alcanzado el éxito que tuvimos sin nuestro socio Fortna".  Han pasado seis meses desde el lanzamiento y el desempeño del CD ha excedido sus expectativas, con mucho.  La celebración se llevó a cabo para reconocer a aquellos que habían contribuido en forma significativa al éxito.  Fortna fue invitado como único proveedor externo de servicios. Peter Counihan, Presidente de Fortna, fue invitado a recibir el reconocimiento para el equipo complete de Fortna y sus extraordinarios esfuerzos.

Independent competitive research firm, wRatings Corporation recently released a report stating that companies that have partnered with Fortna over the past 6.5 years have become a better running business as a group in terms of economic profit and customer advantages than their direct peers.

Longtime Fortna client, O'Reilly Automotive, based in Springfield, MO, is highlighted in this month's issue of DC Velocity in an article focusing on the automotive aftermarket industry.  O'Reilly is cited as a leader in this space, particularly now that it has merged with CSK Auto Corp.  "O'Reilly intends to apply its sophistication in operations and inventory management to CSK's operations, while at the same time taking advantage of its increased size across what will effectively be a national distribution network," the article states.

Fortna client Quality Bicycle Products applied its commitment to the environment to the construction of a green building when it doubled the size of its distribution center.

Waveless processing is one of the hottest supply chain topics today.  More and more companies are experiencing tremendous productivity gains by implementing this new approach where waves and bottlenecks are a thing of the past.

Fortna's Marc Austin is one of the country's foremost experts on designing and deploying waveless processing.  We invite you to read his insights as featured in September's DC Velocity.

Fortna Inc. is designing Brown Shoe Company, Inc.’s new west coast distribution center from the ground up to meet very specific supply chain cost and efficiency goals.  The new 350,000 square foot facility will be a fulfillment and distribution center of Brown Shoe’s Famous Footwear division. Famous Footwear is one of the largest chains that sells branded, value-priced footwear for the entire family.   This latest project is a continuation of the successful supply chain partnership between Fortna and Brown Shoe, positioning them for store growth, maximized customer service and continued cost efficiencies. 

Fortna added horsepower to its labor management practice with the addition of experienced labor management professional, Troy VanWormer.  In his role at Fortna, he will lead the Organizational Excellence (OE) practice and focus on providing services and solutions that apply industry best practices, labor productivity tracking, engineered standards, and training and incentive programs that deliver successful user adoption and high performance results.

Fortna's President, Peter Counihan, was recently asked to comment on the pending FKI Logistex acquisition by Melrose plc.

Many DC managers assume their new materials handling equipment and other devices will automatically "plug and play" with existing systems.  Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case and many companies have struggled with integration of new equipment.  Although most agree that integration is easier than 10 years ago, "plug and play is still more of an ideal than a reality" according to this article.

Read Fortna manager, Daniel Ahren's comments in this article.

How would your company react to 40 times average order volume one week per year?  That's exactly the challenge for Fortna client ProFlowers (a division of Provide Commerce) as they experience this huge spike in orders prior to Valentine's Day. 

ProFlowers credits a Fortna crossdock design that streamlines processes and maximizes the use of real-time information technology to ensure the freshest possible product is delivered to their customers, ensuring client satisfaction.

Fortna's president, Peter Counihan, was quoted in this month's issue of Modern Materials Handling in an article debating forecasts for the 2008 US economy, with an emphasis on the materials handling industry.  Despite lackluster economic forecasts in the news, materials handling equipment companies, consultants and 3PLs expect business to be "reasonably good" this coming year. 

Waveless picking makes use of intelligent warehouse control systems (WCS) that can perform dynamic workload balancing, adjusting work flow to changing circumstances.  This ability to juggle flows in real time makes continuous-flow picking possible.  By using this technology, managers avoid wasting energy in planning and executing waves and improve DC productivity substantially.  In fact, picking productivity can increase by as much as 20 percent and throughput capacity by up to 35 percent by switching from waves to waveless processing.

Daniel Ahrens, Fortna Product Manager, discusses the latest trends and advancements with Warehouse Control Systems in the latest issue of DC Velocity.  

Ahrens explains how WCS technoloy has grown more sophisticated over the years and has evolved to execute the most complex of order fulfillment tasks.  

A recent presentation given at ProMat by Fortna Account Executive, Helgi Leja, was featured in the latest issue of Distribution Center Management.  Leja outlines four key factors that can instantly expose how well a DC is managed.  

Fortna discusses lean distribution in the latest issue of DC Velocity.  In the article titled, "We're Gonna Need a Bigger Box," Jeremy Davidson, Account Executive, sees lean as a critical way of looking at business issues. Rather than focusing on, say, picking productivity, it forces managers to look downstream at customer needs, he says.

In the December issue of Packaging Digest, Cingular Wireless discussed how it expedited its picking, printing and shipping by automatically applying RFID labels to its shipping cases. 

Cingular Wireless worked with Fortna, Zebra Technologies, and ID Technology to help design and implement an automatic smart label print-and-apply system. FortnaPlus, Fortna's warehouse control system, was chosen to direct messaging from Cingular's WMS (RedPraire) to the conveyor system and print-and-apply stations.  This collaboration makes it possible for Cingular to process 45 print-and-apply cases per minute.

Fortna Vice President, Dan Graville, guest lectured at Arizona State University Wednesday, November 29, 2006. Mr. Graville presented "Innovation in Distribution Technology" for Supply Chain students in ASU's Executive MBA program.

The two-hour interative lecture discussed new distribution technologies and their overall role in the supply chain.

Fortna views such events as a way to demonstrate its commitment to thought leadership initiatives in areas of the supply chain. 

Fortna's Q4 Systems Implementation Division receives rave reviews in the lastest edition of Inbound Logistics for its WMS implementation project for The Forzani Group.  Q4 implemented Manhattan's warehouse management system for the sporting goods retailer in order to better manage Forzani's rapidly growing business and expanding product selection.

Fortna is proud to annouce that long-time Fortna client, Avnet Technology Solutions (NYSE: AVT), for the second consecutive year, was named the number one preferred source of IT "specialty distribution" by solution providers in the 2006 CRN Sourcing Study.

The CRN study measures the overall preferences and performance perceptions that today's solution providers have regarding the strengths and challenges surrounding distribution partners, manufacturers and other alternative sources for products and services. Solution providers taking part in the study were asked to name their preferred source for each type of supplier, including broadline and specialty distributors, custom systems/component suppliers and alternative/national retailers.

Fortna announced the appointment of John A. White III as Executive Vice President.  Mr. White is responsible for leading Fortna's expanded supply chain management consulting services practice.

Mr. White's distinguished seventeen-year performance record includes successfully designing and implementing supply chain strategy for many distribution intensive industries (e.g., Retail, Consumer Package Goods, Industrial Products, Electronics and High Tech, 3PL).  Before joining Fortna, Mr. White was a Managing Officer of the Products Industry Group and Supply Chain Management Practice at Adjoined Consulting. He has also served in a number of senior executive positions for top-tier supply chain consulting companies such as Cap Gemini, Manugistics, Inc., and Accenture.

"Fortna's has built an excellent suite of consulting services and has become a compelling alternative to traditional strategy services groups in the market today," said Mr. White. "Fortna is comprised of outstanding consultants, thought leaders and practitioners that rival the best consulting and supply chain service companies in the industry."

Mr. White's extensive supply chain background will enable Fortna clients to receive valuable guidance and delivery resources for complex issues encompassing the entire supply chain.  

"Fortna is very fortunate to have John as a leader in our organization. His business vision and deep expertise will facilitate enhanced supply chain management services for our clients," said Peter Counihan, President of Fortna, Inc. "John has the experience, strategic insight and capability to lead Fortna's supply chain management consulting services into the future."

Furthermore, Mr. White's leadership in organizations such as Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) and The Logistics Institute (TLI) at Georgia Institute of Technology will strengthen Fortna's brand as a supply chain Thought Leader.
Mr. White graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science, Industrial Engineering and holds an Accelerated Executive MBA certificate from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

NASHVILLE, TN and ORANGE, CA (October 2, 2006) - Fortna and Q4 today announce plans to formally merge operations in November 2006, a combination that will deliver higher value, focused core competencies, and expanded service offerings to their clients.  The combined company will provide the industry's most complete end-to-end supply chain service offerings encompassing supply chain strategy, business process design, systems implementation and integration.

This merger unifies two companies each experiencing significant multi-year growth and gained market share. With 140 associates in six nationwide offices, the merger also gives Fortna and Q4 even more scale and combined expertise for advanced client service.

"It is a logical next step that creates substantial value for our clients," said Peter Counihan, President of Fortna. "Our organizations have very similar values and strong reputations built on integrity, honesty, and successful project execution."

Q4 adds supply chain, transportation and warehouse systems integration expertise to Fortna's leading distribution-focused consulting, engineering and software offering. The merger developed from an established history of delivering complementary services for joint clients such as Sony (SNE), Genesco (GCO), Big 5 Sporting Goods (BGFV), Tessco (TESS) and The Sharper Image (SHRP).

"Our mutual clients have encouraged the merger," said Q4's Albert Avalos, who will now act as Executive Vice President of the combined operation.  "Our clients desire and deserve a partner company that is committed to their business goals and can bring the right mix of services to drive results.  Our focus on supply chain consulting, system integration and MHE integration further allows us to deliver supply chain solutions and be accountable for the results."