As the Client’s network expanded across multiple breweries, restaurants, warehouses, and distribution channels, supply-chain decisions became increasingly complex. Leadership needed greater visibility into capacity utilization, cost-to-serve, inventory performance, service levels, and network constraints to optimize production allocation and evaluate future growth opportunities. The business also wanted to understand the operational and financial trade-offs associated with expanding existing facilities, restarting idle capacity, or utilizing third-party production.
First Key developed a simulation-based digital twin of the Client’s production and distribution network to create a comprehensive decision-support platform. The model replicated the movement of finished goods from brewing and packaging through warehousing and customer delivery while incorporating demand patterns, production capacity, transportation costs, inventory flows, routing logic, and service requirements. Designed as a modular tool, the digital twin allowed leadership to evaluate alternative operating strategies and compare future-state scenarios using consistent performance metrics.
The resulting digital twin provided leadership with a fact-based platform to evaluate growth strategies, improve network performance, and prioritize capital and operating decisions based on measurable service, cost, and capacity outcomes.
Results
- Evaluated 10+ network optimization scenarios, including brewery-to-SKU assignments, shipping allocations, routing strategies, fuel-cost sensitivity, and multi-stop delivery configurations.
- Assessed multiple expansion pathways, including regional brewery expansion, alternative production-allocation strategies, and combined facility-and-network optimization approaches.
- Developed a calibrated 1,500+ variable network model capable of benchmarking OTIF performance, fill rates, inventory levels, truck utilization, production costs, outbound logistics costs, and cost-to-serve.
- Created a scalable digital-twin platform that enabled data-driven decision-making across production, warehousing, transportation, and distribution operations.
- Established a foundation for evaluating future enhancements, including keg-return logistics, freshness strategies, raw-material flows, cross-docking opportunities, rail transportation, and brewery-level operating constraints.
- Provided leadership with a repeatable decision-support tool to guide future growth investments and network-design decisions.
