National Bottled Water Distribution Company Case Study
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Benefits
• A new optimization application allowed management to analyze and make
strategic and tactical decisions with accuracy and confidence.
• The client can push a button to obtain a “best cost” solution for the scenario at
hand.
• The client can quickly analyze the placement and location of production facilities,
distribution centers and warehouses over a multi‐period planning horizon.
• The client can solve detailed supply chain network design problems in a few days
with optimal results.
• Cost savings of 10% of supply chain costs and 25% of supply chain cycle time are
typical for these types of solutions.

Background
Managing the process for truck delivery of bottled water to residential and commercial
customers throughout the US is a full time job. With 120 + distribution centers and 1.7
million customers nationwide, it requires more than 2000 trucks to make the more than
2.5 million visits each month. Managing all this in the fast‐paced world of home water
delivery takes some special skills, special processes, and special software.

Objectives
DS Waters Enterprises was created from the North American Water operations of
Groupe Danone and Suntory Limited. The combination creates a home and office water
delivery service with 1.7 million customers in the US. Brands offered by the company
include Sparkletts, Crystal Springs, and Alhambra. The merger of these operations
created opportunities to consolidate facilities and improve customer service.
Together these merged companies could potentially serve a much larger geographical
area. They wanted to measure the supply chain benefits associated with increased
production and distribution capabilities. They needed to analyze the placement and
location of production facilities, distribution centers and warehouses over a multiperiod
planning horizon. All this while they were experiencing production increases in a
period of rapid growth.