Most Service Supply Chain leaders know the feeling. Inventory goes up, but service doesn’t improve. Parts are spread across the network, but the right ones are never quite where they’re needed. The pressure to protect SLAs pulls in one direction; the pressure to control cost pulls in another. And somewhere in the middle, planners are spending their days firefighting instead of planning.
Leidos found a more precise way through it.
In a recent customer testimonial, Ellian Hsieh, Service Supply Chain Analytics Manager at Leidos, shared how her team is using Baxter Planning to sharpen forecasting inputs, identify redeployment opportunities, and help planners get back to the work that actually moves the needle. Watch the full video here.
Leidos identified that assets could be redeployed to avoid additional purchases and improve on-time fill rate by 10%.
Leidos Results at a Glance
- Improved on-time fill rate by 10%
- Identified 10% of assets eligible for redeployment
- Eliminated unnecessary inventory purchases
- Used installed base forecasting to close gaps in demand visibility
- Planners getting answers in minutes instead of days
- Standardized onboarding and planning processes across the team
For Leidos, better Service Parts Planning wasn’t about adding more inventory. It was about making faster, more confident decisions with the inventory they already had.
Making Existing Inventory Work Harder
Leidos supports government IT contracts, including airport scanner operations. Hsieh’s role centers on continuous improvement, standardized processes, and system implementation.
After establishing a strong planning foundation, the team turned to Baxter Planning to refine its processes further. One of the most valuable opportunities they uncovered: inventory redeployment.
This is one of the quiet realities of Service Supply Chains. Excess and shortage often exist at the same time. A part might be sitting in the network – just not positioned where demand is likely to hit. Without the right visibility, teams end up purchasing additional inventory even when usable parts are already out there. It’s a costly blind spot, and one that’s easy to miss when planning and execution aren’t connected.
Baxter Planning gave Leidos the visibility to find those assets, avoid unnecessary purchases, and put existing inventory to better use. That’s the shift service leaders are working toward: not more inventory by default, but smarter orchestration of planning, decisions, and execution.
Forecasting with a More Complete Picture
Leidos also used installed base forecasting to fill gaps where demand history alone wasn’t giving planners the full picture.
Service parts demand is tied to what’s deployed in the field – where assets are located, how they’re being used, and how they perform over time. Historical demand can help, but it doesn’t always capture what’s coming, especially when demand is sporadic or traditional forecasts fall short. When those gaps go unaddressed, service commitments suffer.
For Leidos, a more complete view of future service requirements translated into better outcomes for their customers and stronger confidence in the plan.
AI That Keeps Work Moving
One of the things Hsieh highlighted was how AI is changing the day-to-day experience for her team.
With Baxter Planning’s Help Agent, her team can get answers within minutes and keep asking follow-up questions until the issue is resolved. “It saves days,” she noted, “and keeps work momentum moving.”
That matters more than it might sound. Planners in complex service environments spend a significant amount of time firefighting. That’s time that isn’t going toward exception analysis, process improvement, or identifying the next opportunity to improve service. When AI clears that friction, it gives people their time back.
The same capability also makes onboarding easier. New team members can find answers independently, which helps the whole team operate more consistently over time.
Human Expertise, Amplified
Hsieh’s perspective on AI is worth sitting with:
“AI is not about replacing people – it’s about unlocking full potential.”
— Ellian Hsieh, Service Supply Chain Analytics Manager, Leidos
That’s exactly the philosophy behind how Baxter Planning approaches AI. In the Service Supply Chain, the complexity is real and the stakes are real – wrong decisions affect customers, profitability, and revenue. AI should be giving experts better inputs and faster answers, not removing their judgment from the equation. The value comes from combining technology with human insight, not replacing one with the other.
A Partnership Built for Continuous Improvement
Ellian also spoke to the quality of the partnership itself as a factor in their success.
She shared that the Baxter Planning team took the time to genuinely understand the Leidos business, brought meaningful domain knowledge to the implementation, and asked questions Leidos hadn’t yet considered.
Service Supply Chain transformation isn’t just a software implementation. It requires process understanding, deep domain expertise, and a shared commitment to getting better over time. For Leidos, that kind of partnership made the difference between a tool and a real capability.
