The techniques found in 3C- A Proven Alternative to MRPII for Optimizing Supply Chain Performance generate immediate business benefits. Experts from Lucent Technologies discuss the the 3Cs - capacity, commonality, and consumption - and how they can revolutionize business. They cover how to: decrease overhead expense and improve shipping performance using the business capacity as the basis for materials planning, reduce investments in inventory using the commonality of components, and obtain dramatic improvements in the lead time of customer orders using the actual consumption of materials instead of sales forecasts as the basis for purchasing.