HP SPaM is an internal consulting group that supports HP businesses on mission-critical strategic and operation decisions. SPaM's mission is to drive innovation and data-driven decisions in HP through assisting with analytics, consulting, and operations management. As evidenced by its publications and awards, SPaM has been a prominent example of the deployment and practice of OR/MS in large companies. Together with HP Labs, SPaM represents HP at the INFORMS Roundtable, a group of organizations whose purpose is to promote OR/MS excellence in practice.
History
Contributions
SPaM pioneered and leads innovation in supply chain and procurement practices. They created dramatic improvements in manufacturing, distribution, procurement, product design, forecasting, metrics, and inventory control efficiencies; leading to the publication and adoption of their methods outside HP. Notable contributions include:
Founders
The team was established in 1989 by Corey Billington who had recently joined HP and was working with Sara Beckman. Billington asked then HP CEOLew Platt for $100K to start a team focusing on efficiency and inventory within HP. Soon after, Corey added Tom Davis, Paul Gibson, Steve Rockhold, Rob Hall, Marguerita Sasser, and Ed Feitzinger to the team and began a fruitful collaboration with Hau Lee and M. Eric Johnson. The name SPaM came from HP internal location code initially assigned to the group during the days of limited identification fields. SPM and SM were two initial possibilities but the group settled with the more pronounceable SPaM. This was the day before internet era where spam was not yet synonymous with unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic message.
Directors
Logo
The triangles in SPaM logo represent inventory – the largest asset on the balance sheets of most consumer electronics manufacturers and certainly the largest asset of HP. The bluebell shape represents uncertainty which exists in most decision making situations. The combination of the shapes is meant to represent SPaM's intention of using analytics to enable decision making under uncertainty to improve asset management performance.
Inside HP
Locations
SPaM supports HP businesses from multiple strategic locations, embedded with HP's various businesses. SPaM's home office is in Palo Alto, HP Inc.'s headquarters;
Services
SPaM employs consulting engagement model where HP businesses pay SPaM for each engagement. Key practice areas include:
Members
SPaM members are Analytical Business Consultants who share strong interests in addressing business decisions from analytical and data-driven perspective. Typical members possess domain expertise as well as consulting and project management experiences from management consulting firms, or companies in their own industries. Most have earned MBA, Master’s, and/or Doctoral degrees in technical fields such as economics, engineering, management science, operations research, science, and statistics. Some individuals who are members of SPaM are also recognized both in the academic community and/or across various industries.
Outside HP
Awards
Publications
SPaM members have published more than 50 articles on the applications of operations research and management science to solve HP business decisions. Many have appeared in widely referenced business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review. Members have served as an editors to supply chain textbooks used in graduate school programs, and HP supply chain innovations developed by SPaM are cited in many supply chain textbooks. Brian Cargille, previously the SPaM Director and now the Vice President of Inkjet and Print Solutions at HP, has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Supply Chain Management Review, an industry magazine, since 2006. Many MBA programs teach techniques created by SPaM members as part of their curricula.
