To many sports fans, Tim Ford is one of the real heroes of the Sydney Olympic Games. He runs 100 metres in about 14 seconds; he's not much of a gymnast and the "float" is his favourite swimming stroke. To be honest, Ford isn't much of an athlete at all. But that doesn't mean his contribution to the Games isn't one of the most vital to its success.

You see, Tim Ford is in charge of the beer.

As Sydney Olympic Park logistics manager for Carlton & United Breweries (CUB), Ford's job is to ensure that around 450 points-of-sale across 35 venues throughout Sydney are adequately stocked with Australian favourites such as Fosters and Carlton Cold.

In order to keep the amber fluid flowing, CUB has equipped its 22 logistics venue managers with Palm Pilot Vxs, outfitted with stock management software designed specifically for CUB's Olympic effort by local company Sync International.

According to Ford, the Scout Sync software enables the venue managers to accurately plan for expected stock movements. He said the system has already resulted in maximised sales, reduced overheads and most importantly, lessened the risk of riots by beer-deprived Games fans.

"The managers are using the Palms with Scout Sync to look at the forecast plan, looking at the stock on hand, the Palm then does all the calculations which tells them what to order and how many days cover they've got," he said

"We did this process manually at a test event, at the Melbourne Grand Prix this year, and it's probably taken us one tenth of the time to do the same process."

Once the Games are finished, Ford said CUB will look to the Palm/Sync team as the future in its logics management business and plans to use the system to coordinate supply to key customers such as hotels and liquor chains.

"Logistics is moving down the track toward vendor-managed inventory and this is the perfect tool to manage that process."

CUB compares stock levels at Games venues with supplying the equivalent of five AFL or NRL Grand Finals simultaneously every day for 15 consecutive days. It expects to supply up to 50,000 kegs and six million cans to Sydney Olympic Park alone. After six days of competition, Ford said these staggering expectations are well on the way to being met thanks to crowds of thirsty spectators.

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