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Some Recent Discussion Highlights

Talent and skills development in procurement & supply chain

Covering:

- customised learning programmes

- technological integration

- aligned to business's strategic focus

- flexibility & autonomy for learners

- AI and workforce augmentation

How digitalisation & connectivity multiple supply chain cyber risks

Supply chain and logistics directors are continually alert to potential disruptions with greater digitalisation, collaboration and connectivity often seen as key to improving responses and overall resilience.

However, they also pose their own cyber security risks that can be just as damaging as any weather event or vessels getting stuck in the Suez canal, especially when the reputational risks are considered.

To raise awareness of supply chain cyber security among our group, I invited Mark Beasy to walk us through the types of risks with recent examples of how they've disrupted well known businesses. and the top questions every supply chain director should be asking themselves and their IT security colleagues.

Engaging suppliers in sustainability efforts

For shorter-term planning when the focus is on the P&L, inventory and working capital, both supply chain and finance agree that it's important to be precise.

For longer-term planning, supply chain tend to prefer to be roughly right than precisely wrong which doesn't always work as well in the finance function's world. Finance are using forecasts to determine budgets a year or more out including decisions about how much to allocate for investment, often as a % of turnover.

How to quantify the benefits of long-term forecast improvements?

For shorter-term planning when the focus is on the P&L, inventory and working capital, both supply chain and finance agree that it's important to be precise.

Control towers: who, what, why and how?

- who is doing what and why with supply chain control towers?

- what exactly is a control tower and why is there so much confusion about them?

- what role should control towers play in end-to-end supply chain optimisation?

- why should suppliers pay attention to customers' control tower initiatives?

- what are the key steps to building and maintaining control towers and where to start?

- what is the key to breaking down silos and enabling sustainable collaboration?

- how should / do control towers integrate with and support supply chain planning processes to improve working capital efficiency?

- what technology do you need for a control tower?

Scope 3 net zero for supply chain - start now!

Supply chain directors have always had to find the right balance between cash, cost and service but, now, they also must build in greater resilience and sustainability into what have commonly been lean / lowest cost operating models.

Key points included:

- a +/- 20% estimate is good enough to identify to main suppliers to focus on

- many companies are taking a factoring approach

- building genuinely collaborative relationships is critical

Taking control of your data for supply chain visibility

Supply volatility has prompted interest in visibility solutions, often by integrating existing data sets from multiple sources. However, this can be costly and time-consuming with tangible benefits sometimes difficult to quantify. An alternative approach is building a new, 'clean' database which over time becomes the foundation for supply analytics.

What should a supply chain data transformation roadmap look like?

Building on a previous discussion on small steps to start a data transformation journey, this discussion explored the bigger picture implications of continuing that journey, particularly with respect to balancing the long-term, strategic goals with short-term, tactical demands and pressures.

Integrating demand sensing into tactical planning to eliminate the bullwhip effect

Starting with a case study from Shell Lubricants, this discussion focused on how demand sensing can be integrated into tactical planning without introducing more noise into the signal so producing the bullwhip effect which often happens within traditional MRP-driven planning processes.

Adapting to ongoing supply chain volatility

Identifying the main risks and sources of supply chain disruptions, this discussion shared current best practices for avoiding and mitigating their impacts including strategic inventories, multi-sourcing, supplier collaboration and predictive planning.

Data, data everywhere...small steps to harnessing supply chain data to enable performance improvements

- disconnected data as the key constraint to digital transformation

- small steps to leveraging existing data and systems

- what should a data transformation roadmap look like?

How BIOTRONIK built a business case for AI-driven improvements in forecast accuracy, reduced workload and inventory savings (case study)

As part of a transformation which included a new planning platform, BIOTRONIK improved forecast accuracy by 28 percent, reduced planners' workload by 36 percent with substantial inventory savings. Aspects discussed included:

- challenges of going from a manual-based forecast to AI-driven, automated forecasts, particularly building trust in 'the number'

- key steps in building an evidence-based RoI projection and business case

Net zero for supply chain: keep measuring but start doing!

Many companies, especially larger ones, have made public commitments to reducing emissions and achieving net zero standards, often by 2030 or 2040. Considering that scope three emissions typically account for 80% of total emissions, that's a huge commitment and a comparatively difficult one to achieve because, in contrast to scopes one and two, scope three is harder to measure and beyond companies' direct control.

In this discussion, we took a view on what net zero best practice should look like and the actions that can and should be taken to deliver on commitments.

Process-centric data consolidation to break down silos & hack process automation

Supply chain digitalisation and transformation initiatives are commonly hampered by data integration and quality issues, leading many to embark on lengthly and resource-intensive data lake projects which often take several years before providing any operational value.

In this discussion, we explored a different approach which can be used in parallel and even contribute to a data lake project but delivers operational improvements and automation much more quickly.

Customer & supplier collaboration

Supply disruption isn’t going away any time soon. 75% of organisations surveyed by Gartner said they anticipate no change or even a drop in accessibility to raw materials over the next five years. Despite this, only 41% of organisations include suppliers in their S&OP process.

CPFR (collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment) is a partnership, an investment in money, time and resources and a commitment from both parties to share data regularly and with minimal lag time, covering the entire planning horizon. It also means developing a joint business plan and a joint scorecard addressing the strategic objectives of both customer and supplier, reflected in the KPIs governing the process. Crucially, it should detail prioritisation decisions when supply is constrained rather than leaving the supplier to decide how to fill orders

Supply chain analytics strategy

There is plenty of supply chain analytics going on but often this is happening in isolated, disconnected projects lacking overall coordination and coherence, increasing the likelihood of duplication and wasted energy. In this regular session, we discuss:

- Developing a comprehensive and analytics strategy and roadmap (in contrast to disconnected projects)

- In-house / strategic versus outsourced analytics capability and implications for talent & skills management and cost structures

- Managing competing demands between doing things 'in the right order' and delivering to internal customers

- Awareness and evaluation of start-up / specialist analytics service providers

Planning platform selection & business case (Gartner debrief)

Members discussed Gartner's advice on selecting a platform and building the business case including:

- making sure that technological maturity aligns with organisational and process maturity

- the importance of identifying potential champions

- testing the claims of platform vendors

Early stage planning maturity (Gartner debrief)

Members discussed the challenges associated with progressing from level 2 to level 3 planning maturity and Gartner's view on best practice including:

- changing siloed mindsets

- 'financialising' the process by including value as well as volume

- the importance of documenting assumptions

How Kingfisher consolidated stock and saved 35% on inventory spend across the group

- Unpacking the decision to consolidate 7 banners into a single European consolidation centre

- Alignment of supply chain, S&OP, forecast review, replenishment and stock management processes

- Technological advancements that provided the key to unlocking supply chain collaboration

- Change management challenges

Control towers

A group of members working on developing control towers exchanged best practices and ways forward including:

- how to start with relatively limited scopes for control towers

- data consolidation and exception management

- optimisation and control towers interaction with core processes like demand forecast and S&OP/IBP

- combining control towers at an end-to-end configuration level with digital twins

Network risk modelling & optimisation for resilience

Exploring how a digital twin helps an ongoing SC risk management framework and simulates the cost-benefits of potential reconfigurations and improvements.

SC emissions data collection & reporting

A member discussion to exchange current initiatives and progress towards sustainability goals and learn about a market-leading solution which simulates the impacts of potential initiatives.

Planning for sustainability during a 'perfect storm'

As a producer of sustainable solutions, like bioplastics, bio-chemicals and food solutions, Corbion faced a 'perfect storm' embarking on a new strategy and BU structure just as the first lock-down hit, with both demand and supply skewing dramatically. Boudewijn led their 'Lighthouse IBP' response contributing to becoming the fastest mid-cap riser in 2020 with high supplier reliability scores and, in 2021, won a Platinum (top 1%) sustainability rating from Ecovadis.

End-to-end customer segmentation

In uncertain times, it is more important than ever to be prioritising resources to support business strategies and profitability. In this discussion, we explored approaches to identifying customer-product segments or clusters and whether it's desirable or realistic to apply those segments / clusters at each level of the supply chain.

Lessons learned from implementing a new planning platform & developing control tower capability

Damian recently led a project to select a new planning platform, during which, he overcame challenges on re-defining requirements, assessing the true capabilities and RoI of potential options and getting buy-in from key stakeholders. Damian shared his journey and experience on selection process best practice as well as his current focus on integrating systems and data to deliver control tower capability.

Integrating S&OE & ESG metrics into planning processes

In the face of pandemic-related demand volatility, Chris and his team pioneered processes to strike the right balance between tactical, responsive planning (S&OE) without losing focus on longer-term planning (S&OP) which included pro-active demand shaping as a useful tool. Now implementing IBP best practice with integrated ESG / sustainability metrics, Chris shared lessons learned and outlined his plans

Managing volatility & machine learning in demand forecasting

Focusing on leveraging data and machine learning for forecast accuracy and real-time planning agility, Stephen introduced this discussion by sharing his recent work.

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Top Best Practice Focus Areas

Data, analytics, design & resilience

Analytics strategy

Insource vs. outsource

Cost-to-serve

End-to-end segmentation

Digital twins & network scenario modelling

See Highlights

Planning process maturity & orchestration

Digitalisation roadmaps

Forecast accuracy

S&OP / IBP, S&OE best practice

Winning stakeholder buy-in

Visibility & control towers

See Highlights

Planning platform selection & business case

Quantifying RoI

Stakeholder engagement & adoption

Platform vendor types

Aligning capabilities to maturity

Fast-track vendor discovery

See Highlights

Sustainability, ESG & emissions

Current initiatives

Sustainability drivers

Challenges for supply chain to address

See Highlights

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​​Some Recent Discussion Highlights

Private Member Discussion

Talent and skills development in procurement & supply chain

Talent and skills development in procurement & supply chain

Private Member Discussion

How digitalisation & connectivity multiple supply chain cyber risks

How digitalisation & connectivity multiple supply chain cyber risks

Private Member Discussion

Engaging suppliers in sustainability efforts

Engaging suppliers in sustainability efforts

Private Member Discussion

How to quantify the benefits of long-term forecast improvements?

How to quantify the benefits of long-term forecast improvements?