With Supply Chain Management you gain ...

• Customized and robust value creation processes from supplier to final customer
• Competitive advantage through superior delivery performance
• Reduced working capital and lower costs

Supply Chain Strategy

Business model

Beneficial process optimization only starts on the basis of a sound business model. Successful business models describe how a company interacts with its customers, partners, and other stakeholders driven by dynamic markets and fully aware of political, social and environmental challenges.

• Design for specific customer and market requirements
• Expand on your own strengths to create customer benefits
• Configure the value chain – be ready for change.

Focus

Are you rather large and a market leader or a boutique, niche player? If you know your current position and future ambitions, you have a clear advantage. Rather than copying the competition you can gain your customers‘ trust and business by making the right choices. Three decision shape your operations management focus:

• What guides your business? Time or quality or cost?
• Which abilities are critical?
• How to exercise leadership and management processes?

Supply Chain Design

Supply, Production, and Distribution Networks

You want to ensure a high service level for your customers – sustainable, cost efficient and with low working capital. Strategic considerations are crucial as well: Presence in local markets, compliance with environmental requirements, risk mitigation, forward looking flexibility. Before determining locations, decision power in the supply chain needs to be clarified. Example: will you manage your supply chain centrally or decentrally?

• Basic design – driven by business model and company strategy
• Roles and responsibilities – where, who, what?
• Optimized network – design, evaluate and compare alternatives

Simulation with an experimental game

Concepts are good, testing is better. Nothing comes above personal experience: In our experimental simulations - fully customized to your company and processes - you can experience the future first hand. Findings can be directly implemented in an adjusted strategy. We help you test new business models or processes:

• Seeing what happens as a whole – full transparency
• Experimenting – Changing processes and strategies
• Costs and benefit – what is the bottom line effect of the change?

Supply Chain Processes

Manage, plan, control

Looking in the rearview mirror is important for analyzing what happened. For good decisions, however, you need to look ahead, based on solid master data and timely status information.

• Manage – adjust the Supply Chain to ever changing requirements (mid-term)
• Plan – ensure an executable demand forecast and production plan (weekly)
• Control – deploy local decision power in operations (daily)

Fast Processes (Lean SCM)

Creating advantage through increasing the speed of all operational processes. This is not only important within your company, but also must be done with suppliers and service providers. It includes information processing, physical movement of materials and of course the value creating processes.

• Eliminate waiting time
• "Do it right the first time!"
• Ensure scalability

Transparency and foresight

Supply Chains are complex. Most things do not happen on-site. It is therefore crucially important to define clear milestones on the path to the final customer and to create full transparency – visually and metric based. The key slogan is: „No surprises!“ The further this transparency reaches upstream and downstream into the supply chain, the earlier you can recognize deviations and avoid resulting problems:

• Define relevant milestones,
• Recognize critical deviations,
• Proactively initiate corrective measures.

Supply Chain Metrics

Avoid acting in the dark. Metrics support the day-to-day management and control or they give valuable information on the overall performance of the supply chain (e.g. Cash-to-Cash Cycle). Enhanced with regular qualitative evaluations, metrics are a good indication of how well the chosen supply chain strategy is being lived.

• Metrics to support operational decisions,
• Performance measurement – Goal achievement, reporting, benchmarks,
• Balanced Scorecard – Bridging strategy and operations.