supply chain resiliency

Managing global supply chains has become one of the most challenging, risk intensive aspects of  just about any business.

While the logistics crisis that rocked the past three years has now normalised, geopolitical issues are escalating, key retail markets are uncertain - at best - and then there’s the increasing pressure to meet more stringent demands for transparency.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the ubiquitous price pressure that has always been part of product sourcing.

A growing number of people are looking to technology to create greater supply chain stability.  However even the most advanced technology is only a tool.  The foundational strategies will come from the people who manage the sourcing operations which the technology is supporting.

So then what could companies do to build more stable supply chains?  And what might the new, more resilient supply chain look like?

To find out, I invited Christophe Roussel to join us here on A Seat at The Table.

Christophe has 30 year experience building, shaping, and transforming consumer goods global supply chains (including product development, sourcing, manufacturing, quality, sustainability).

He’s worked for big box retailers such as Carrefour in France or Tesco, and Morrisons or Sainsbury’s in the UK.

Most recently he was EVP Global Sourcing & Manufacturing at U.S. casual wear brand the Gap, Inc.

Christophe’s own consultancy, advisory and interim leadership business, Big Ideas,  helps brands and retailers to transform their end-to-end product supply chains and build integrated partnerships with strategic suppliers. 

At the same time, the consultancy is also helping vendors and manufacturers to diversify their production base into new country of origins and rethink strategically their approach to the customers they want to work with.

In this episode, Christophe will be discussing:

- Practical and actionable ways to create more resilient supply chains
- How to balance the need for reliability with the quest for cheaper prices
- Which technology developments are likely to make the biggest impact on supply chain resilience

USEFUL LINKS:

Asianet Consultants:  https://asianetconsultants.com

Big Ideas Consultants:  https://www.bigideasconsultants.com

Connect with Christoph Roussel:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/rousselchristophe/

Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm

As a spin-off enterprise of Novartis, Sandoz aims to become a competitive, global generic pharmaceutical company. Kevin Cook, Sandoz VP of Supply Chain North America, explains that Sandoz is seeking to be an independent entity by the third quarter of 2023 and to get to that point, it needed advanced supply chain planning to match its productivity and delivery goals. The company has been undergoing a digital transformation using RapidResponse from Kinaxis for the past few years. Allen Jacques and Kevin Cook discussed how the planning process is evolving for Sandoz.

Key quotes from Cook: 

“…we look really for efficiencies, productivity opportunities internally on how do we automate our processes better, how do we bring information and analytics to be more of as a DIY application than having to rely on IT…” 

“And now we're kind of on this journey of how we actually start to link to our suppliers and our customers on a more of an end-to-end basis, and how do we unlock the value of the entire supply chain from us as manufacturers to ultimately our patients and providers. How do we go about that journey of bringing information about our supply into the broader supply chain world, making the supply chain run better, making it more real resilient, more visible, and at a lower cost, while at the same time meeting patient needs in a better way.”

“The beauty of a tool at Kinaxis is that it's separated from SAP, we have freedom to basically adjust parameters around capacity and demand and supply chain nodes, and basically run lots of what-if scenarios that are interconnected across all of our nodes.”

Other points:

• Sandoz is focused on understanding who all its digital partners are and what their needs are, and building stronger, connected relationships from end-to -end. 
• Novartis has 17 instances of SAP, whereas Sandoz has one planning solution that sits on top of all of them: RapidResponse. It “helps us communicate and see things on a real-time basis,” says Cook. 
• Sandoz hopes to leverage these newer technologies to further develop its serialization and track-and-trace capabilities, which will open up visibility and new ways to see demand, plan and create better access to its products in the markets.
• Cook says he would hope to counter any fears that giving a distributor full visibility of its supply chain could risk losing that distributor; rather, he would ideally see it used to build trust by demonstrating reliability and enabling collaboration to see issues earlier than ever to resolve challenges.
• On the predictive side, Sandoz is using models based on historical data on stock-out trends, financial/economic info in certain markets and more to determine probability of being awarded future tenders. Cook says they are starting to see trends of outages than can be responded to now with inventory builds, and planning. 

Supply chain disruption is becoming the norm rather than the exception. Whether it is cracks in the Hernando do Soto bridge, ships getting stuck in the Suez Canal, or global pandemics, supply chains need to be more agile than ever.

To talk through some of the implications of this I invited Mike Snape of SAP partner company Oliver Wight to come on the podcast and chat about this with myself and Claus Jensen. Mike and Claus went deep into how Integrated Business Planning can help organisations.

We had an excellent conversation and, as is often the case, I learned loads, I hope you do too...

If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).

To learn more about how Industry 4.0 technologies can help your organisation read the 2020 global research study 'The Power of change from Industry 4.0 in manufacturing' (https://www.sap.com/cmp/dg/industry4-manufacturing/index.html)

And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Digital Supply Chain solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/digitalsupplychain and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.

And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters:

• Lorcan Sheehan
• Krishna Kumar
• Olivier Brusle
• Alicia Farag
• Joël VANDI
• Luis Olavarria
• Alvaro Aguilar

And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.

Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:
If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it.

Thanks for listening.

In this episode host Kevin Lawton talks to Fergal Glynn of 6 River Systems about the current state of the industry and what to expect from 6 River Systems at ProMatDX. 

Be sure to check out their interactive experience and pick with Chuck here: https://6river.com/pick-with-chuck/

Utilize our 3PL fulfillment services for all of your logistical needs. Email Kevin directly at kevin@thenewwarehouse.com

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