Boer & Croon has developed a new proposition aimed at helping organisations gain end-to-end insight in their supply chain operations.
Getting supply chain management right is a complex challenge, requiring a streamlined interplay between all kinds of functions in the value chain, including manufacturing, procurement, sales & demand planning, and logistics. While every function faces a range of specific operational excellence improvements, Boer & Croon’s offering focuses mainly on unlocking value at the holistic level.
“Our dashboard ensures that all links in the supply chain can work together effectively, efficiently and especially with less frustration to ultimately meet customer needs as best as possible,” explained Haico Spijkerboer, a partner at the Netherlands-based consulting firm.
Forecasting is one area which can be optimised. According to research by Gartner, improving forecast accuracy is one of the top issues supply chain leaders face, as they struggle to grasp all aspects of consumer behaviour and internal operations that could influence forecasting. However, the stakes can be large – upstream improvements cascade down the entire supply chain process, and fixing things at the source paves the way for more efficient processes all the way through to production and logistics.
The offering makes it possible to zoom-in on behaviour/orders all the way up to the highest level of the supply chain overview, while making information available in real time, allowing planners to “act or take decisions quicker” and “aggregate and combine insights for better decisions.”
Jan Roodenburg, an associate partner at Boer & Croon, added: “Furthermore, it provides the possibility to be able to focus on “foresight” with reliable forecasting in addition to “hindsight” and “insight”, which enables the organisation to better cater to supply chain disruptions, and as a consequence speed-up deliveries to customers.”
This is however just one element of the proposition. Among others customer behaviour and actual orders are fed into the tool for a clear view of demand, which translates into an order book with an accompanying revenue forecast. This information is injected into the sales & operations planning (S&OP), which forms the fundament for the manufacturing and more downstream supply chain activities.
Continuous oversight
Once fully in place, the oversight not only triggers performance improvement, but lays the groundwork for continuous improvement – a process which ensures that processes are structurally monitored and that improvements are fed through on a continuous basis in an agile, and non-business disrupting manner.
Ultimately, it leads “to a true competitive advantage, with better operational efficiency and higher customer and employee satisfaction as a result, in turn generating financial results”, said Roodenburg.
Unpacking on the proposition’s early track record, he provided an example based on a recent case. “At a client in the high-tech sector, the implementation of this solution led to improved delivery and supply chain metrics, realised through better insight and enhanced collaboration between departments. A less volatile and more accurate forecasting made the supply chain more efficient, leading to direct savings of 60%. Leaders now have much more control on how they align their supply chain to customers and the external environment.”
