Prepare the Supply-Chain team for digital transformation
The starting point
The client: A supermarket company, with about 400 stores and 10 warehouses in France with, inbound flows, both domestic and from abroad (for food and non-food products) and replenishment flows from the warehouses to the stores.
The Supply Chain team of our client is close to burn out due to a high level of activity with many digital changes to implement in the day to day work. The Supply Chain Chief Officer feels an increasing demotivation and fears the future. He asked Hommes & Performance (H&P) to assist in overcoming this crisis.
H&P prioritised two issues:
• How to take digital changes as an opportunity to improve the team’s way of life?
• How to anticipate workload – in order to smooth and prepare for peak periods?
The steps along the way
The Digital transformation of supply chain jobs:
H&P first assessed, in cooperation with the teams, the impact of digital transformation on the four job families of the supply chain, in addition to the interactions with other parts of the company.
Based on this, H&P reviewed job descriptions, to take into account and prepare all these «digital changes» - both in the headquarters, in warehouses, regional offices and points of sales.
The result was shared at all levels of the supply chain teams and with business partners within the company.
The conclusion seminar was the opportunity to share the vision of the supply chain related strategy, as well as that of the «digital transformation» of the supply chain. The seminar furthermore served to explain how the company plans to support these changes in the future.
Better Management of peak times
Based on individual interviews, H&P identified the workload per activity and the frequency of critical situations. H&P then designed a planning tool for supply chain activities, in order to provide an anticipated vision of coming peak times. H&P put up a new «management activity», dedicated to planning and preparation of peak times (with related workload and required skills)
H&P worked with the internal business partners of the supply chain increase their awareness of the constraints of planning, and to optain their support for the coming changes.
Key success factors
• A two-gear approach: the first one was very «heads down», focusing on detailed activities, shop floor and critical situations; the second one applied more insight and perspective, with the focus on formalising the transformation and the value attached to it.
• A close collaboration with the business partners of the supply chain within the company (e.g. support services and points of sales) to facilitate anticipating tensions and to cooperate on more complex issues.
• The identification of «management» as a time consuming activity, but an activity delivering high value to co-workers and operations.
Outcome
The project brought a very high level of «well-being» in the Supply Chain team:
• Everyone felt able to anticipate (peak) activity, and in a position to monitor the future without being surprised by it.
• The company demonstrated support of the transformation. The project had high visibility and resulted in significant plans to develop skills.
• The open minded «problem solving» approach with other people in the company was rewarding.
And finally: The highlight that the project placed on the contribution of Supply Chain 2.0 to the company, generated a substantial amount of professional pride to both supply chain team members as well as to their interlocutors.
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