Supply Chain Strategy Services

Key Capabilities

Strategy and Operating Model Design

A critical starting point when transforming the supply chain in any business is to translate business strategy and organisational objectives into a supply chain strategy and then design the model to operationalise that strategy.

Our team of supply chain network brings vast industry experience and consulting to businesses to develop and implement sustainable strategy and supply chain operating models.

We focus on a customer-centric approach and leverage design thinking and strategic scenario planning to ensure that the business strategy complements the needs of the shareholders, customers, suppliers, and employees.

We understand the challenges in converting strategic planning into a program of initiatives that drive results against strategic objectives. We work with businesses to identify risks and develop change management strategies to improve the effectiveness of the change. Most importantly, our team is highly committed to support businesses, right from the planning phase through to the implementation phase.

Supply Network Design and Optimisation

The supply chain network is critical in satisfying customer (B2B or B2C) expectations while effectively managing operating costs and working capital since consumers have become more demanding in terms of range, quality, lead times, returns, and visibility. We assist businesses in deploying a strategy around the following themes:

• Manufacturing locations.
• The amount of inventory required and where is should be held
• The number and location of warehouses and DCs.
• The level of automation required for each manufacturing  and distribution location.
• The time phased levels of investments required.
• Business case development including NPV and return on investment.

Our advanced network modelling techniques are tailored to suit business requirements and support quantitative and qualitative assessments in several network scenarios.

At the completion of the study our clients receive a full business case which is ready for board approval.

Supply Chain Diagnostics

Our supply chain diagnostics analyses businesses’ current supply chain performance and capability. We identify and quantify opportunities for improvement as well as build a practical road map and business cases.

We have an extensive kit bag of assessment tools and benchmarks to quickly deliver insights that assist businesses in improving their performance.

Cost-to-Serve Analysis

Rarely do businesses fully understand the cost-to-serve. Namely, which customers are profitable, which SKUs are unprofitable and which sales channels are the most profitable.

Our cost-to-serve analysis allows businesses to understand costs, profitability, and return on net assets (RONA) at the most granular levels, and leverage this knowledge to inform key investment, marketing, pricing, supply chain, sourcing, manufacturing, and commercial decisions.

Our tool attributes all costs (not just supply chain), revenues, and assets based on the true cost of underlying activities to channels, brands, customers, suppliers, products, sites, or terminals and presents this information visually in ‘Tableau’ to businesses for easy consumption.

Merger and Acquisition Support

We support private equity firms as they assess their target acquisitions, develop improvement plans, execute the plans, and ultimately exit the investment.

We assist businesses through each of these stages:

• Due diligence: Our experience in supply chain and procurement, supported by extensive cost and operational benchmarks, assesses the value of the acquisition target.
• Improvement plans: We develop and support execution of plans to improve customer service, reduce cost of goods sold (COGS), and improve working capital efficiency to drive up the value of the acquired business.
• Exit: We identify unrealised supply chain value among businesses to assist them in realising maximum value on exit.

Route to Market

Businesses have multiple ways to deliver their products to the market, including distributors, wholesalers, and direct to customer. The key to success lies in how businesses are able to segment their target market and deliver services specific to those markets.

There are countless configurations of cost, risk, compliance, speed, responsiveness, customer experience, ethical, and sustainability parameters that determine the best route to each market segment.

We reconcile customer needs with strategic objectives as well as geographical, regulatory, commercial, technological, environmental, and social constraints to achieve the most effective route to market strategy for businesses.  

Outsourcing Advice

Most businesses around the globe choose to outsource some elements of their supply chain, such as procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, planning, or reporting.

Developing and implementing a business’ outsourcing strategy is critical to success, and navigating the numerous dimensions of outsourcing is not only difficult but can expose businesses to a range of risks.

Our outsourcing specialists unlock significant value in the supply chain through identification of non-core activities and sourcing them to appropriate service providers.

Our in-house business process management organisation supports supply chain and procurement processes and technology using a blend of onshore and offshore delivery models.

Visit our Supply Chain Services page