Many organisations have started to take action to overcome the current pandemic that is affecting 73% of the world’s supply chains. These actions range from cutting costs - incl. Staff/ FTE’s/ operational support/ etc. - to reassessing their processes, partners, routes, etc. All focussed on creating a more efficient, flexible and competitive supply chain model.
However, research with a representative group of businesses has shown that a large portion of these decisions are based on existing or historic financial or operational information. Or even worse, a “gut feel” from the supply chain “team” (or management). Often any changes are made to further secure/ strengthen existing practices, reducing operational scope or/ and reviewing existing contracts.
Although existing data is an important element of making future decisions, we believe that this is only one component of the decision making process. By using existing data and combining it with external/ recent data sources to identify opportunities through alternative customer, product or business channels, we have been able to closely partner with struggling businesses through a structured process to identify, validate and deploy.
Case study 1 - Revenue & Profitability Reduction
A leading Australian Meat Exporter identified his revenue and profitability was declining. Through assessing external and internal data, we found that the international industry wasn't affected as much as this particular organisation. This resulted in a deep-dive review of his existing operations and supply chain, assessing if there was a "leak" or other concern that was the cause of this decline. Through working with a supply chain traceability solution (from farm to end-consumer), we conducted a number of prototypes and trials to assess the solution and its effectiveness. During these trials we identified that (an) other party/ parties were supplying the foreign market with "their product" (fake products), which were cheaper. This further strengthened the business case for the implementation of such a traceability solution, providing the end-consumer the confidence that the product they bought was authentic.
Case study 2 - Corporate Reputation
An Australian global insurance provider introduced Supply Chain Sustainability (ESG) across their organisation, to prevent any potential reputational damage. Instead of conducting a full SCM ESG implementation, they requested to take a "proof-of-concept" (PoC) approach to easily identify and tackle high-risk suppliers (first tier suppliers). Through combining available country, human rights, modern slavery and many other global ESG reports, we were able to identify approx. 1,500 suppliers (4% of the 35,000 suppliers) that require to have a further evaluation/ assessment. Only 30% of these suppliers represented customer-facing activities, reducing the reputational risk even further. Through further assessment by their risk and procurement teams, they identified that the PoC was accurate and have reached out to us to further assess their other ESG components.
Through introducing a "proof-of-concept", trial or prototype approach, with the support of internal and external data (through our data visualisation model), we have seen, time and time again, that innovative supply chain and operational solutions can be introduced with minimal costs/ risk, providing maximum impact.
Unique Excellence continuously assesses, reviews and introduces fit-for-purpose innovative operational and supply chain solutions to further enhance our clients with their operational goals. We therefore strongly believe that the combination of our knowledge, experience and skills, with our clients industry and business experience will lead to optimal business growth.
When our clients are successful, then we are successful!