What they asked
The client was a globally-operating vegetable breeding and seed production company. They wanted to move towards a demand-driven supply chain, and asked us to support their supply chain design and to quantify impact on their operations.
What we did
We worked with the client to establish an appropriate supply chain design that balanced the interests of all involved parties (the customer, risk management, operations and supply chain). This design also served as a starting point for new planning and scheduling software.
We modelled their packaging operations in detail, conducting quantitative analyses on batch sizes, packaging types and machine loading. This model identified several opportunities to save labour costs (smartly allocating batches to packaging lines, supporting decision-making on the need for new packaging lines, etc.).
Finally, we captured all required next steps in a roadmap to enable our client to manage the required follow-up until their ‘go live’ date.
What we accomplished
We facilitated key design choices as the client moved towards a demand-driven supply chain (both for supply chain design and operations/way of working). We conducted a detailed impact analysis of the new design, allowing our client to prepare for the change (hiring additional staff, focusing on the Overall Equipment Effectiveness [OEE] of specific machines, etc.). We also improved scheduling and labour efficiency for their packaging operations by reviewing and updating machine allocation logic.