Oliver Wight leads 14th European Supply Chain Summit

June 20, 2012 - PRLog -- Press Release
20th June 2012


Oliver Wight leads 14th European Supply Chain Summit

650 delegates and suppliers thronged to the Oliver Wight sponsored 2012 Supply Chain and Logistics Summit at Berlin’s Martim hotel on the 19th and 20th June to hear the latest thinking on all matters, supply chain.

Oliver Wight partner, Stewart Kelly’s keynote presentation, ‘Supply Chain Excellence - Why it’s Now Business Critical’, packed the main conference suite with 120 senior supply chain executives from Europe, the US and Asia.

“Supply chain optimisation is an absolute necessity as we face up to a double dip recession, and supply chains are drained and struggling to meet performance requirements,” he says.

“Processes need to be excellent and that’s not easy. In fact it’s an astonishing statistic that 75% of businesses struggle to deploy their strategy because they just don’t have adequate processes in place.”

Kelly explained there has to be a clear sequence of events for designing an effective supply chain. “You begin with the market and product strategy, which defines the supply chain strategy and in turn, the supply and logistics strategies. The supply chain design flows from this,” he says.

But Kelly also insists that you must have your own house in order before you can consider relationships with customers and suppliers. “Your business has to be ‘in control’,” he says. As an absolute minimum, you need a single set of numbers; you must be providing good customer service and routine things need to be happening routinely.”

He says that it’s critical to understand too, where the power players are in the supply chain, since these will have a fundamental impact on the shape of its design: “If you have an 800lb gorilla in your supply chain, it will determine whether you move forwards or backwards along the supply chain on your improvement journey and you need to confront that before you can begin to build closer relationships with customers and suppliers.”

From there Kelly says the focus shifts to understanding the agility required to serve the customer cost effectively and to segment the supply chain response to deliver the required strategy.

“The objective has to be to take out cost out of the supply chain and to drive improvements that everybody can share in. If that sounds like motherhood and apple pie, it isn’t because plenty of companies are doing it and really benefiting as a result,” he concludes.

Notes to editors

About Oliver Wight

Oliver Wight has a 40 year track record of delivering business improvement to some of the world’s best-known organisations. With a team of professionals offering a wealth of experience, Oliver Wight is the largest consultancy of its type, with offices throughout Europe, South Africa, North and South America, and the Asia Pacific region. We believe that sustainable business improvement can’t be delivered by external consultants but only by our clients’ own people, so unlike other consultancy firms, we transfer our knowledge to them, helping deliver performance levels and financial results that last.

Integrated Business Planning
At the leading edge of management thinking and practice, our Integrated Business Planning (IBP) model lies at the heart of our clients’ journey to outstanding business performance. Oliver Wight are the originators of sales and operations planning (S&OP) and IBP can most simply be described as advanced S&OP. However, unlike S&OP, IBP brings a truly strategic perspective, integrating diverse processes - in the extended supply chain, product and customer portfolios, customer demand and strategic planning - into one seamless management process.

Supply Chain Design and Optimization
Oliver Wight supply chain design and optimization allows organisations to understand their position within the extended supply chain; identify where value is being created and destroyed; develop profitable relationships with suppliers customers and consumers; and optimize their supply chain (however complex) for the ultimate in customer service and business performance.

Performance Benchmarking for Supply Chain
Oliver Wight Performance Benchmarking provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of supply chain performance, allowing organisations to identify opportunities for improving customer service at the same time as dramatically reducing supply chain costs.

Meeting the Class A Standard
The Oliver Wight Class A Checklist is the longest standing and most successful business assessment tool. The latest, Sixth Edition, raises the bar, and sets ever more demanding standards for companies on their journey to business excellence and the Oliver Wight Class A standard.


More information

Carol Collins   
Oliver Wight EAME
carol.collins@oliverwight-eame.com   
www.oliverwight-eame.com

Steve Lipscombe
RONIN Marketing Limited      
+44 (0) 20 3326 5040
stevel@roninmarketing.co.uk
www.roninmarketing.co.uk