Background
Breakdowns at several sites involved in supply chain activities for this major luxury-goods player and a lack of awareness of activities between departments were limiting the overall performance of logistics teams. Employee turnover was generating significant differences in terms of information and experience.
The industrial logistics department wanted to carry out a full assessment of its organizational structure and skills in order to strengthen employees’ core knowledge and ensure a detailed command of activities.
Challenges
Working alongside the client, Wavestone had to meet three major challenges:
- Evaluate the current performance of teams, compared with best practice in SCM;
- Create a genuine culture of performance and continuous improvement;
- Facilitate the integration of new starters with the help of an SCM competency framework.
Responses and Key Success Factors
- Through a comprehensive assessment of the organizational structure and skills (using interviews, questionnaires, mapping activities, etc.) we delivered an evaluation of the maturity-levels of the teams, broken down by area. This led to the identification of areas for improvement and the implementation of concrete actions;
- The process-based approach helped put in place a Lean Supply Chain-type culture of continuous improvement: a Focus Group workstream, focusing on areas where rapid progress could be made, and the formalization of the specific practices and management rules used by the Industrial Logistics Department;
- An internal training approach was also developed, based on an SCM competency framework, to facilitate the orientation of new starters.
