Henkel - May 2023

HENKEL’S SECRET TO SUCCESS:

AMAZING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

customercentric Supply Chain (SC)

It all began with a vision. Henkel, the German multinational chemical and consumer goods company, many of whose goods you surely consume and have done since your childhood, saw that the world was changing. Henkel recognised that they needed to transform, and to be able to do this, they completely reimagined the supply chain.

Unravelling this vision, is Bjoern Neal Kirchner, the Global Head of Supply Chain for adhesive technologies. The goal was to create an amazing customer experience as a competitive edge.

Kirchner explains: “The vision behind the customer-centric Supply Chain (SC) transformation programme emphasised the potential for supply chains to contribute to the top line, in addition to the traditional bottom line.”

“While most supply chains focus on improving cost positions, inventory and working capital – in other words, KPIs established on traditionally internal data –Henkel believes that supply chains can also improve how customers engage with the company itself,” says Kirchner.

“By optimising the many touchpoints that customers have with Henkel throughout the entire supply chain interaction, such as ordering, logistics and planning, Henkel aims to provide a unique customer experience that can set it apart from its competitors.” This is a creative and visionary approach.

Henkel’s

transformation programme is nothing short of remarkable; Bjoern Kirchner shows us how they did it

BJOERN KIRCHNER

TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN FOR ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES

COMPANY: HENKEL

Bjoern Neal Kirchner is the Global head of supply chain for adhesive technologies at Henkel.

He is an experienced economist who has studied in both Munich and London. After completing his studies, he opted to travel to China where he was awarded a scholarship to study the Chinese language and immerse himself in the country’s culture. It was during this time that he began his career in logistics, as he sought to better understand China’s supply chain landscape. He secured a position at a logistics company, where he became captivated by the real-world challenges faced by businesses and their employees. From there, he continued to grow within the supply chain industry, holding various positions in different locations, including China, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Germany.

When asked how Henkel approaches establishing an amazing customer experience as a competitive edge, Kirchner explains that the company had to effectively relearn its perspective on customers.

The North Star

Instead of building on its own perception of what is good or effective and then executing on them, Kirchner says that Henkel engaged with customers on an entirely different level.

“So, we identified the values that were important to them in their engagement with us,” he says. “And through this process of value mapping, we identified areas where we may have not been delivering up to our customers’ expectations – in areas such as reliability, speed and innovation. Then, based on these findings, we implemented new programmes to improve the customer experience in all of these areas.”

So what is the guiding light in Henkel’s reimagining of the supply chain – or even more correctly – the value chain? Kirchner says: “We knew that we needed a North Star, and we needed it to guide the transformation and ensure that we were getting better at creating amazing experiences for our customers. This North Star was forged out of our customers’ values.”

As an execution-driven operational team, Kirchner says that Henkel are accustomed to having numbers guide them – making it difficult for something like the customer experience to be effectively measured.

“However, we needed an indicator,” he says, “an indicator that shows us whether we are making progress for our customers, and this is where the North Star shines.

“It is also crucial that, as an indicator, the North Star be connected to the overall

“Digital capability should overcome a purely functionalist view of supply chains”

BJOERN NEAL KIRCHNER

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN FOR ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES, HENKEL

Henkel and CAMELOT: A longstanding, trustful relationship

Bastian Kunze, Partner for Supply and Operations at CAMELOT Group, explains how his company became one of Henkel’s most trusted partners

Within any partner ecosystem, trust between organisations is absolutely paramount.

For more than a decade, it’s that exact trust that has enabled Henkel and CAMELOT Group to form a strong and fruitful relationship. CAMELOT has enjoyed 25 years of successful supply chain consulting, leveraging industry expertise in life science, chemicals, consumer goods and industrial manufacturing.

Explaining the firm’s core mission, Bastian Kunze, Partner for Supply and Operations at CAMELOT, says: “We connect people, processes, and technology to enable our global customers during their supply chain transformation journey.

“We are able to do that because we combine management consulting capabilities with enterprise application know-how and digital innovation.”

Trustful relationship at heart of supply chain projects

CAMELOT’S partnership with Henkel began with a supply chain process and solution implementation using SAP APO technology.

Several more projects followed in the ensuing years, mostly in the area of demand, supply and production planning – but always with the aim of innovating Henkel’s supply chain processes.

“We have had to tackle various challenges,” Kunze adds. “These were things like improving the inventory situation or helping Henkel to bring their demand process to the next level. But everything is based on a long-term, trustful relationship. That was always the foundation.”

Recently, the partners tackled a complex supply and inventory project, which saw CAMELOT implement the DDMRP (demanddriven material requirements planning) concept and the innovative Supply Chain Avatar DDMRP module by Elixum. This further improved and positioned inventory throughout Henkel’s entire supply chain network.

Elixum: Home of the Supply Chain Avatar

Elixum is a global software company that was born out of the CAMELOT Group and, in Kunze’s words, ushered in a “new era of operations and supply chain management”.

Its flagship product, the Supply Chain Avatar, is a cloud-based software suite enabling organisations like Henkel to build and plan resilient, sustainable supply chains by combining the best of two worlds. One element of this is next-generation, advanced planning and scheduling functionalities; the other is AI-driven, cognitive decision support during that process.

“With the in-built Hypertrust Platform,” Kunze explains, “the Supply Chain Avatar solutions can be implemented and deployed on any system infrastructure out there in the market.”

Success breeds trust

One thing that clearly helps to build trust between partners is success – and that’s exactly what CAMELOT has consistently achieved. The firm’s proven, market-leading supply chain process experience, combined with deep technology knowledge and global delivery capabilities, has continued to make the difference for Henkel and similar clients.

With its latest project, CAMELOT has increased the visibility of Henkel’s inventory status and projection, using increased automation that facilitates faster decision-making.

Kunze concludes: “We were able to position the inventory in the Henkel network at the right place, with the right quantity, with an overall effect of lower inventories – achieving a greater supply chain resilience.”

strategy of the company, which in our case is to create an amazing customer experience with our technologies. By doing so, we ensure that we are always aligned with our overarching goal, and that every step we take is working towards achieving that goal.”

Kirchner says that it’s important to put this indicator in place to ensure that momentum is not lost as progress is made. “Additionally,” he says, “ the truth is that people need encouragement, and seeing the North Star KPI rising is a clear sign that progress is being made towards the company’s vision. To achieve this, we reviewed our current service KPI and brought in the perfect order measurement.

The perfect order

The difference between the perfect order measurement and other internal data is that with the perfect order, Henkel is able to cast its net much wider, capturing data points from the customer’s perspective as well. By doing so, they are able to take into account the actual time of arrival; what the customer requested initially; and what Henkel have promised to deliver. “By measuring progress against these external data points, we can be sure that our customers will feel the difference,” Kirchner says.

Reimagining the customer-supply chain relationship – 360 degrees Henkel has a philosophy that “digital capability should overcome a purely functionalist view of supply chains”. Kirchner says: “Traditionally, supply chains are viewed as a linear chain of events that transform raw materials into finished goods, with the customer only at the end of the chain.

“However, Henkel believes that new technologies can enable a 360-degree view of the customer, putting the customer at the centre of all functions that interact with them.”

This approach requires a different set of technologies to ensure that everyone in the company has the same view of the customer experience. “For example,” he says, “service cloud technology allows for customer service interactions to be tracked and followed up on, providing insights into customer satisfaction levels.”

Digital capability, in this example, is an enabler to drive towards a new customer experience.

“The vision behind the customercentric Supply Chain (SC) transformation programme emphasised the potential for supply chains to contribute to the top line, in addition to the traditional bottom line”

BJOERN NEAL KIRCHNER GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN FOR ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES, HENKEL

14% of global market

Across all 60 segments (Adhesive Technologies)

Bjoern Neal Kirchner

Flo Group is the leading OTM implementing specialist from Europe and the developer of new software solutions to optimise logistic processes.

A team of experts in IT, supply chain and logistics solutions worldwide. Every day they implement, develop, integrate, and connect software to solve any supply chain and logistic challenge.

Discover our Services 〉〉

Flo Group delivers OTM with excellence in client-centricity

As the leading OTM implementation partner, Flo Group’s CEO Michiel Keijzer shares how its expert consultants deliver customer-centric strategy and outcome

With circa 250 consultants globally, Flo Group is the market leader for Oracle Transportation Management System (TMS) implementation. With core teams in Europe, India, and South America, Flo is home to many senior experts with more than 15 years of experience driving knowledge around the Oracle product, which is helping support small and large scale businesses.

Built on a people-centric culture, Flo enables its consultants to develop and grow with echoing effects across its team and client base, delivering excellence and a like-minded approach to transport management.

To achieve this, Flo Group’s CEO, Michiel Keijzer, explained how Flo has created

a templated approach upon which its consultants can build to support businesses operating globally.

“The template can subsequently have functionality and locations added to ensure the solution meets local needs where required,” says Keijzer. “We do encourage our clients to keep localisations to a minimum for ease of solution ownership going forward.”

In the early stage of Oracle TMS rollout, Flo is heavily involved in the process to ensure a successful execution, where consultants are able to get clients on board with the solution for their own specific use cases.

“Our consultants will develop the core solution

and then support the global deployment for each regional roll out,” says Keijzer. “During the roll-out stage, we will work with the clients’ own teams as they become more familiar with the solution. After each ‘go live’ during a deployment, we will hand over to the Flo support team that offers 24/7/365 live solution support and is thereby able to support any timezone.”

This client-centric approach inherently puts Flo in a great position to meet and exceed customer expectations, which has been critical to its success and a leading component of its journey to Oracle Transport Management (OTM) stewardship.

“Henkel believes in the outside-in approach to supply chains, taking in the views and the voices of the customer, as well as data points from outside the company, to design and improve its supply chain performance towards customers”

BJOERN NEAL KIRCHNER GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN FOR ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES, HENKEL

Rechanneling data: from inside-out to outside-in

Kirchner discussed the difference between the inside-out and outside-in approach to supply chains, and where Henkel stands on this.

Kirchner says: “As the term ‘supply chain’ indicates, it is, in essence, a chain of events. We can visualise this as two opposing streams. The first consists of the material flow, which exists from the procuring of raw materials, to producing intermediaries, on to finished goods, and finally out to delivering those goods to customers.

“Then there is the information flow –and this streams in the opposite direction, from the demand of the customer, on to production and procurement.”

The traditional inside-out approach is where a company accesses the information it has inside of its company, and constructs its reality around that. Kircher expresses that as a company matures in the supply chain, they enhance their perception of their needs, and this is where digital capabilities come into play. “You begin to understand that you need to extend your visibility to the data you receive on both ends of your value chain.” Kirchner says: “In contrast, the outside-in approach acknowledges that a company is part of a much larger value stream that includes suppliers, distributors, customers and consumers.

“By taking these perspectives into account, we are able to make decisions that are better aligned with the overall value stream. Henkel believes in the outside-in approach, taking in the views and the voices of the customer, as well as data points from outside the company, to design and improve its supply chain performance towards customers.”

Building the value chains of tomorrow

As a leading value chain consulting and technology company, Bluecrux transforms today’s supply chains into smart, efficient and fully integrated value chains. As a community, that is built on the intersection which they call “the Cutting X”: where problem meets purpose, and expertise meets technology. Where supply chains evolve, and value chains are forged.

Transforming supply chains into the value chains of tomorrow

with purpose. Like no other player in the market, we offer a unique value proposition. One where expertise and technology converges.” Bluecrux focuses on distinct industry verticals, backed by the belief that specialised knowledge is crucial. It focuses on these main clusters:

Schoenmakers.

Founded in 2011, Bluecrux uses an ecosystem approach transforming the value chains of tomorrow. “The time of either providing advice or providing technology solutions is behind us,” says Managing Partner Anouk Schoenmakers: “We work with our customers to go from the initial ideation towards actual implementation and real results, combining consulting services with state-of-the-art technology.”

Across Bluecrux’s diverse customer base, it sees the same elements creating the rising complexity companies need to deal with nowadays:

1. The increasing speed at which business decisions need to be taken.

2. The growing uncertainty that businesses are facing.

3. The digitisation of technological progress that is needed.

4. The looming market disruption behind every corner.

“And while our answer to our customers’ complexities is always different, the elements that make up our offering are typically the same,” says Schoenmakers. “We connect a deep understanding of the problem with solutions

1. Pharma

2. MedTech

3. Healthcare

4. CPG

5. Specialty chemicals

6. Industrial manufacturing

“In our focus industries, we have the ability to help our customers to transform their entire value chain end to end,” says Schoenmakers. “At the heart of Bluecrux is the belief that innovation is born of collaboration. This requires a community approach, building a movement that is called The Cutting X. Where supply chains evolve and value chains are forged.”

Bluecrux’s transformational, collaborative, customer-centric approach is essential to Henkel: “No longer looking from an inside-out perspective, pushing one size fits all standards across the supply chain. Instead, we look through the customer’s lens.” Schoenmakers says: “We share the belief with Henkel that supply chains should no longer be linear, functional and siloed. Hence, we started a transformation journey together, to deliver real customer centricity.”

The key to overcoming complexity and unlocking supply chain value is the convergence of business and technology, says Bluecrux’s Anouk

From vision to reality: crafting the customer CX program

According to Bjoern Kirchner, the first step of building a customer centric Supply Chain (SC) transformation programme at Henkel was to engage directly with customers and ask them about their experience. This was the ‘going broad’ approach.

However, with over 150,000 customers, it was not realistic to cover them all, so Henkel selected customer representatives and engaged deeply with them, performing value mapping and workshops to build a perception of what customers actually thought of the company: ‘going deep’.

The second phase was about creating ideas to fulfil different customer needs, such as innovation capability, quality, reliability and speed. Henkel then gathered teams across all functions to generate ideas on how to improve the customer experience, redesigning crucial touchpoints, such as

shipment experience, track and trace, sampling and complaints processes.

Kirchner says: “We structured the CX programme into three areas, including the differentiators, which were the redesign of crucial touchpoints with customers, the fundamentals, which were the subsystems to enable getting those data points, and the efficiencies, which was about bringing new technology to capture a different efficiencylayers, such as process mining and optical character reading.”

He admits that the transformation was a complex undertaking given the size of the company, but it was powerful for both sides of the equation, and could partially fund new initiatives while continuing to contribute to the bottom line.

Henkel’s partner ecosystem

Such an undertaking could not be executed without the right partner ecosystem. Just some of the partners involved with Henkel’s projects include Bluecrux, VMware, Camelot Consulting, and Flo Group.

“When looking for a partner to help with our vision of repositioning the supply chain, we needed someone who had experience not only in customer-centricity, but also in supply chain planning. Bluecrux, with its deep supply chain knowledge and customer centricity track record, was a great partner for us to work with,” he says.

Kirchner also talked about their partnership with Camelot Consulting, which helps them with their material master data governance process and quality control. “The other area of our partnership with Camelot is in planning capabilities, where they are implementing demand-driven MRP to drive customer-centricity and outside-in supply planning.”

Flo Group is another one of Henkel’s key partners, and they work together in the logistics arena. Specifically, Flo Group was Henkel’s implementation partner for OTM (Oracle Transportation

13.2% Organic sales development (Adhesive Technologies)

“Henkel believes in the outside-in approach to supply chains, taking in the views and the voices of the customer, as well as data points from outside the company, to design and improve its supply chain performance towards customers”

BJOERN NEAL KIRCHNER GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN FOR ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES, HENKEL

Management). Kirchner says: “Flo Group’s expertise in implementation is crucial to our undertakings”.

Then there is Salesforce. Kirchner expresses that they are currently implementing Salesforce’s main application – the service cloud – in their customer service and technical teams. “We have been impressed with how professionally Salesforce has been running the program and are happy to learn from them. I believe it was a wise decision to work with a best-in-class company like Salesforce, and to listen carefully to their advice.”

Last, but not least, in Henkel’s pantheon of key partners is Fourkites. Henkel sees T&T capability as a basic customer requirement to shape customer experience. Fourkites is Henkel’s strategic partner to deliver visibility and transparency in logistics services. In the past few years, Henkel managed to cover a significant part of the deliveries with Fourkites’ T&T platform, and there is an ambitious plan to continue the roll out of T&T in the coming year.

The greatest challenges and lessons

Kirchner describes the biggest challenge in their current role as balancing the urgent needs of their supply chain team with the important task of transforming and maturing their capabilities in terms of systems, processes, mindset and people. Henkel needs to make sure that the performance and transformation sides of their teams work in-sync, and don’t develop things independently.

On a slightly philosophical conclusion – but one that has obviously served him well, as can be seen in his overseeing Henkel’s customer-centric Supply Chain (SC) transformation programme – Kirchner tells me that the best advice he has ever received is “to figure out how fast you can be in implementing change – and then go a bit slower – to make sure that people have enough time to absorb and digest it all”. And that’s how you turn visions into realities.

Henkel

Henkelstraße 67

40589 Düsseldorf

Germany

T +49-211-797-0 henkel.com

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