Supply Chain January 2022

January 2022 | supplychaindigital.com

Cranfield School of Management: Navigating the complexity of supply chain & procurement JPMorgan Chase & Co: The gold standard in diverse spend Vodafone: From customer experience to digital transformation

EQUINITI

Transforming

& Digitising Michael Burt, CPO, at Equiniti discusses his role in spearheading the company’s procurement transformation and the challenges to overcome along the way

Supply Chain: Digital twins help avert nightmare scenarios Logistics: Managing risk to avoid disruption Sustainability: Building towards a net zero future

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SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

2022

February 23rd-24th STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

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Confirmed Speakers Include:

Ben Clifford

Sarah Chapman

Global Health, Safety & Sustainability Associate Director

Global Chief Sustainability Officer

Fidelity International

Manulife Financial Corporation

Roy Cheung

Mary-Jane Morifi

Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics

Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer

Covestro

Tiger Brands Limited

Øistein Jensen

Sandeep Chandna

Chief Sustainability Officer

Chief Sustainability Officer Tech Mahindra

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The SupplyChain Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SEAN ASHCROFT EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON JANE ARNETA ELLA CHADNEY PRODUCTION EDITOR

JANET BRICE

CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON JORDAN WOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EVELYN HUANG JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN MARKETING DIRECTOR

ROSS GARRIGAN

MARKETING MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP

KAYLEIGH SHOOTER

MOTION DESIGNER

PROJECT DIRECTORS

TYLER LIVINGSTONE

TOM LIVERMORE MIKE SADR CRAIG KILLINGBACK

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

JAMES WHITE

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

JASON WESTGATE MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

What will the shifting sands of supply hold for 2022?

Ongoing supply problems are causing businesses to re-evaluate established ways of operating, as uncertainty and changing customer behaviours hit home

“Consumers are not hesitating to shop elsewhere if they can’t find the products they want. This makes fulfillment critical if brand loyalty is not to be eroded” MCKINSEY RETAIL STUDY

Covid. The Suez blockage. Labour shortages. Little wonder a recent Gartner survey on the changing role of chief supply chain officers describes CSCOs as feeling “battered” and “harrowed” by events of the past two years.

In response, many companies are looking to ‘reshore’ their supply chains, by moving manufacturing bases from Asia, South America and Eastern Europe back home.

Samsung is among them, announcing plans for a new US$17bn microchip plant in Texas, as a way to overcome the global shortage of microprocessors.

How customers think and behave is also changing.

Customer loyalty is no longer driven by brand value and product quality. Now, it’s all about availability. This is why fashion brand Gap invested heavily in hugely expensive air freight to service pre-Christmas demand. It was either that, or risk an erosion of loyalty.

If things continue in this vein the supply landscape might well look quite different by the time we’re ushering in 2023.

SEAN ASHCROFT SUPPLYCHAIN DIGITAL MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

sean.ashcroft@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

supplychaindigital.com

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 10 Big Picture 12 The Brief 14 Timeline: From zero awareness to global net zero goals 16 Trailblazer: Hendrik Venter 20 Five Mins With: Anton du Preez

42

Supply Chain

Digital Twins Help Avert Nightmare Scenarios

26

Equiniti

Transforming and Digitising Procurement

50

Cranfield School of Management

Navigating the Complexity of Supply Chain & Procurement

60

Logistics

Into the Unknown: Managing Risk to Avoid Disruption

68

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The Gold Standard in Diverse Spend

84

92

Building Towards a Net Zero Future

Embedding Quality in a Changing Environment

Sustainability

Reckitt

108

116

How to Stop Spend-Mavericks Flying too Close to the Sun

From Customer Experience to Digital Transformation

Tech & Ai

130

OnProcess

Powering the World’s Circular Service-Supply Chain

Vodafone

142

KeolisAmey Docklands Partners in Passenger Safety

Long Beach

Los Angeles, USA

Container ports globally remain gridlocked, Bloomberg’s Port Congestion Tracker shows.

It’s been a perfect storm for shipping: the pandemic; an unprecedented e-commerce boom; the Suez canal blockage; and a lack of lorry drivers to service onward journeys.

There’s now so much idling port traffic that it’s visible from space. In a recent NASA Earth Observatory photo, the coast off Long Beach in LA resembles an aquatic car park.

The problem’s so bad, that US President Joe Biden has urged the port to run 24/7.

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January 2022

NASA Earth Observatory

BIG PICTURE supplychaindigital.com

11

THE BRIEF “When data isn’t shared supply visibility is poor.

So when a crisis hits – like the Suez blockage firms can’t mitigate risk” Oliver Lemanski

CEO, OnProcess Technology  READ MORE

“Companies should expect that ESG is going to be an integral component of how they're measured” Jim Connel

CPO and Head of Global Supplier Services JPMorgan Chase & Co.  READ MORE

“From a supply chain perspective, we believe in a circular economy, and that digitalisation can help businesses use resources more efficiently” Hüseyin Ipiv

Consumer Business Unit head of supply chain management, Vodafone  READ MORE

12

January 2022

BY THE NUMBERS Gartner report: A New Role for CSCOs in Supply Sourcing How global supply problems are changing where, and how, business is conducted

30%

47%

89%

45%

Of 1,346 respondents say Of businesses are they are shifting from investing in moving their a global supply chain manufacturing sites from model to one that is more one region or countr regionally based to another

Of companies say within two years they will have invested enough to make their supply chains more agile

Of firms say their customers care more about low prices than where products are sourced and made

How SMEs can cyber-protect digital supply chains for free Simple IT housekeeping is enough to protect digital supply chains from 80 percent of cyberattacks, and yet many businesses remain largely unprotected. Using the UK government’s easy to follow Cyber Essentials scheme, firms can make sure they’re cyber secure in just weeks Find out more 

READ MORE

THOMSON REUTERS

Why upscaling supply can hurt ESG goals Businesses battling to overcome supply problems by scaling up their network of vendors could be facing an environmental, social and governance time-bomb, Reuters Thompson warns. This is what it urges business to do to avoid compromising ESG aims: • Create ESG metrics for suppliers. Few companies can monitor every supply chain vendor. Use the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative Management Index to determine what metrics should be used.

• Use supply chain mapping. This allows firms to react quickly when a supplier is facing an issue but can also reveal ESG weak points that may go otherwise undetected in an audit.

• Ensure contractual clarity. Use language in contracts with supply chain vendors that spells out your ESG goals and what you expect of your vendors - and that any violation will result in contract termination.

 WALMART A change in shopping habits during lockdown has prompted the retail colossus to build a 730,000-sq-ft grocery distribution centre and also hire 20,000 more people.  AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS The US-based clothing retailer is buying a digital fulfillment firm in a $350 million cash deal, as it looks to take greater control of its supply chain.

W I N N E R S JAN22

 INTERNATIONAL RETAILERS The price of shipping a 40-foot container from Asia to the West has increased from $2,100 in 2019 to $23,000 today.  DFC The Development Finance Corporation was tasked by the Trump administration with distributing $100 million to help fix supply chain issues. It’s yet to distribute a single cent.

L O S E R S

supplychaindigital.com

13

TIMELINE 1962 Silent Spring published The book by environmental scientist Rachel Carson documents the harm of pesticides. It’s fiercely opposed by chemical companies but strong public opinion prompts then-President Richard Nixon to drive through Congress approval of a new body to consolidate federal environmental responsibilities: the Environmental Protection Agency.

1975 World Conservation Strategy The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) begins work on its World Conservation Strategy, in conjunction with various United Nations (UN) agencies. It leads to an acceptance that conservation through the banning of human presence no longer works. The IUCN’s World Charter for Nature is soon adopted by the UN General Assembly.

14

January 2022

1986

Bhopal / Cheronobyl disasters The Bhopal catastrophe in 1984 sees a catastrophic leak from the Union Carbide’s India plant expose 500,000 people to toxic gases. An estimated 20,000 die. In 1986 an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine sends radioactive fallout across Europe. The official death toll is 31, but Greenpeace puts the final direct and indirect death toll through the effects of radiationat 200,000.

FROM ZERO AWARENESS

TO GLOBAL NET ZERO

GOALS

With supply chains key to hitting net zero targets, we walk through the key events that led the world from ignorance of carbon-emissions dangers to a global undertaking to be net zero by 2050

1992 The Rio Earth Summit

Officially known as the UN Conference on Environment and Development, it produces conventions on climate change, biodiversity and forestry. It recommends a raft of development practices called Agenda 21. A treaty follows, to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous interference with the climate system”. It decrees every year a Conference of the Parties (COP) will take place.

2013 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The IPCC states that to stop global warming, net carbon emissions must be zero. This is then enshrined in Article 4.1 of the Paris Agreement, which stipulates countries must aim for net zero emissions by the second half of the century. In 2017, Sweden becomes the first country to pass a net zero law. In 2019 the UK is the first G7 economy to do so and 2021 net zero pledges cover two-thirds of the world. supplychaindigital.com

15

TRAILBLAZER

HENDRIK VENTER Job Title: CEO DHL Supply Chain EMEA Company: DHL Supply Chain

H

endrik Venter is a seasoned CEO with deep logistics and supply chain experience. Based in Bonn, Germany, he is currently DHL Supply Chain’s EMEA CEO, a position he took up in 2019.

DHL Supply Chain is the world's leading contract logistics provider. It combines value-added and management services with traditional fulfilment and distribution.

The company says its goal is to provide “customized, integrated logistics solutions that drive efficiency, improve quality and create competitive advantage”.

Venter has more than ten years’ experience in senior management positions at DHL Supply Chain, and he also held numerous positions in contract logistics before that. For three years he was based in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was Managing Director of DHL Supply Chain’s healthcare, industrial, tech and automotive operations. Next, the well-travelled Venter moved to Warsaw, Poland, where he oversaw the supply chain operations of DHL as CEO for Central and Eastern Europe. It was this position that led him to his current post of heading the operations across all Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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January 2022

TRAILBLAZER

In his long years with both branches of the business Venter has gained expertise in many areas, including: negotiation, supply chain optimisation, freight, procurement; and warehouse management systems and digitalisation. Upon taking up his present position, Venter said he was committed to continuing to “optimally support our customers with outstanding logistic services” – a promise the supply chain expert was able to keep excellently, not only during the Corona pandemic.

Asked for his recipe for success he added: “Customer centricity, a first-class service portfolio and well trained and motivated employees in an innovative working environment are the key to our success as the world’s leading contract logistics provider.”

In his role as EMEA CEO Venter currently oversees 25 country markets. He says the focus of his role is strengthening and expanding growth in the region, as well as driving ongoing standardization processes.

In 2020, DHL Supply Chain was for the first time certified by the Top Employers Institute as Top Employer Europe, a recognition that reflects Venter’s focus on continuously improving HR strategies, together with his management team. The company was awarded top scores for categories including: talent strategy; career and succession; management; and leadership development.

As for most businesses, the pandemic has been a time of tough challenges, and Venter has kept a firm hand on the tiller, helping keep the company on track, by adapting and innovating. A good example of this was the way DHL met the needs of Europe-based SMEs in a time when sales quickly, sometimes overnight, shifted from classical highstreet shopping to purely online shopping. Lacking the capacity to have

a presence in every EU country, lockdown meant that these companies needed to redesign their supply chains with urgency.

But under Venter’s leadership, DHL Supply Chain stepped in, to offer both SME and large online retailers access to its European wide network of 30 DHL e-fulfillment centres.

These strategically located sites, all close to major urban centres and parcel hubs across Europe, offer processing, picking, packing and shipping facilities with rapid implementation and easily scalable.

Venter said of the initiative: “It gives all sizes of online retailers access to all of our established services, across multiple locations across Europe in a way that is flexible and tailored to their needs. We can support customers across the entire supply chain – from inbound handling and storage, pick and pack, last-mile delivery, and returns handling.

Customers appreciate how we can scale-up this flexibly according to actual order volumes, as well as nationally and internationally.”

Asked for his future plans Venter makes one point very clear: “The business’ priority for the years ahead is clearly defined by our group-wide ESG agenda. Digitalization and sustainability is in the core of our service offering. The quality of our services – across all business units – is already outstanding and top of class. The pandemic has clearly shown, that the Group as a whole, but also each business division, is really making a difference in everyday life. 1,4 billion doses of vaccine that we have delivered across the globe – that shows what we are capable of. But for the future, my goal is to make our supply chain operations more sustainable. With more than 30% of our warehouse being carbon neutral today, the plan is to have all our sites green by 2025.”

Venter holds a BSc in engineering and an honors degree in business management. supplychaindigital.com

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FIVE MINUTES WITH...

ANTON DU PREEZ MORE THAN EVER, BUSINESSES NEED RESILIENCE AND AGILITY IN THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS. ANTON DU PREEZ WORKS WITH THEM TO ACHIEVE THIS, SOMETIMES HELPING TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS THEY DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THEY HAD

Q. TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROLE AT KÖRBER SUPPLY CHAIN

» I am chief business area software

sales officer of Körber Supply Chain.

I’m responsible for European sales strategy and operations across our full range of supply chain solutions.These include automation, robotics, materials handling and systems integration expertise to tie it all together.

To succeed in the supply chain, companies need not only welltrained employees, but also the appropriate technologies. As well as solutions, we also deliver the expertise needed for the integration of software components, equipment and agents along the entire supply chain, end to end and worldwide.

We keep thousands of supply chains moving across the globe.

Plus, we have access to a global network of logistics systems companies and partners ready to help customers to succeed – wherever they are. No matter their supply chain needs, our team of technology providers, systems integrators and consultants can help to solve their business problems.

Q. WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF YOUR JOB?

» Supply chains are the lifeline

of any business model. They are either a crucial strategic advantage or an obstacle that stands in the way of success.

The supply chain challenges for companies are growing.

Recent global factors like component supplies, the pandemic and global shipping issues have further challenged supply chain leaders and us as a solution provider to find new and innovative ways to adapt and perform. Not only is it hard for them to recruit employees, but they also have to keep up with the greater expectations around choice, convenience, speed and price.

The biggest challenge for me personally is ensuring we keep improving our customers’ operations. Supply chain has always been challenged to improve performance, reduce costs and adapt to changing market requirements. supplychaindigital.com

21

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

Q. AND THE MOST REWARDING?

» Hearing directly from our customers,

from executives to users on the warehouse floor, after our solutions have gone live about how we helped them. Sometimes our solutions help identify problems they didn’t even know they had.

For example, our virtual warehouse solution might help them understand how they can use space more efficiently, and increase the useful life of the facility.

It’s also nice when that happens. Of course, in a sales role it’s always nice to conclude a deal, but the most rewarding aspect for me is seeing the promised and unexpected - benefits delivered.

22

January 2022

Q. HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC CHANGED YOUR ROLE?

» The situation remains volatile,

as we’re currently seeing with another wave of Covid sweeping across Europe. As for many people, there’s now a higher proportion of remote contact with customers and colleagues, but the fundamental job of identifying, designing and delivering solutions remains the same.

The pandemic has certainly driven some market changes, including accelerated growth in online fulfilment, a focus from customers on supply chain resilience

and increased demand for flexible, adaptable solutions from software like warehouse management systems to autonomous mobile robots.

Q. WHAT'S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED?

» It’s actually more of a quote I

try to live by, rather than a specific piece of advice I was given, which is: ‘Do the right thing, even when no one is watching.” To me, customer and personal relationships are always for the long term, and maintaining integrity is fundamental to this.

“ THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR ME PERSONALLY IS ENSURING WE KEEP IMPROVING OUR CUSTOMERS’ OPERATIONS” Q. WHO INSPIRES YOU, PROFESSIONALLY?

» This may sound cheesy, but I

take my inspiration from the team I work with. I continually see amazing strategic vision, creativity and dedication from my colleagues, and this is very motivating to me. There is certainly no shortage of exceptional public figures, but when I see one of the team really help a customer or colleague, it gives me a huge amount of satisfaction and inspiration. supplychaindigital.com

23

The ‘Risk & Resilience’ Conference

2022 27th - 28th April

STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

BUY TICKETS

SPONSOR OPPORTUNITIES

Previous Speakers Include:

Ninian Wilson

James Westgarth

Group Procurement Director

Senior Director, Procurement Performance, Systems & Excellence

Vodafone Procurement

Lufthansa

Charlotte de Brabandt

Aurelien Faucheux

Technology and Negotiation Keynote Speaker & Host

Aston Martin

CPO

AMAZON

Robert Copeland

Jacqueline Rock

CPO

CCO - NHS Test & Trace

G4S

NHS

TRANSFORMING AND DIGITISING PROCUREMENT WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

26

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE

EQUINITI

supplychaindigital.com

27

Michael Burt, CPO at Equiniti, discusses his role in spearheading the company’s procurement transformation and the challenges to overcome along the way

M

ichael Burt, CPO, Equiniti started his career as a engineer designing missile systems at BAE Systems in 2002. “I was seconded into procurement to help on a major cost reduction programme at BAE Systems.”

In 2007, Burt joined Capgemini as a Senior Consultant, specialising in procurement transformation. Since then, he has held a number of senior procurement positions including Head of Supply Chain Management for The Metropolitan Police Service and Chief Procurement Officer for Colt Technology Services, a global network and voice services company. In his current role at Equiniti, Burt is responsible for the global procurement and supply chain management for the group as well as all properties and facilities.

Who is Equiniti?

Founded in 2007, Equiniti provides three core services; “Firstly, we offer share registration services, which are focused towards supporting public companies with all the activities that go with being listed in the public market. There are many services that we offer, but the major ones are helping to manage a company’s share register, dividend payments and employee share plans. We also help organisations list through supporting Initial Public Offering (IPO’s). We serve over 70% of organisations

28

January 2022

Michael Burt, CPO, at Equiniti

EQUINITI

supplychaindigital.com

29

“ OUR WORK IS MISSIONCRITICAL FOR AN ORGANISATION, SO WE CANNOT AFFORD TO MAKE MISTAKES, THEREFORE WE ARE METICULOUS IN WHAT WE DO” MICHAEL BURT, CPO, EQUINITI

listed on the FTSE 100 and 15% of those on the NYSE. “We also provide specialist technologyled solutions to regulated businesses, such as complaint remediation, Know Your Customer (KYC) and loan administration.

Finally, we have a division that focuses on pension administration, which delivers software, payment and complex administration solutions,” says Burt.

“Our work is mission-critical for an organisation, so we cannot afford to make mistakes, therefore we are meticulous in what we do. We are a unique organisation in the services and technology that we provide and there is a very high chance that you are one of the 36m people who benefit from our services.”

Spearheading Equiniti’s procurement transformation When Burt joined Equiniti, there had been several short term leadership changes within the department that had caused a significant impact on staff morale and performance.

“There was limited strategy, lack of 30

January 2022

processes, and insufficient management information creating the perfect storm. You often hear people refer to Procurement Greenfield sites, well this was definitely a Procurement Brownfield site, with a lot of clean up required, all doable, but it required careful management and a lot of hard work.

The function had great potential for what it could achieve and this was one of the reasons why I took the job.”

EQUINITI

MICHAEL BURT TITLE: CPO INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES

But where to start?

People. Burt knew that in order to be successful and make the job easier, he needed to get the people element of the business right. “The first challenge was to get the team to trust me and to get them working together. It was way too soon to discuss any kind of vision, besides they had likely heard it all before from my predecessors. In these situations, actions

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Michael Burt, CPO, Equiniti started his career as a systems engineer designing missile systems at BAE Systems in 2002.

“I was seconded into procurement to help on a major cost reduction programme at BAE Systems.” In 2007, Burt joined Capgemini as a Senior Consultant, specialising in procurement transformation.Since then, he has held a number of senior procurement positions including Head of Supply Chain Management for The Metropolitan Police Service and Chief Procurement Officer for Colt Technology Services, a global network and voice services company. In his current role at Equiniti, Burt is responsible for the global procurement and supply chain management for the group as well as all properties and facilities.

Are you concerned about managing supplier risk?

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Learn more

Medius and its partnership with Equiniti Shannon Kreps of Medius discusses how Equiniti is harnessing Medius supplier management solutions Shannon Kreps, Vice President Product Marketing and Marcom at Medius started her career in the purchasing department over 25 years ago as a buyer. The spend management process is one that Kreps is very familiar with. At Medius Kreps’ job is to serve as a conduit between the company’s research and development team, as well as its Salesforce, and its customers.

“At Medius we like to say that we simply help our customers find the right suppliers to buy and pay for what they need with full control over cost and compliance. We really are a spend management suite. It is our role to make sure that our customers are able to purchase items that they need, pay for them with confidence, and do everything across the whole source of the pay platform,” says Kreps.

How Equiniti is harnessing Medius’s supplier management solutions “Equiniti is a great example of a company that’s using supplier management to the fullest. They actually begin at the start of the process with a feature in Medius that we have called demand capture. it allows anyone in the organisation to request a new supplier to come on board.

When that happens, it’s routed throughout the organisation. They have some pretty stringent requirements on what they need to ask regarding new suppliers coming on board, and it really varies depending on the type of supplier that they use.

So Equiniti has supplier questionnaires that are completed internally to make sure that the right information is being captured as well as externally for their suppliers to make sure that they’re providing the right requirements that they need.

“Equiniti then uses a robust approval process, so that once a supplier has answered a set of questions that is routed to the appropriate person they’ll review that information before moving onto the next stage of the process. Equiniti really uses this process to make sure that its suppliers are properly vetted and managed. They also use supplier management for the ongoing maintenance of their suppliers. It’s not useful for organisations to spend all of that time setting up your supplier to begin with only to then let it fall. It is important to conduct ongoing management.”

EQUINITI

Equiniti: Transforming and digitising procurement

talk much louder than words, so I decided to focus the team on one very key objective, where everyone could come together to deliver. It needed to be something in the short term which would make them feel instantly good when they achieved their objective.”

With this in mind, Burt focused the team’s efforts on achieving a set savings target for the year-end, ensuring their remuneration was linked to it. “There was one goal for the remaining 5 months and I deprioritised all others. I wanted laser focus and I wanted to see how the team would come together. It was amazing to see people’s motivation and confidence grow week on week, as we edged closer to the target. We ended up smashing the target and people were buzzing, it was great to see smiles back on people’s faces. At that point, the team began to trust me and so 34

January 2022

“ BUSINESSES CANNOT AFFORD TO BE ON THE BACK FOOT ON ESG AND PROCUREMENT IS PERFECTLY PLACED TO HELP WITH THE CHALLENGE” MICHAEL BURT, CPO, EQUINITI

it was then time to start to introduce them to my vision.”

Since joining, the procurement department has evolved significantly, by building a strong culture of delivery in the team, Burt emphasises that this has earned the team the respect and trust of the business, allowing the team to regain control.

“We have gone through 3 phases of maturity in the past 4 years,” says Burt. “The first was about establishing our purpose, our team and our operating model. Defining what activities we perform centrally and those that are decentralised. It’s important to set expectations with your stakeholders around what you are here to do. The second phase was about systemising, offshoring and optimising. We built a shared service centre in Chennai which performs all our

procurement & property operations, leaving our category leads to focus on strategic procurement and value generation.

“Our third phase has been about integrating deeper relationships with our critical suppliers and our stakeholders, with a focus on unlocking hidden value. We don’t measure ourselves purely on savings generated.”

Centralising and digitalising timesensitive operational work As part of the company’s wider transformation strategy, Burt and his team have been working to centralise and digitise time-sensitive operational work. “The first stage was to define each and every process procurement and property should perform. We took a very lean approach to this and ensured we only focused on those activities that were supplychaindigital.com

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Modernise your IT and ride the waves of change A modern IT infrastructure lies at the very heart of ensuring businesses can meet the demands of an increasingly digital and dynamic world.

Yet while the business case is obvious, modernisation can be costly, time consuming and fraught with risk – especially when critical business systems are dependent on legacy infrastructure.

Partners for more than 30 years, Computacenter and Dell Technologies can deploy globally, at massive scale, with a wealth of experience of sourcing, transforming and managing IT infrastructure for large corporate and public sector organisations. Together, we can help you ride the waves of change by modernising your IT faster and smarter, and become more customer-focused, elastic and responsive to business needs and market drivers.

computacenter.com

WHY BIG IS BEST FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE EXPONENTIAL AGE Bottom line: The corporate world is ramping up its digital transformation plans and looking for the quickest route to market. But there is no room to get this wrong. Managing risk is everything and the financial services sector has the most to lose. Why? According to Arash Ghazanfari, Dell Technologies’ CTO in the UK, “The pandemic has moved us all, irreversibly, into an Exponential Age.” But financial services firms cannot embark on this transition on their own. Despite building resilience in the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008, great swathes of the financial sector are still burdened with technical debt. There are organisations with critical business capabilities that are dependant on legacy hardware and software, in some cases more than half a century old. Some of these critical systems can’t be replaced overnight. Such modernisation efforts can be expensive, time consuming and fraught with risk.

This is where Dell Technologies and its lifelong partner Computacenter come in.

Ghazanfari says “The partnership with Computacenter has always been vital but in the current pandemic environment this connection is more important than ever.”

He adds “Nobody is immune to the supply chain challenges the industry is facing. Whilst Dell Technologies has remained resilient, we recognise the importance of strategic partners such as Computacenter to scale

our capabilities and assist our customers in accelerating their digital transformation efforts. Our customers are rationalising their vendor and partner relationships to simplify and de-risk their procurement strategies.

They look to partners like Dell Technologies and Computacenter to accelerate their business transformation.”

Mark Griffin, Client Director at Computacenter agrees. ‘It is the skills and expertise we have in our core business. That’s designing the right infrastructure for each of our clients and being able to leverage that expertise at massive scale.

“If you pivot that approach across to our relationship with Dell Technologies, many large enterprises need to accelerate their digital transformation in the tens of thousands of users and often in multiple geographical locations. You can only do that with a focused ecosystem of core vendors such as Dell Technologies and service and solution providers such as Computacenter who can deploy that, at scale, globally.”

“You can’t do this without depth, experience and massive scale and that explains why government departments and the largest corporates across UK industry, such as Equiniti in the financial services sector, are drawn to Computacenter and Dell Technologies” says Griffin.

Learn more

EQUINITI

absolutely necessary and that created value.

We then centralised these processes into the team and assigned a nominated process owner with a clearly defined service level agreement (SLA).

“It was important that we could measure the time and quality of each process.

Depending on the complexity of the process and the capability required to run it determined whether we offshored it to our shared service centre or kept it onshore.

We formed internal contracts between the teams for each process and set review sessions to hold each party to account.

It’s very much like our own outsourcing agreement, it keeps all parties accountable for performance,” explains Burt.

Achieving this, Burt and his team moved on to selecting the right technology to become truly digital. “For P2P we use Workday, for contract management we selected HighQ and for supplier onboarding and supplier management we decided upon Medius. It was important that we matched our department’s process maturity to the functionality of the platforms. There is no point in owning a Ferrari if all you want to do is drive to the shops,” adds Burt.

“It was during the implementation where we maximised the automation opportunities, our ethos is always to have as little manual intervention as possible. In practice this means enabling smart forms to guide users, setting workflow rules to only flag exceptions for approval and also using scheduling and reminders to ensure activities are being completed. We also use statistical analysis to help identify where we should set our optimum manual procurement intervention points.”

Equiniti is also looking at evaluation platforms that harness emerging technologies such as Blockchain and AI, “but I 38

January 2022

EQUINITI AND ITS SUPPLIER ECOSYSTEM “It has been one area where we have had to focus a lot of time and effort on. Before forming any partnerships it’s important to understand each other's roles, responsibilities and expectations. We have done this by creating a procurement network which we use not only to educate the business of their role in the different procurement processes but also to seek feedback on what is working and what is not, making adjustments where necessary. Partnerships are built through strong working relationships to common goals. We listen to our stakeholders goals, translate them to procurement objectives and then ensure they are cascaded to the relevant suppliers. “Our supplier ecosystems have been built to enable two-way feedback, focusing not just on their performance as a supplier but on our performance as a customer. We need to listen carefully to what they say and try to be as easy to work with as possible.

“Sometimes it can be difficult to get their honest feedback, after all, who wants to tell the customer their behaviours are counterintuitive, but it’s important that all issues in the relationship are tabled and discussed. Our ultimate goal is to become the customer of choice and this is the biggest benefit of investing so much time in developing the relationship. We think of the supplier account managers as an extension to our team, they are the people who will advocate for us in their own organisation, solve problems and help to fight for scarce resources” Michael Burt, CPO, Equiniti.

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EQUINITI

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“ THE FIRST CHALLENGE WAS TO GET THE TEAM TO TRUST ME AND TO GET THEM WORKING TOGETHER” MICHAEL BURT, CPO, EQUINITI

2007

Year Founded

5,288

Number of Employees

£472m Revenue

think they have a little way to go before we can adopt them,” says Burt. “I can definitely see their application in the evolution of procurement, perhaps in 2-3 years time. The benefits of Blockchain on verifying supplier information would be of huge benefit. It amazes me how much time is spent verifying supplier data.”

Over the next 12 to 18 months, Equiniti will be moving into the next phase of maturity for its supplier management programme, which will look to improve the resilience of the company’s supply chain. “We will be looking at performing audits of our key suppliers to understand in greater detail our second and third-tier suppliers and how they are being managed,” says Burt.

“The next big question I will be asking the function is how we can best support our business to be an even more responsible business. We will be looking to set specific ESG targets for our suppliers as well as making sure we incorporate ESG into our procurement evaluation criteria. In the very near term, I can see carbon reduction targets being equally weighted in importance as cost reduction targets. Businesses cannot afford to be on the back foot on ESG and Procurement is perfectly placed to help with the challenge,” concludes Burt.

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SUPPLY CHAIN

DIGITAL TWINS

HELP AVERT NIGHTMARE

SCENARIOS

Supply chains face an ever-increasing threat from cyberattacks, and digital-twin tech is in the frontline of the battle against the hackers WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

A

nticipating the supply chain is no simple task. After all, who saw the pandemic coming, or the labour shortages that issued from it? Yet it is precisely because supply chains are so unpredictable that businesses across all sectors are turning to technology for help.

Technology such as digital twins.

A digital twin is a dynamic software model of a physical thing or system that relies on sensor data to understand its state, respond to changes, improve operations and to add value.

With the advent of the Internet of Things, big data and predictive analytics the power of digital twins has become immense.

In the context of supply chains, a digital twin is a virtual replica, comprising potentially thousands of assets, warehouses, logistics and inventory positions. It offers a clear view of the risks facing complex, interconnected supply chains. This allows supply chains to be agile, because risk is identified early and disruption is minimised, or maybe even averted altogether.

Digital twin scenario planning brings agility One thing the pandemic has taught businesses is just how important it is for them to have agile supply chains. One feature of twinning tech that brings agility is its ability to allow for scenario planning, so that if disaster does strike, then decisions are based on the needs of the business, rather than on which damage limitation option is the least worst - which is still the way of things in far too many businesses.

Scenario planning can help mitigate risk in many ways. For example, by allowing a company to play out a future tariff change that would place its business model under extreme pressure, a strategic twin can help it prepare for such an eventuality, and to make long-term decisions across the end-to-end supply chain.

Exploring onshoring possibilities in the supply chain is another area in which digital twins can help. For example, a company might simulate what would happen if it outsourced key elements of its supply chain from inside the M25 to deepest Kent, rural Suffolk or remote Norfolk. supplychaindigital.com

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Unify Systems.

Optimize Suppliers.

Empower People.

Follow us @TealBook

SUPPLY CHAIN

“ The increased use of AI technology can actually make companies more vulnerable to a wide It offered JBS Foods as an example. The Brazil-based company is one of the world’s variety of cyberattacks” SEBASTIAN REITER

MCKINSEY ASSOCIATE PARTNER

Cyberattack scenarios more vital than ever But there is one area in which scenario planning is becoming ever-more important to businesses: cyberattacks.

The Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM) has made a benchmark tool available to its members.

Upon launching the tool, the ASCM revealed that cyberattacks were cited as a “dominant threat” by 46 per cent of its members, and that cyberattacks are the top concern in the consumer electronics sector.

largest international meat processors, and in May this year it was forced to pay the equivalent of £7.8m in ransom to put an end to a major cyberattack that temporarily shut down a number of its operations in Australia, Canada and the US. The payment was reportedly made using Bitcoin after plants had come back online. JBS said at the time it was necessary to pay in order to protect its customers.

The ASCM also revealed that ransomware attacks are up 400 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels, and that there were 143 incidents, and nearly 1.1 million records breached worldwide, in April 2021 alone. It said that this year it expects cyberattacks to cost organizations $6 trillion globally. supplychaindigital.com

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Energy is one sector that is more prone than most to cyberattacks. Cybersecurity firm Hornetsecurity reports that 16 percent of known cyberattacks are against energy companies.

The truth of this is borne out by global consulting firm Wood, which specialises in engineering across energy and the built environment. In an article published in August 2021, Wood gives instances of energy cyberattacks, and how digital twin technology is the best way to thwart such attacks.

Cybercriminals have energy sector in their sights Among the energy cyberattacks listed

by Wood were: • The six-day Colonial Pipeline shutdown.

One of the nation’s largest pipelines - which carries petrol and jet fuel from Texas to New York — was forced to shut down after being hit by ransomware. It carries 45 per cent of the 46

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“ To mitigate risks and build operational resilience the key is to use digital twin technology when and where it matters” SEBASTIAN REITER

MCKINSEY ASSOCIATE PARTNER

East Coast’s fuel supplies, and the shutdown sparked panic-buying and hoarding that overwhelmed petrol stations in the southeast of the United States. It’s the most disruptive energy cyberattack on record.

• The Ukrainian power facility attack.

Operators noticed their control system computers were being manipulated but not in time to prevent power outages affecting 230,000 people

SUPPLY CHAIN

Real-world examples of digital twin technology in supply chains include:

• The Florida Oldsmar Water Treatment attack. An operator spotted his control system display was being changed without his input. Fortunately, he was able to mitigate the impact on the control system.

Digital twins mimic flight simulator approach Wood says digital twin technology can help protect energy facilities by offering training based on cyberattack simulations.

Such systems can be used to simulate security breaches and also to hone responses to such attacks. Wood says that among the simulations are cyberattacks based on remote access trojans, denial of service trojans and CryptoLocker ransomware attacks. This approach, says Wood, mimics the aerospace industry’s use of flight simulators that help pilots troubleshoot in real-time virtual environments.

Tetra Pak: Its ‘smart’ warehouse in Singapore is a virtual representation of the actual warehouse and gives the company 24/7 control, allowing it to resolve safety and productivity issues as they occur.

Unilever: The consumer-goods giant uses DT technology to create virtual models of its factories. At each location, IoT sensors generate real-time information that is used to create complex what-if scenarios that help with pre-emptive maintenance and the minimizing of disruption arising from poor product quality.

Bridgestone: The leading tyre manufacturer is enhancing safety and efficiency by incorporating DT capabilities.

Ordinarily, it is for it to know what is happening to a given tyre on a given road surface. Bridgestone is filling this data gap by harvesting real-time tyre sensor data, which enhances its safety systems.

Boeing: The company uses a virtual 3D replica of its complex systems and assets. The model is simulated with realtime data that any given asset undergoes throughout its actual lifecycle. This helps it avoid potential disruptions due to malfunctions. As a result of its digital twin drive, Boeing reports a 40 per cent improvement in the first-time quality of its parts and assets. supplychaindigital.com

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“ The pandemic has pushed companies to prioritise risk management and operational resilience against cyberattacks and other threats to supply chains” SEBASTIAN REITER

MCKINSEY ASSOCIATE PARTNER

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SUPPLY CHAIN

McKinsey associate partner Sebastian Reiter believes the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities “across the global value chain” and pushed companies to prioritize risk management and operational resilience, against cyberattacks and other threats to supply chains. He agrees that technology has a critical role to play in this, but also sounds a note of caution, warning that the digital transformation of supply chains itself carries a degree of risk.

“Companies are increasingly incorporating the Internet of Things into their plants,” he says. “This and other equipment, including the use of digital twins, can actually make them more vulnerable to a wide variety of cyberattacks.”

But he agrees that, ultimately, increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) technologies - such as digital twin supply-chain simulations, advanced analytics-based forecasting and supply-chain network optimisation tools - will help companies “improve their value-chain resilience-efficiency balance”.

But he stresses that the key is to use such technology “when and where it matters, in order to mitigate risks and build operational resilience.”

Reiter continued: “The next generation of end-to-end planning processes is fundamentally different. AI can help balance efficiency and resilience by incorporating uncertainty into realistic simulations of reality to evaluate scenarios and identify risks, and by finding optimal plans for different time horizons. He says AI can “recommend operational decisions that balance cost with revenue”, and he agrees that by providing real-time end-toend visibility digital twins help businesses “better anticipate and react to supplychain disruption.” supplychaindigital.com

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Navigating the complexity of supply chain & procurement WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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January 2022

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CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Soroosh Saghiri, Course Director and Senior Lecturer at Cranfield School of Management on supplier diversity, industry advancements, and core priorities

D

r Soroosh Saghiri began his career journey in industrial engineering, “it was a fascinating time,” says Saghiri.

“We learned some basic tools and theories around managing activities and businesses from an operations perspective, including product design, process design, and quality management.”

While purchasing activities were a part of this, Saghiri explains “we didn’t have a specific topic on procurement management, but everything was around managing operations and supply chain management. In the 1990s, it was the early days of understanding the valu and massive publicity of the supply chain.

“The very first book I read about supply chain management was in the mid-1990s and we learned that if you want to do something for businesses, it should be supply chain-wide. That is when I started my doctorate at the University of East Anglia focusing on supply chain strategies,” he adds.

Today, Saghiri is the Senior Lecturer of Supply Chain Management and Course Director for Executing MSC in Logistics and Supply Chain at Cranfield School of Management.

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Dr Soroosh Saghiri Course Director and Senior Lecturer

Example of an image caption

CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

CSM: Navigating the complexity of supply chain & procurement

The history of Cranfield School of Management Established in 1967, Cranfield School of Management is a unique institution with over 96 courses dedicated to postgraduate studies, including MSC and doctorate and business executive courses including marketing, supply chain, MBAs, human resources, and finance, which the school always ranks highly. “Our rankings signify the quality of our course and how popular they are for UK, European, and international students. We are training the future business leaders,” says Saghiri.

a wide range of suppliers from all different backgrounds and different areas, whether they are individuals or companies, because they may have innovative ideas and practical solutions that can help to enhance the supply chain.

“These days it is not individual companies, but supply chains who are competing.

And those supply chains are dependent on hundreds or thousands of suppliers all around the world. The more diverse we are, the more benefits we can have from the supply chain, and ultimately be more effective and efficient.”

Supplier diversity As supply chains become more complex structures and processes, Saghiri explains that “leaders in this space will need to be more open to different approaches to manage supply chains, open to different solutions, and open to supplier diversity. We need to make sure that we are using

Technology advancements in the supply chain and procurement When it comes to the level of technological advancements in supply chain and procurement, Saghiri says “it’s huge, all different types of industry 4.0 technologies — robotics, big data analytics, artificial intelligence — these are very fast-moving

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DID YOU KNOW...

A MEMBER OF THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORT (CILT) “Similar to many other professional bodies, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) is a massive learning forum of practitioners from logistics and transport backgrounds. They gave me lots of new ideas and operations perspectives, providing an understanding of what is happening in different infrastructures and the real challenges we have at the moment in the logistics sector,” says Saghiri.

“Through different events, seminars, and networks, I learned a lot about human resource management in logistics and the shortage of different expertise such as the lorry drivers, data analysts, and supply chain leaders. This was a good learning

curve for me to see what the industry is asking the academic side to design and deliver something relevant and on target to make sure we have the right people for the job market in the short-term and midterm future. So my connection with the CILT has been very fruitful.”

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CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

DR SOROOSH SAGHIRI TITLE: S ENIOR LECTURER AND COURSE DIRECTOR INDUSTRY: EDUCATION

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: BEDFORDSHIRE, UK Dr Soroosh Saghiri is a procurement and supply chain thought leader, senior lecturer and programme director at Cranfield University, School of Management. He has BSc and MSc in Industrial Engineering and PhD in Supply Chain Management from the University of East Anglia. Soroosh is Chartered Fellow of CILT and Senior Fellow of HEA. He has published two book chapters and more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, international conferences, and professional magazines. Soroosh has been involved in training, research, and consultancy in the UK and internationally, in fields of procurement and supply chain management, Industry 4.0, and digital transformation for the past 21 years.

“ COVID-19 was a massive disruptor, it may take time for some of those suppliers to go back to full capacity” DR SOROOSH SAGHIRI

SENIOR LECTURER AND COURSE DIRECTOR, CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

in all aspects of the supply chain, which will lead to business models moving towards more digital procurement activities in terms of how you run tenders, deal with suppliers, manage relationships, monitor quality and delivery performance.”

In general, Saghiri’s main focus is on the information systems, the digital supply chains, and how the industry produces the quality of data needed to generate valuable analysis and insights that can be shared. However, these are quite complex topics due to the network structure and connectivity of the supply chain.

“The conceptual model for this is something that is being developed. We need to bear in mind both the practical aspects and the integrations, as well as the fact that most of the time when we are talking about global supply chains, we need to consider

managing relationships across multiple tiers of suppliers, which is quite complex,” says Saghiri.

With this in mind, the university has embedded supply chain complexity theories into its studies. “We need to manage these complexities, understand the challenges, risk and resilience. So while digital transformation will help to manage the flow of data better, in most cases, a complete redesign of the whole process will need to be done alongside the new technology.

It will be a long journey — technology will be at its core — but it will depend on how well we understand and analyse the supply chain data, and this is where the likes of big data analytics and artificial intelligence have been beneficial giving use intelligence into the supply chain and consumer market so that hopefully we will be in a much better position to respond to future disruptions.” supplychaindigital.com

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CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

“ Leaders in this space will need to be more open to different approaches to manage supply chains, open to different solutions, and open to supplier diversity” DR SOROOSH SAGHIRI

SENIOR LECTURER AND COURSE DIRECTOR, CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

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January 2022

Top priorities for supply chains and procurement functions for 2022 As we start 2022, Saghiri explains that there are many things that procurement functions should prioritise to secure the flow of material supply from around the world. “COVID-19 was a massive disruptor.

It may take some time for some of those suppliers to go back to full capacity. Some were totally wiped out, so we will need to develop a new generation of suppliers and new technologies that can help secure products and materials. Attached to the challenges of COVID-19, we have trade wars, economic changes, and social changes that have implications. Resilience will be something that, on both the operations and strategy side of the business, will be looking to improve in order to battle risk and uncertainties.

“So that is one priority for procurement, another is continuous digital transformation and adopting an effective strategy. It’s not just about applying new technologies, having everything automated and sensors everywhere, is no good if they are not aligned with a clear strategy on how the entire supply chain is going to be managed. We will have huge amounts of data generated, so that will be another challenge for procurement and supply chain leaders going forward. How do we handle that data?

“Finally, we need to evaluate whether there are enough leaders in this function.

Do we need to train more in this area? What lesson do they need to learn? This will be a long journey, but we need to assess what is needed when it comes to procurement and supply chain leadership,” concludes Saghiri.

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INTO THE UNKNOWN: MANAGING RISK TO AVOID DISRUPTION

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LOGISTICS

The pandemic, the Suez blockage… how can businesses best protect themselves against such catastrophic ‘unknown’ risks?

WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

O

n February 26, 2010, an Icelandic volcano erupted for the first time in 190 years, sending up a column of ash that choked the world and led to over 100,000 flight cancellations, at an estimated cost of £3 billion.

At the tail end of 2019, somewhere in a bustling wet-food market in Wuhan, China, a zoonotic virus made its way from bat to human. The result was a global pandemic that to date has cost the world economy $10 trillion, and claimed more than five million lives.

As if that wasn’t enough, on the morning of March 23, 2021, a gust of wind forced the giant container ship, Ever Given, aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the world’s busiest trade corridor for six days, and disrupting $40 billion of trade.

In the past few years in particular, businesses have been rocked by unforeseen supply chain disruptions, across industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and consumer goods to electronics and automotive.

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We are Procurement.

Sustainability in supply chains is our responsibilty.

We will build a sustainable future for people and our planet.

Join our grassroots initiative and community of more than 4,000 change agents who want to ensure that all supply chains across the world have embedded sustainable procurement practices by 2030.

Pledge now at spp.earth Sustainable Procurement Pledge Let‘s drive change together

LOGISTICS

“ When it comes to unplanned changes, people's risks registers will be three times as long as they've ever been, because of Suez, because of chip shortages, because of Brexit, because of Covid” MARCUS JEFFERY

IVANTI’S UK AND IRELAND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER

Such events are classed as “unknown risks” to businesses, and too many supply chains remain vulnerable to their ill-effects. We need look no further than the Covid-19 pandemic to know this, with countless businesses unable to keep pace with soaring demand, and then being further compromised by widespread labour shortages and haulage headaches.

According to the British Continuity Institute’s 2020 Supply Chain Resilience report, the number of UK organisations that experienced ten or more disruptions in 2020 was 27.8 per cent, compared to 4.8 per cent in 2019. Of the companies surveyed 84 per cent said crossborder land transportation was the cause of logistics disruption.

A 2019 McKinsey report on managing supply chain risk noted that at the root of most supply chain crises is a common theme: a lack of robust processes to identify and successfully manage risk, both unknown and known. (An example of known risk is a supplier going bankrupt, because the chance of it happening can be gauged from financial records. Similarly, the risk of cyberattack is known, as it’s measurable through IT analysis.)

McKinsey says managing unknown risk is best achieved by building a “risk-aware culture.” In real terms, this means a business has “defensive layers” against unknown risks, and can respond quickly when such risks surface and threaten operations.

Mckinsey believes a risk-aware culture is attainable through: • Transparency on risk tolerance. Risk mitigation often comes at a cost, so it’s important that every level of a business knows which risks need to be mitigated.

• Empowerment: Management and employees need to feel empowered to pass on bad news and lessons from mistakes. Finger-pointing is a no-no.

Staff also need to be empowered to create an “ownership environment,” so that external threats are recognised quickly, and action timely.

Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King - now Baron King of Lothbury has some telling advice for businesses on the

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The Business Continuity Institute’s most recent report on supply chain resilience notes that: • Logistics disruption has occurred across all transportation types.

• Increases in container charges from China has led to organizations moving goods by air, despite the high cost.

• Organizations are looking to make supply chains more efficient to help with delays.

• As well as Covid, supply chain disruptions were also caused by cyber attacks and data breaches and severe weather.

• A total of 16.7% of organizations report a ‘severe’ loss of revenue due to supply chain disruptions

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importance of empowering teams to voice doubt in order to mitigate risk. King certainly knows a thing or two about risk; he was Governor during the 2008 credit crunch.

In his co-authored book ‘Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future’, he uses the presidential behaviour of John F Kennedy to show how important team empowerment is for avoiding bad outcomes.

In 1961, Kennedy oversaw the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. With hindsight, says King, Kennedy realised he had presided over meetings in which officials were afraid to voice doubt. They clustered around Kennedy’s preferred option: invasion. King points out that when the potentially worldthreatening Cuban missile crisis erupted a year later, Kennedy handled it differently.

He actively sought criticism, and the result was compromise: the Soviets pulled their

LOGISTICS

missiles out of Cuba in exchange for the Americans promising to take theirs out of Turkey. Catastrophe was averted.

As well as empowerment, McKinsey suggests businesses need to make use of digital tools to manage all manner of risk in their supply chain.

Used properly, digital tools give supply chains agility, so that when disaster strikes disruption is kept to a minimum.

One example is Ivanti’s Neurons solution. This is software that piggybacks off a company’s IT infrastructure to provide real-time intelligence designed to boost efficiency and thwart risk.

Marcus Jeffery, Ivanti’s UK and Ireland supply chain manager, says the pandemic has increased demand for its product, because businesses have never been more aware of the importance of agility in the supply chain.

“ Even planned change can be risky. Walkers Crisps’ recent IT upgrade led to supply problems with some of its most popular products. Then there was the KFC chicken shortage, when they moved to DHL” MARCUS JEFFERY

IVANTI’S UK AND IRELAND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER supplychaindigital.com

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“ While positives can be taken from 2020, there is still work to be done before supply chain disruptions become more manageable” CHRISTOPHER HORNE CHAIR OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY INSTITUTE

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January 2022

LOGISTICS

“Everyone thought the pandemic would slow things down,” says Jeffery, “but supply chains have had to grow because no one could go anywhere to get anything.

“Our solution has real appeal because it can scale without an issue. Businesses just add more devices to the back end.”

Devices such as ruggedised handsets used by thousands of couriers on the doorsteps, or by hundreds of pickers in a single warehouse or depot.

But what if 1,000 pickers’ devices in a warehouse were suddenly dogged by problems, say from a faulty component?

Wouldn’t that bring the warehouse to a halt?

“No,” says Jeffery, “because our software can be deployed on a user's Android phone.

Battery life wouldn’t be as good but the user experience would be the same.”

Jeffery knows better than most just how important supply chain agility is, particularly in warehouse and depot settings.

Back in 2005, when he was head of IT at Gist - a supply chain transformation service - the company’s Hemel Hempstead depot was rocked by the largest explosion in the UK since the Second World War, when the nearby Buncefield Fuel Depot went up.

Jeffery says: “The roof of our depot was lifted up by about six inches and people were pinned against the wall by the force of the blast.”

In a single moment, a facility that serviced most of the Marks & Spencer and Starbucks outlets within the M25 was out of action.

Yet in a single day Gist managed to push all that volume out to its Thatcham and Faversham depots.

“Plans were in place,” says Jeffery.

They have to be when you’re situated next to a fuel depot.”

The comment sums up unknown risk nicely. Yes, it may be unknown, but it is not unknowable. supplychaindigital.com

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THE

GOLD STANDARD IN

DIVERSE SPEND WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Through mandates, mentorship and mobilisation, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is promoting diverse spend throughout its supply chain to enact real change

I

n an era where Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) is rising rapidly to the top of corporate agendas, prioritising diversity is not, on the surface, a novel idea. In fact, JPMorgan Chase has been committed to supporting diverse suppliers for almost 30 years, with the philosophy that an inclusive supplier base that mirrors the communities in which the bank does business generates wealth, creates jobs and fosters economic growth. Currently, JPMorgan Chase dedicates about $2bn annually - to diverseowned and managed companies. And in October of 2020, JPMorgan Chase made a commitment to increase its spend with Black, Hispanic and Latino businesses by US$750 million as a part of the firm’s $30bn commitment to help close the US racial wealth gap.

JPMorgan Chase’s global procurement function oversees $19bn in annual spend, across 6,500 suppliers encompassing technology, professional services, real estate, legal, and every category in-between.

Given the impact of this significant spend and its ripple effect on the global economy, the team is cognizant of the importance of purchasing responsibly.

Jim Connell, Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Global Supplier Services aims to drive diversity further through the bank’s procurement function.

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Example of an image caption

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Title of the video

“Supplier diversity is a top priority across Global Supplier Services, which really involves every part of our team - even payment operations and supplier assurance services, who historically wouldn't be involved,” Connell says. “I think it's important that we all play a part in driving supplier diversity forward.”

JPMorgan Chase is “doubling down” through a unique approach that leverages its own scale to systematically promote best practices and commitments throughout its supply chain. The firm is mobilising key suppliers to spend more with diverse companies; mentoring those with emerging supplier diversity programs; enhancing discoverability of diverse suppliers; and promoting increased spend targets with key business communities, specifically Black, Hispanic and Latino.

The strategy is built upon JPMorgan Chase’s Gold Supplier program, an initiative launched in 2017 that brings together industry leaders 72

January 2022

to generate shared, incremental value and strengthen relationships with its most strategic and highest performing suppliers, from bluechip market leaders to small and agile innovators -both publicly traded and privately held.

Connell and his team understand that simply demanding that Gold Suppliers spend more with diverse companies may not provide the desired results. To help drive results they needed a better understanding

JIM CONNELL TITLE: CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES INDUSTRY: BANKING

of each company’s current capabilities and how much room there is to grow.

"Around a year ago, we engaged with over 100 of those top suppliers to figure out where they are in their journey toward a sustainable supplier diversity program,” Connell says.

“We conducted a comprehensive end-toend supplier diversity benchmarking survey, which allowed us to tier them into three different groups.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: USA Jim Connell, as Head of Global Supplier Services (GSS) for JPMorgan Chase & Co., is responsible for Sourcing, Procurement, Third Party Oversight (TPO), Payment Operations and supplier control assessment for a $19B supplier spend portfolio, distributed across 31,000 engagements with 6,500 suppliers.

Prior to this role, Jim was the Head of Third Party Operations and Controls for the firm, overseeing the firm wide TO program, Supplier Assurance Services and Payment Operations. Before this, Jim led the firm's Corporate TPO group, inclusiveof the PO policy, technology, regulatory engagement and cybersecurity.

Before joining the firm in February 2014, Jim served as CPO for RBS Citizens Bank, managing Strategic Sourcing, the Contract Management Center of Excellence and a supplier spend profile of $1.7B per year.

Prior to accepting the CPO role in 2012, Jim held various leadership positions within BS Citizens Bank's sourcing function, including management of the Marketing, HR, Technology, Facilities & Operations sourcing teams. Prior to entering the financial services industry in 2008, Jim practiced strategic sourcing for 7 years at Comverse, Inc., which followed a successful 5 year tenure as a corporate technology sales representative. Jim holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Merrimack College, and lives in Connecticut with his wife, Dorin.

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WWW.OVERLANDTANDBERG.COM

Empowering Organizations to Securely Manage and Protect Their Digital Assets • Leading global technology solution provider for 40+ years • Customers include global Fortune 500, Enterprise,

SME and SMBs in 100+ countries • Data Management and Security Solutions: • Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Business Continuity, Data Protection • Crypto-currency, IT Integration and Manufacturing

Tackling diversity through data and technology Overland-Tandberg is a global technology company serving over 100 countries. We spoke to its Chairman and CEO, Eric Kelly.

As Chairman and CEO, Eric Kelly takes a dynamic role in leading the company in its global growth strategy.

This has involved an important collaboration with one of the world’s leading banking corporations, JP Morgan Chase, that is expanding the company’s mandate of improving global diversity in the corporate and technology sectors.

Kelly says Overland-Tandberg was on the lookout for a partnership with a bank to fit the company’s growing, global footprint. “We actually started off discussing the banking relationship, and then it quickly moved into a symbiotic partnership—they became our corporate sponsor. The collaboration has gained momentum and velocity, with Overland-Tandberg carrying out business with JPMC on the supplier diversity side, working with their chief procurement officer and their supplier diversity group.

Established trust and success Kelly points to Overland-Tandberg’s long history when he speaks about the company’s robust reputation in the marketplace. As one of the longest

established black-owned global technology companies, it has built up a respected position.

Our vision of “Global Intellect and Inclusiveness” is the ethos that drives the organization – this vision allows us to have a comprehensive understanding of diversity and inclusion.

Diversity and data challenges Multinationals and foreign companies face the same challenges as US companies when trying to find black-owned businesses, says Kelly, it comes down to a lack of access, availability and awareness.

“There are organizations here in the US that showcase specifically black-owned businesses, and diverse companies,” he elaborates. “But I think that from a multinational standpoint of foreign companies, it’s one of access and availability and awareness. How do you find and develop partnerships at scale with diverse companies when there’s no technology platform that’s designed to provide that information?”

Kelly continues, “The world is digital and getting smaller. If you’re a US company you’re directly or indirectly doing business globally.

This challenge has been constant, which led me to leveraging my history in technology to focus on creating a platform that could align these resources across industry and essentially play a key role in closing the digital and diversity divide.” It’s called Bridge 2 Technologies.

Learn more

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

“WE VIEW SUPPLIER DIVERSITY NOT ONLY AS A MORAL IMPERATIVE BUT AS SMART BUSINESS”

JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Very nascent supplier diversity programs, or those still in the planning stages, are labelled ‘emerging’. Relatively successful supplier diversity programs that have been established for several years are categorised as ‘established’, while industry-leading, bestin-class supplier diversity programs are considered ‘mature’.

“That benchmarking allowed us to approach each supplier in a different way,” Connell explains. "We asked them to draft and submit a growth plan that would show us over a three-year horizon how they're going to improve supplier diversity, in general, and specifically with Black, Hispanic and Latino companies. We then benchmarked those growth plans against each other, and once we felt they were sufficiently ambitious, we accepted them.”

To date, almost 40% of Gold Supplier growth plans have been determined ambitious enough to have an impact.

Collectively they will increase diverse spend by $6.2bn over the next three years, $1.2bn of which is earmarked for Black, Hispanic and Latino suppliers. Financially, it is a major step in the right direction for diverse businesses, and Connell expects that figure to balloon further as more Gold Suppliers are fully onboarded. What’s even more motivating to Connell and his team is ending 2021 with about a dozen Gold Suppliers initiating a supplier diversity program for the very first time.

“Most exciting is the exponential impact of this,” he says. “Around half of our Gold Suppliers have also committed to replicating this initiative with their supply chains, cascading the mandate that diversity is a priority for them. We're excited about the idea of magnifying and multiplying that impact. If we can, in some small way by evangelising the methodology that we use, supplychaindigital.com

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BRIAN SHORTER

NOEL WASHINGTON

TITLE: HEAD OF THE GOLD SUPPLIER PROGRAM

TITLE: VP OF SOURCING, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & SUPPLIER MENTORING PROGRAM LEAD

Mobilising Key Suppliers “I created the Gold Supplier Program in 2017. My vision for the programme then, as now, was that it be differentiated from traditional ‘preferred supplier’ programs and create real value for JPMorgan Chase, our Gold Suppliers, and the communities we serve. This is a highly influential group of companies with combined revenues of over US$2 trillion, wielding very significant spending power. It’s in this context that we have developed our supplier diversity initiative over the last year, and have the potential, collectively, to make very material improvements for diverse suppliers and diverse supply markets.

“My hope for the future is simple: I want supplier diversity to become businessas-usual for our Gold Suppliers, with supplier diversity programs, and diverse suppliers, that are fully incorporated to the Golds’ sourcing, procurement, and vendor management practices.

“The most encouraging sign that my hope may be achieved, though, are the reasons why Gold Suppliers are participating. It’s not just because JPMorgan Chase asked them to get involved. Gold Suppliers tell us that they view supplier diversity as a way to invest in and improve the communities they serve where their employees and customers live and work. In short, it’s good business."

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Mentoring Suppliers “I partner existing suppliers that support the organisation, but do not currently have a supplier diversity program (mentees), with other external strategic suppliers of JPMorgan Chase that have well-established supplier diversity programs (mentors).

“Mentees and mentors will work together over the next 18-24 months to design and implement a sustainable supplier diversity programme. We hope the organisations we are mentoring will create a long-term sustainable diversity department that will in turn create more opportunities for diverse-owned businesses. Our goal is to have opportunities translate into awarded business, and increased revenues for diverse companies; and access to a broader selection of innovative businesses for our Gold Suppliers.

“A majority of the mentees have secured leadership buy-in to hire a Head of Supplier Diversity or assign a dedicated resource to drive the effort. Many of the companies have recognised the importance of inclusion of diverse suppliers and identified opportunities to shift how they procure products and services to drive awareness to the utilisation of the diverse business community.”

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

TED ARCHER

WILLIAM KAPFER

TITLE: HEAD OF DIVERSE SUPPLIER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLIER DIVERSITY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Discovering Diverse Suppliers “Not being able to find or discover qualified diverse-owned businesses is a pervasive misconception. There are diverse businesses in just about every industry. In my role, I work closely with colleagues across the firm to match excellent diverse businesses with the opportunities that will lead to their success.

JPMorgan Chase is committed to growing minority and other underserved businesses more broadly. My team connects these businesses to resources directly provided by the firm or provided indirectly through partnerships with other organisations.

“Black, Hispanic and Latino-owned businesses often face greater challenges than their counterparts when navigating relationships with large enterprises. This can sometimes lead to challenges with being ‘corporate ready’ when an opportunity arises and once an opportunity is awarded it can be difficult to scale up to meet all the demands from a large corporation.“According to the JPMorgan Chase Institute, Black, Hispanic and Latino households have median family wealth of just 13 percent and 19 percent of white households’ median family wealth, respectively. If black businesses achieved parity with non-black businesses, we would have US$676 billion in more business revenue, 1.6m more jobs, and 25m more wages.”

Supporting Black, Hispanic and Latino “Just as we know that a diverse organisation leads to better problem-solving and innovation, so does a diverse supply chain. Focusing supplier diversity programming on Black, Hispanic and Latino companies helps us to play a role in addressing the racial wealth gap, while promoting and increasing economic mobility for the country’s most historically underrepresented segments. Advancing racial equity requires a more intentional focus on the challenges faced by these communities of colour and a commitment to becoming an inclusive institution.

“We have set a clear, quantifiable goal to spend an additional US$750 million with Black and Latino-owned businesses by 2025, as part of the firm’s overall US$30 billion commitment to racial equity. Our program is distinguished by the fact that we don’t limit our internal relationships to simply sourcing and procurement. Our team cohesively aligns its efforts with JPMorgan Chase’s firm-wide DE&I initiatives allowing us to raise awareness about supplier diversity throughout all levels of the business. “We are off to a strong start – and remain encouraged by the firm-wide support that this strategy has catalysed—as we continue to further accelerate work already underway to address racial equality and opportunities in the communities in which we live and work.”

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

make supplier diversity an integral part of doing business for these big companies, it can really have a transformational effect on diverse communities. That's an exciting notion for us that really mobilises the team.”

Though supplier diversity is a mandate for these suppliers, JPMorgan Chase recognises that not every organisation has the resources or expertise to transform overnight - and is supporting them through these challenges. For suppliers with emerging diversity programs, the firm offers access to mentorship.

“We're pairing them up with those that are best-in-class, industry leaders in supplier diversity,” Connell says. “We're creating mentor-mentee relationships where they can learn from the best, and providing them with tools, templates, and training modules.

For suppliers with established but growing diversity programs, the bank is helping to overcome one of the most common hurdles: discoverability. In the US, the inability to find a deeper pool of diverse suppliers is more a perception than a reality. Connell and his team help to point the way to getting started.

“Many suppliers are daunted by the idea of finding diverse businesses and it's a blocker to initiate their programs at all,” Connell says. “We tell people to start small and analyse their own spend, because they're probably spending money with diverse suppliers today that they don't even know about.

“There are tools you can use to analyse that, but more importantly is creating relationships with some of the key diverse business certification organisations like the National Minority Supplier Development Council or the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. They can give you the support you need to build your program, expand your databases with eligible suppliers, 80

January 2022

“CREATING MORE INCLUSIVE SUPPLY CHAINS ACROSS THE WIDER BUSINESS COMMUNITY WILL CHANGE THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE FOR DIVERSE SUPPLIERS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.” JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

and your network of other companies that you can share best practices with.”

Through the Gold Supplier program, JPMorgan Chase also shares its own list of diverse suppliers, with teams in place to ensure that minority and underserved businesses share the same level of visibility as more established competitors.

“We have over 100 of the biggest companies in the country, and together we've created this community where we

share diverse supplier lists,” Connell says.

"Through practices like this, we help each other succeed.”

Improving spend with diverse suppliers supports a wider ESG agenda at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “There is an expectation now that companies that we do business with also share our values.

We believe that procurement spend can be leveraged for social good, whether that’s racial equity, environmental

sustainability or good governance. It is not a box-checking exercise,” Connell says, “but a vital pillar for the future of the bank and its stakeholders. We view supplier diversity not only as a moral imperative, but as smart business,” he explains. “We compete with other banks for clients, customers, and talent. And so we know that a bank that is firmly rooted in these communities is going to have a positive long-term impact.” supplychaindigital.com

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

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"COMPANIES SHOULD EXPECT THAT ESG IS GOING TO BE AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF HOW THEY'RE MEASURED”

JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

When society wins, so too does the overall business community.

"Companies should expect that ESG is going to be an integral component of how they're measured in their relationships,” he adds. "And it all boils down to: are you spending your money in the right way, in a way that helps the community? It's a hard thing to measure until you start looking at it in specific domains around diversity, sustainability, and governance. We're taking a programmatic approach to this, getting quantitative around our Gold Supplier community and how we would seek to influence both our direct spend and our suppliers’ spend.”

In the coming 12 months, the bank anticipates firm progress in the growth plans that have already been submitted, with more opportunities as further Gold Supplier growth plans are approved. But it is the longterm vision that will enact real change, and bring the bank’s true ambition to life.

“The larger purpose of all of this is to have companies develop sustainable programs that will create new diverse spend for decades into the future,” Connell says.

“We'd like to see this initiative cascaded to thousands of businesses because creating more inclusive supply chains across the wider business community will change the competitive landscape for diverse suppliers for generations to come.” supplychaindigital.com

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Katherine Rusack, Senior Sustainable Procurement Manager at Balfour Beatty

Megan Adlen Group Sustainability Director at Travis Perkins

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FEATURE SUSTAINABILITY HEADER

BUILDING TOWARDS A NET ZERO FUTURE

The construction supply chain will be vital if Britain is to achieve its goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, yet huge challenges lie ahead. So how are these being met?

WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

F

or businesses large and small, the COP26 climate summit will have brought into sharp focus just how important it is that they stay on track with net zero deadlines. The British government was one of the first to enshrine in law its commitment to be net zero as a nation by 2050. The clock is ticking ever louder.

Construction giant Balfour Beatty says the UK’s building and infrastructure sector supply chain will have a vital role in helping the country meet its net zero commitments.

It says the supply chain is responsible for 80% of the sector’s emissions.

So how, exactly, will construction with supplies chains that have hundreds of moving parts - help the country meet its sustainability targets?

Balfour Beatty is at the forefront of efforts to make sure construction supply chains are as green as can be. Recently it published a paper, called ‘Greening the Chain’. For this, the company surveyed around 40,000 UK construction and infrastructure industry suppliers, in a bid to understand the barriers, issues and opportunities around sustainability faced by the sector. It was a joint effort with the Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS).

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One of the strongest messages to come out of ‘Greening the Chain’ was just how difficult it is for smaller businesses to make progress on sustainability, because they lack the resources and expertise of larger companies. “It’s more challenging for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to meet new sustainability requirements, such as supplying carbon data,” confirms Katherine Rusack, senior sustainable procurement manager at Balfour Beatty.

She continued: “Last year we spent £1.28bn with SME suppliers. They are a key part of our supply chain. For us to achieve our sustainability goals, we need to support them in a way that’s relevant to their business and operations.”

To this end, the company has partnered with the SCSS, who provide materials and training free to Balfour Beatty supply chain members. “It’s a collaborative initiative,” Rusack says. “Many customers, such as National Highways, and larger supply chain partners, also support the school. This is a great example of the construction industry coming together to support the upskilling of the supply chain of all sizes.”

“SINCE 2010 WE HAVE REDUCED OUR SCOPE 1 AND 2 CARBON EMISSIONS BY 54.7 PER CENT” KATHERINE RUSACK

SENIOR SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT MANAGER AT BALFOUR BEATTY

Sustainability does not come cheap Low- or no-carbon products often cost more than their carbon-rich counterparts. At present there simply is not the economies of scale on sustainable products to drive down price. So in the short term, meeting net zero targets can mean businesses will end up paying more for materials.

Or does it? Not necessarily, says Katherine Rusack, senior sustainable procurement manager at Balfour Beatty.

“We need to be mindful about how we review costs,” she cautions. “For instance, some products cost more up-front but operational costs are reduced.”

She cites a recent Balfour Beatty project with National Highways. “We identified that we could achieve a 15 per cent carbon saving by moving from hot asphalt to warm asphalt, which also had the potential to reduce the project programme length.”

And by communicating this fact to its supply chain, the company has ensured that the switch to warm-mix asphalt is now standard across the strategic road network and the supply chain. “This creates more demand for the lowercarbon solution, and gives security of demand for the suppliers, which has resulted in it being a cost-neutral solution,” says Rusack. supplychaindigital.com

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SME businesses need all the help they can get on sustainability training, agrees Megan Adlen, group sustainability director at Travis Perkins. She says: “Smaller companies have smaller teams. Unlike larger suppliers, like us, or larger manufacturers, they won’t necessarily have in-house teams who understand sustainability, who can calculate carbon, or who understand net zero and the key interventions needed to achieve it”.

She adds: “This is why we’re looking to bring them together in a supplier forum, starting next year. The aim is to share best practises across the supply chain, and hopefully inspire some of the smaller manufacturers around measures they can take to decarbonise their operations and supply team.”

Adlen says a great starting point for smaller companies struggling with sustainability is to use the free SCSS carbon calculator tool.

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“INNOVATION IS COMING THROUGH THE SUPPLY CHAIN AT PACE. WE'RE SEEING NEW SOLUTIONS AND IDEAS COMING THROUGH ALL THE TIME” MEGAN ADLEN

GROUP SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR AT TRAVIS PERKINS

SUSTAINABILITY

“It’s no good talking theoretically to smaller companies about what needs to be done if they have no understanding of exactly what it is they’re supposed to be measuring and managing. It's that old adage: if you want it to count, count it.” To that end, she says, the SCSS tool is a good first step to supporting smaller companies’ carbon calculations.

In ‘Greening the Chain’ Balfour Beatty says one barrier to companies in the building supply chain moving to net zero is the skills gap, and a lack of training to plug that gap. Balfour Beatty’s Rusack says design is one of the areas in which sustainability training is important. “Equipping the design community with information about more sustainable products and methods can and should be implemented where possible,” Rusack says.

She adds that Balfour Beatty is also developing carbon-conscious training to

Greening the Chain Balfour Beatty recently published a paper called Greening the Chain, which was based on a survey it conducted of 40,000 construction sector suppliers.

The following are the headline figures: • 87% of construction and infrastructure suppliers are already implementing a carbon reduction strategy • 74% believe the UK government’s push for net zero by 2050 is a good thing for their company. (Just 13% see it as a risk) • 73% say that carbon reduction is part of their procurement process • 72% have already set a net zero target supplychaindigital.com

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SUSTAINABILITY

“WE HAVE LONG-TERM CONTRACTS WITH MANY SUPPLIERS, WHICH MEANS WE CAN PUT LONGER-TERM SUSTAINABILITY GOALS IN PLACE” KATHERINE RUSACK

SENIOR SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT MANAGER AT BALFOUR BEATTY

help its workforce understand the carbon costs of their behaviour, both for them as individuals and Balfour Beatty as an employer. Yet she also sounds a note of caution, warning that businesses need to be careful not to go over the top: “Not everyone needs to be a sustainability expert. The challenge is to provide training which is relevant and proportionate to an individual’s role.”

There’s no doubt that some of the netzero training that’s required in the building supply chain is onerous. Adlen offers the example of the switch from gas boilers to heat-exchange systems: “Adapting to new technologies such as heat-pumps means tradespeople skilled in traditional boilers will either need to upskill, or an entirely new trade will be needed to support the installation of these new solutions. What will probably happen is that it’ll be a blend of the two.”

Adlen adds that the pace of change across the built environment means upskilling is absolutely vital. She says the construction sector has already approached the government for help on this front, but anticipates that much of the upskilling provision is likely to fall to the supply chain itself.

“We have enough capacity within the trade to be able to deliver that. Certainly in Travis Perkins we’re looking at how we can support the upskilling of the trade in some of these areas.”

She says the company is exploring options on this front.

“Whichever route Travis Perkins ends up taking, there will be plenty of training to provide. “I gave the example of upskilling around heat pumps but that’s just one example among many, many others.”

Asked what the most important steps Balfour Beatty has taken to green its own chain, Rusack says that providing its procurement team with training on sustainable procurement is right up there.

She said: “We’ve reviewed all the products and services we regularly use and have conducted a heat-mapping exercise against 13 key sustainability areas, including social, environmental and economic impacts.”

On the back of this, the company developed question-sets that it has included in its e-procurement system, so that its procurement team can easily ask suppliers pertinent questions around sustainability.

It seems that knowledge really is power, especially when it comes to sustainability. supplychaindigital.com

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RECKITT

Embedding Quality in a Changing Environment WRITTEN BY: MARK JACKSON PRODUCED BY: TOM LIVERMORE

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RECKITT

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RECKITT

We chat with Valerie Sieurin, the Senior Vice President Global Head of Quality at Reckitt, about how she has transformed the company’s Quality systems and Quality culture, as well as its continuing commitment to creating a better future for all

I

t is quite a task to implement systemic cultural change in a multi-billion company, but that is precisely what Valerie Sieurin undertook when she accepted the role of SVP Global Head of Quality at Reckitt.

Based in Slough, Reckitt is one of the world leaders in developing hygiene, health and nutrition products. Its list of world famous brands is endless including; Air Wick, Calgon, Cillit Bang, Clearasil, Dettol, Durex, Enfamil, Finish, Gaviscon, Harpic, Lysol, Mortein, Mucinex, Nurofen, Nutramigen, Strepsils, Vanish, Veet, Woolite and more. The company has a 200-year legacy and currently generates revenues of more than £14 billion, from its operations in 60 countries, where it employs over 43,000 people.

Valerie Sieurin was tasked with embedding a new culture of Quality across Reckitt, leading a global team and building strong internal partnerships to ensure Quality standards are embedded throughout the product life cycle, from marketing to procurement to manufacturing, and distribution to sales.

“Every day we sell more than 20 million products across the world,” explains Valerie.

“My role is to design and implement a Quality strategy to ensure we are providing everywhere and at every moment products supplychaindigital.com

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RECKITT

that are safe , trusted and preferred digital transformation in Quality by our consumers, ” she said. which includes implementing a Valerie, who has a master’s new AI system for planning and degree in food science and food scheduling quality control testing Employees processes from her native France, in manufacturing, a new cloud worldwide has previously worked for major solution for consumer relations, companies such as Danone and Cadbury and most recently the launch of an Schweppes. She has worked in a variety enterprise Quality Management system. of roles at local, regional and global levels, All of these transformation projects as well as having lived in three different were made possible thanks to strategic countries. She has undertaken global partnerships such as with partners, roles for close to 15 years, placing her in SmartQC and Veeva Systems. an ideal position to implement a Quality For Valerie however, digitalisation is not transformation within Reckitt. the end game per se, but a means to drive “This gives me quite a wide view of forward Reckitt’s purpose. “We see digital organisations and different markets,” she says. transformation as a way to achieve this Valerie explains how the journey to the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier new culture was driven in parallel with a world,” she explains.

43,000

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RECKITT

VALERIE SIEURIN TITLE: SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY

Initially Valerie with her team identified those areas where Reckitt could improve its performance in pursuance of its overriding goals, the technology that could help them accomplish this, and the partners that could help drive this technology transformation. “As a Quality professional, you are always looking at what you can improve and combine with the strengths which you want to maintain.

Continuous improvement is part of the DNA of the Quality leader.” she explains. “But, with my team, we did not want small incremental improvement, with the new technologies available we had the ambition to leapfrog.

“We focused on two areas. The first was consumer relations to move from answering complaints to driving advocacy and win consumer preference. The second was

EXECUTIVE BIO

COMPANY: RECKITT As a global leader at Reckitt – a world renowned home of health, hygiene and nutrition brands - Valerie Sieurin is responsible for over 2,000 members of staff working across Quality worldwide. At Reckitt, Quality leaders are increasingly seen as strategic business partners. The disruptive leader is driving a culture change across the organisation, overseeing end-to-end Quality, coaching people to bring their best and driving consumers advocacy in the pursuit of excellence.

Valerie Sieurin is an ambassador for creative solutions and innovation in product, processes and Quality systems. She has initiated a digitisation journey of quality at Reckitt and championed new ideas from everyone to make the Quality team even more agile, connected, embedded and predictive.

She is also extremely passionate about sustainability & inclusion across Reckitt and the community.

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Title of the video

“ We are here to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. This is what drives me every day in the decisions I take. It means that we are always looking at better solutions” VALERIE SIEURIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY, RECKITT

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eliminating repeated failures. Our vision was to make the organisation more predictive in order to avoid such errors, and to support this cultural transformation through technology.”

To enable this transformation, Valerie and her team have built a very strong partnership with the Reckitt IT department.

In order to transform its consumer relations, Reckitt worked closely with its project partners to design a cloud-based system to enable them to connect everywhere with consumers, using all media from emails to social media.

“Now our consumers can contact us from any place and at any time,” she explains. “We can bring insights to the business to improve our products and service and delight our consumers, which ultimately will drive consumer advocacy and increase love for our brands.”

RECKITT

The second cultural to connect all of our Quality transformation concerned Reckitt’s management processes and be Quality processes and systems. more efficient,” she explains.

The aim was to connect all the The transformation began with Products sold across company’s Quality processes improving efficiency in Reckitt’s the world everyday to increase efficiency and, as a Quality Control laboratories, which consequence, revenue. Valerie believes that she refers to as a ‘Lean lab Programme and Quality transformations can directly impact lately renamed as LabEx for Laboratory a company’s business success: reduce time Excellence’. “We quickly identified that to market and improve first time right as two implementing lean methodology wasn't examples. enough, it was a good step to start improving Previously Reckitt had Quality systems a laboratory, but it wasn't enough,” Valerie which were not connected with other says. We needed to enhance our programme systems within the organisation and with technology and that is when the therefore inefficient. This is why Valerie relationship with SmartQC commenced. The and her team decided to partner with end game is to have paperless laboratories Veeva Systems to develop a solution that will be fully integrated to the overall using the latter’s Quality management business systems. When systems are platform QualityOne, which Reckitt is connected, this will improve product release now implementing. “This will enable us times and get products to customers faster.

20mn+

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Cloud Applications that Drive Transparency & Trust Throughout the Product Journey 1000+ Customers • 4500+ Employees • $1.5B+ Revenue • 165+ Countries

Helping companies bring high-quality, safe, and sustainable products to market faster without compromising compliance.

"Agile - Empowering - Strategic" www.industries.veeva.com

Reckitt Embarks on Quality Cloud Transformation with Veeva Why Consumer Goods leader Reckitt is partnering with Veeva Systems to transform its quality processes for greater operational agility Consumer hygiene, health and nutrition leader Reckitt is partnering with Veeva Systems to realize Reckitt’s vision for Quality’s digital transformation.

By adopting Veeva cloud solutions, Reckitt is establishing a modern technology infrastructure that allows people and processes to operate with agility and speed, without compromising quality and compliance.

Reckitt selected Veeva’s QualityOne software to replace disparate legacy systems and streamline activities, data, and documents into a single source of truth. This digital transformation effort improves collaboration throughout the organization, and enables greater transparency and agility.

“We’re taking the opportunity to reduce complexity, because that is the enemy of progress and growth, and simplifying our processes with this intuitive platform. The system is not only user-friendly, but its ease of use allowed our team to re-imagine the process,” said Breda Quinn, Global Transformation Quality Director at Reckitt.

“Veeva is an excellent technology partner for us.

They are agile and empower us to focus on all the right things. They’re driving the strategic thinking and inspire, and motivate us, to think long-term.”

Partner to Industry, Customers: What Sets Veeva Apart from Other Vendors Unlike transactional technology vendors, Veeva takes a partnership approach to its customers’ digital transformation journeys. This includes maintaining deep expertise in industry challenges.

For example, Veeva employs “a unique team of strategists who have joined Veeva directly from industry; they are the voice of our customers” said Veeva strategy leader Ed Van Siclen. “And when we get it right -- the collaboration between our product organization, our customers and the strategy team -- we create magic.”

Additionally, Veeva solutions are appreciating assets that allow customers to keep pace in a rapidly evolving business environment. “As a cloud-based, SaaS technology provider, we deliver software-at-speed,” Van Siclen said. “We add features three times a year and become an appreciating asset for our customers.”

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RECKITT

Streamlining processes within their decision making within laboratories leads to greater a more agile supply chain. efficiency, while improving “Now there are a lot of different Generates revenues of more than business, and maintaining technologies that are available to standards to ensure customer us that we have started piloting confidence in their brands. Valerie and deploying. SmartQC for believes that the introduction of these new example, is a digital twin that enables us technologies and systems will provide the to plan and schedule our testing more Reckitt teams the access to the data in a efficiently. We are also looking at piloting digital format that they need to enhance and implementing SmartQA, which will

£14bn

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RECKITT

“ Now we are able to have our consumers contact us from any place and at any time” VALERIE SIEURIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY, RECKITT

digitise quality assurance activities and ultimately improve product release times further. In our pharma factories we have hundreds of test methods for our products, so it is complex to manage the lab operation. These new technologies really enable our people to focus on what is important, adding value.”

The transformative process is not one Reckitt could have undertaken on its own.

Valerie places great importance on the role played by their partners.

When working out which companies Reckitt should work with, Valerie always initially asks the question, “what don't we know?”. Then she identifies where Reckitt can collaborate with potential partners and those companies which could join them on their journey of transformation.

For Valerie the transformative process is continuous. As she observes “the technology of today will be obsolete soon,” which she finds “fascinating.”

Consequently, it is vital that companies such as Reckitt are choosing the partners who are innovative, invest in research and could evolve with them in order to improve the quality of both their processes and also their products in order to maintain both efficiency and customer confidence in their brands. “This is why we have partnered with Veeva Systems. This is also why we work with SmartQC,” she says.

However, for Valerie improving efficiency and maintaining brand confidence is only part of a bigger picture. She believes that Reckitt serves a far greater purpose than would appear on any financial balance sheet.

This is what motivates her.

“The reason why we exist is our purpose,” she says. “We are here to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. This is what drives me supplychaindigital.com

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#1 leading digital planning and scheduling solution for QC laboratories Smart-QC is deployed in over 150 labs worldwide and our solutions are used by 10 of the top 15 largest companies in the life science industry. Most cResults’ clients have already witnessed massive levels of improvements within their organizations.

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By cResults the maker of Smart-QC, Smart-QA and FDAAWARE

RECKITT

every day in the decisions I take. We huge objectives and we are all working are always looking at better solutions together on achieving them by 2030,” to fulfill our purpose.” she says.

Operates in As such, Valerie is energised by Reckitt has targeted reducing Reckitt’s sustainability initiatives which greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its lie at the heart of both the company’s operations by 65% by 2030, as well as Countries ethos and its global impact. To achieve using 100% renewable energy and reducing these the company works closely with local its overall energy usage by 25%. This should communities to forge a brighter future. lead to a 50% reduction in its product “We are engaging together with our carbon footprint in the same timescale, partners with 22 million people through with the ultimate goal of being carbon programmes, partnerships and campaigns,” neutral by 2040. she explains. “Our objective is to have a lasting The company has partnered with impact on people and communities, and also the WWF to preserve and restore 2,100 to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development kilometres of freshwater across two major Goals in which we are engaged.” river basins in the Amazon and Ganges. In These initiatives are also designed to reduce addition, one of its brands, Air Wick, is also Reckitt’s own carbon footprint. “We have working with WWF to raise awareness of

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RECKITT

1819

Year Founded

Manufacturing Industry

43,000

“ This is for the good of the people, the consumers, but as well for the planet” VALERIE SIEURIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY, RECKITT

Number of Employees

£14bn Revenue

the importance of nature and how we can all do more to protect and restore it.

Valerie believes that neither Reckitt’s culture of Quality transformation nor its sustainability drive would be possible without the strong and clear leadership provided by the CEO, Laxman Narasimhan and company’s senior management.

“This transformation in Quality is only possible because of the leaders across the world that are engaged in this transformation,” she says. “We are driving innovation in the areas of hygiene, health and nutrition, continuing, improving and working on our sustainability goals in order to have a positive impact in the world.”

The aim behind the current transformation of the company’s Quality processes is to ensure that all of the disparate parts of Reckitt’s global family are connected and working together to achieve its purpose to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. This requires a state of constant evolution.

“This is for the good of the people, the consumers, but as well for the planet,” Valerie says.

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HOW TO STOP

SPEND - MAVERICKS

FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN Maverick spend is endemic, and it’s costing business dear.

P2P software can help control it, but works best as part of a joined-up strategy WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT & HELEN ADAMS

S

pend management is vital to companies of all sizes. It helps cut risk, drive growth, and increase profit.

Hence procure-to-pay (P2P) systems, which companies use to control how they procure the goods and services they need to do business.

But a system is only ever as good as those who use it, and many employees choose to spend outside of their company’s prescribed procurement procedures. This kind of spend goes by many names. Some call it ‘tail’ spend, others ‘rogue’ spend, but the best-known description is probably ‘maverick’ spend.

Such costs include:

The dangerous cost of maverick spend Maverick spend usually involves small-value purchases that are made outside of agreed contracts, and often without the knowledge of the procurement team. Such spending can be costly on many different levels, says Jaggaer, a provider of cloud-based spend management solutions.

• Time: Your procurement, finance and warehouse teams are left to reconcile paperwork, locate the arrival of stock, and identify who has undertaken the rogue transaction.

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• Legal: Maverick spending can impact contract fulfilment and expose businesses to legal risks.

• Reputational: Maverick purchases are not always small; one or more might be key to a project. What if those suppliers go bust, or provide sub-standard work or products?

Your company takes a reputational hit.

• Relational: If preferred suppliers hear of non-approved spending with a rival, this might harm your relationship with them.

Maverick spending is no minor problem; it’s endemic. According to the Chartered

TECHNOLOGY

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TECHNOLOGY

“ It is critical to have control over your company's spend and finance” MOHAMMED KAFIL

SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER KISSFLOW PROCUREMENT

Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), up to 80% of all invoices are generated from uncontrolled buying, even in large organisations with professional procurement functions. This is why, increasingly, businesses are looking to deploy automated P2P solutions as a way to control maverick spending.

P2P is a responsible solution P2P software works by streamlining the goods-or-services procurement process.

Typically, they include solutions for requisitioning, purchasing, receiving and payment. P2P software comes in different forms. Some businesses install a P2P solution internally. Others buy from a SaaS (Software as a Service) company and host the P2P product on-site.

Increasingly, though, business is turning to cloud-based software providers, because the software vendor partners with the organisation to support its needs and processes, but remains responsible for the overall functionality of the P2P solution.

P2P software can control maverick spending in different ways. It can allow procurement teams to enforce a ‘No PO, no pay’ policy by centralising procurement department functions. It can also provide a detailed spend analysis, which includes the names of those who have flouted procurement rules. Some solutions even flag repeat offenders.

As a certified procurement consultant, Mohammed Kafil is aware of rogue spending.

He has been coaching companies to establish resilient digital procurement supplychaindigital.com

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operating models for over a decade. With Kissflow Procurement Cloud, a flexible procurement software that streamlines the end-to-end procure-to-pay process, Kafil helps medium and large enterprises with their digital transformation projects.

“Rogue spend is expenditure with staffing suppliers outside of prenegotiated contracts or the guidelines of the organisation’s contingent workforce programme”, says Kafil. “This in other words is essentially off-contract buying.”

According to Kafil, the problems caused by rogue spend are varied. “It is critical to have control over your company's spend and finance. Rogue spending can be financially draining, inefficient and ineffective. Rogue spend creates problems like putting businesses at risk of noncompliance, unpredictable budgets, and reductions in both forecasting accuracy and overall business profits," says Kafil.

However, there are steps in procurement automation that businesses can take to ensure they are safe from rogue spending.

“By implementing a purchasing system that automates the procure-to-pay process (P2P), organisations can reduce rogue spend while also making purchasing more efficient and cost-effective. Automation essentially brings in two major factors: visibility and ease of purchasing.

Kafil says “The visibility offered by data generated by automation can enable procurement managers to not only track activity through the process, but also aggregate the data to find improvements for the company as a whole. The Spend Analytics from a digital procurement software can eventually help businesses gain clear visibility over the spending behaviour, negotiate better deals with suppliers and tighten their grip on reducing their rogue spending.

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“ Rogue spend creates problems like putting businesses at risk of noncompliance, unpredictable budgets and reducing overall business profits” MOHAMMED KAFIL

SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER KISSFLOW PROCUREMENT

“Rogue spend can take place when buyers within your organisation don’t know the correct procedures. Automation essentially brings in tech-enabled policybased compliance into the buying process.

With guidelines in place, this eventually reduces the possibility of purchases going out of pre-negotiated contracts.”

Transparency is key But while automated procurement solutions have an important role to play in controlling maverick spend, to be truly effective, P2P software needs to be part of a holistic approach to eradicating maverick spend.

On this note, CIPS stresses the importance of changing behaviour around procurement, and the key to this is clear and consistent communication.

TECHNOLOGY

The following are among the most popular purchase-to-pay (P2P) software solutions.

Workday Workday is a cloud-based software vendor that specialises in human capital management and financial management applications. The procurement management element of its solution allows businesses to automate and control indirect spend. Employees can create purchase requisitions, generate purchase orders, receive goods, process supplier invoices and analyse spend, all in a single system.

SAP Ariba For many, buying and Invoicing is the main reason they use P2P solutions. SAP’s platform centralises sourcing for indirect goods and services, and automates the purchasing lifecycle, from requisitions and purchase orders (POs) to receiving goods and payment. SAP has designed the UI to be “as comfortable as online personal shopping,” with dashboard settings to suit every need.

Oracle Oracle Fusion Cloud is a comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, of

which P2P is just one part. The P2P module streamlines purchasing by automating POs from approved requisitions and improves revision management with a complete change history. Another feature is invoicematching automation, designed to accelerate payment processing.

Jaggaer Jaggaer’s one-stop P2P solution gives professionals full control over their process, easing admin tasks through automation, as well as aligning procurement and accounts payable teams with suppliers. The platform is ‘smart’, using AI to provide valuable and actionable insights to procurement professionals.

PRM360 One of Acads360 India’s solutions, PRM360 is a cloud-based platform for streamlining and automating the P2P process. The company says the platform is not designed to conduct procurement differently but to “make it more convenient.” As such, PRM360’s openplatform architecture means it integrates seamlessly with ERPs and other thirdparty apps. supplychaindigital.com

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TECHNOLOGY

“ Rogue spending can be financially draining, inefficient and ineffective” MOHAMMED KAFIL

SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER KISSFLOW PROCUREMENT

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Most employees ‘go rogue’ not through any ill intent but because they don’t understand the procurement process, especially if they engage with it infrequently.

Or it might be they see a better price elsewhere, and don’t know the hidden costs of going outside of standard procurement procedures.

Procurement managers need to communicate the value of sticking to the rules. Ways in which they can do so might include: • Providing a forum for employees to recommend vendors and to give feedback.

• Offering ‘lunch and learn’ procurement training sessions.

• Recognising outstanding departmental or individual behaviour around procurement.

As well as clear communication there must also be transparency around spending.

After all, how can you fix what you can’t see, with or without the help of software?

This is where spend analysis comes in. By analysing historical spend data a company will discover how much maverick spend is costing it, as well the categories and departments where it’s most common.

Then there is accountability. While procurement processes are the responsibility of the procurement leadership team, spend management should be everyone’s responsibility. Every manager across an organisation should know exactly what’s being spent in their area, who’s spending it and what they’re spending it on.

So while P2P software is not a silver bullet for ending maverick spend, it is a useful tool in companies’ efforts to make sure people remain within the procurement fold. supplychaindigital.com

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FROM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

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PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE

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VODAFONE

Hüseyin Ipiv, Head of Supply Chain Management, Consumer Business Unit, discusses Vodafone’s supply chain digital transformation over the last two years

H

ead of Supply Chain Management, Consumer Business Unit at Vodafone Germany, and father of three children. Hüseyin Ipiv grew up in the beautiful city of Bielefeld, Germany.

“I am a fan of the local football club, Arminia Bielefeld. I would consider myself a European and a cosmopolitan. I studied in Germany and the Netherlands, and I have lived abroad for eight years now, in the US, England or Hungary. So far, I have moved around 23 times in my life, I always say ‘change is with me’,” says Ipiv.

“Today, I am working for a fantastic company called Vodafone. I have the privilege of working with a great supply chain team in Germany, managing the entire end-to-end supply chain for all consumer products (smartphones, tablets, accessories, IoT products, and fixed-line products),” adds Ipiv.

Since joining Vodafone in 2007, not just Vodafone but the entire telecommunications industry has changed during this time. “When I joined Vodafone, there were many companies like Nokia and Siemens Mobile selling mobile phones, however, today most of these organisations have disappeared. Today we have other great companies like Oppo, Xiaomi, Apple, or Samsung, which are now big players in the market. The supplier landscape is very volatile in this business. supplychaindigital.com

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Let’s smart up your processes!

Arvato Supply Chain Solutions is an innovative and international leading service provider in the field of supply chain management and e-commerce. Partners come together with industry specialists in the fields of Telecommunication, Tech, Corporate Information Management, Healthcare, Consumer Products and Publisher. About 16,000 employees work together to provide practical and relevant solutions and services worldwide.

Using the latest digital technology, Arvato develops, operates and optimizes complex global supply chains and e-commerce platforms, as the strategic growth partner for its customers. Arvato combines the know-how of its employees with the right technology and appropriate business processes to measurably increase the productivity and performance of its partners.

For more information, please visit arvato-supply-chain.com

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Smart up Vodafone’s processes As Arvato celebrates its partnership with Vodafone –focused to be your digital change agent for a green, sustainable future As Arvato Supply Chain Solutions celebrates its partnership for almost 30 years with Vodafone it is now focused on becoming your digital change agent for a green, sustainable future.

Celebrating the partnership with Vodafone Arvato has supported Vodafone to transform their supply chain from a pure mobile phone logistic into an multi device supply chain with solution for smartphones, broadband, IOT and eSIM, always making sure that Arvato provides a robust, reliable and flexible logistics solution which adapts to Vodafone’s needs – also for the upcoming years.

“We would love to be your digital change agent when it comes to transforming your businesses for a sustainable future,” said Andreas Barth, President Tech Group and Head of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability.

Future Warehouse with carbon-free footprint

Arvato is the leading international provider of order-to-cash solutions for end-customeroriented industries. During its long partnership with Vodafone it has set up a green location to pave the way for a zero-carbon future.

“The backbone of this is to have a solid IT solution. We strive to be the most data-driven supply chain company in the world that includes a cloud-only backbone, and includes that we use the data our clients provide us, along with the date we are generating, to invest in a new business model.”

Arvato in numbers: • • • • • • •

Euro 2 billion revenue 85 locations 20+ countries 16,000 employees over 2 million sqm warehouse space 470k sqm new only in 2021 500mio shipments and returns

As a supply chain company with a high level of IT expertise, Arvato has been quick to initiate the transformation to the Future Warehouse.

“We are thereby underlining the climate effects of digitization. The digital transformation is a relevant key to a successful climate policy and we support our clients!” said Barth.

Learn more

“At the time I joined, it was only possible to make phone calls with mobile phones. Today, you can do everything on your smartphone like using Apps, surfing the internet, watch videos on youtube, paying invoices or making video calls with your friends This became possible with the upgrade of the mobile network. At the time we had 2G or 3G, then 4G and now we have 5G. We used to be a mobile-only company, but today we are also a fixedline company, you can watch Vodafone TV or you can surf the internet using our cable infrastructure,” says Ipiv.

Vodafone’s supply chain digital transformation journey When it comes to digital transformation, Ipiv explains that the first step to success is an effective strategy. “If you have a strategy in place, that is already a big achievement for many organisations. The next step is to drive that plan, determine how you want to implement it, how it can be achieved, 122

January 2022

“If you have a strategy in place, that is already a big achievement for many organisations, the next step is to drive that plan” HÜSEYIN IPIV

HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, VODAFONE

VODAFONE

HÜSEYIN IPIV TITLE: H EAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: GERMANY

EXECUTIVE BIO

what the next milestones are. You need to convince your stakeholders to believe in the goals that you want to achieve because you will need funding from stakeholders. You also need to convince your own team. I believe that is always the most difficult part as your teams can anticipate the challenges ahead since they know your supply chain in detail.

“When you start a journey like this you soon realise that a plan is nice, but the reality is much more difficult. We understood that we had to start with the basics. We upgraded our ERP System from SAP R3 to SAP 4 HANA to enable our digital journey.

At Vodafone Germany, we have a great Big Data team. Together, we initiated a project to improve our smartphone forecasting accuracy on SKU level which we successfully implemented after 12 months. We have benchmarked our forecasting in the industry with an external consulting company, which showed that we are industry-leading with our forecast process,” says Ipiv.

Internationally experienced Commercial & Supply Chain Manager with a track record of delivering top-line and bottom-line results in global companies who have shaped the agenda in their industry. Held operational and strategic executive roles combining General Management, Supply Chain Management and Procurement over the last 20 years. Driven by a strong commercial and customer-centric mindset. Practices a human-centric leadership style, stimulates innovation & change. Currently transforms the Supply Chain for consumer devices of Vodafone Germany towards a more digital, simple, and agile organization with a clear focus on improving customer experience.

“You need to convince your stakeholders to believe in the story that you want to achieve” HÜSEYIN IPIV

HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, VODAFONE

“We have also implemented a digital return portal. If customers want to return their smartphones to us for whatever reason, we need them to use our online platform to provide us with data as to why they want to return their smartphones. Understanding the return reason, we can offer an immediate solution to the customer. This is a win-win situation for customers and Vodafone. The customers might not have to return their smartphones back to Vodafone and we are 124

January 2022

happy since we retained a customer and avoided process costs. If a customer does wish to return a smartphone, we no longer print return labels anymore, instead they can use their smartphones at a local DHL store, show the QR code and return the product, making it a fully digital process.

Another step for us was to implement “Click & Collect”, allowing customers to choose a product online, and offer the customer a Vodafone Shop to collect their product immediately from. This way we avoid sending the product with a carrier from our central warehouse to the desired address of the customer, which is beneficial for the environment as well as the customer who is able to pick up the product immediately.

VODAFONE

“We have also implemented in-store repair capabilities. Customers can walk into certain Vodafone stores with, for example, a broken screen and we will repair it within two hours. The customer experience is great, and customers love this service. This again furthers our circular economy vision and is part of our planet purpose not to do any business on the cost to our environment.

“In my opinion simplification is a key enabler for digitisation. During the last years, Vodafone Germany acquired various fixedline providers like Unitymedia and Kabel Deutschland. Both companies had their own supply chain processes and systems in place.

Therefore, we decided to harmonise our supply chain processes for our fixed-line and mobile business. This project is ongoing and beyond what we have done so far in Supply supplychaindigital.com

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VODAFONE

THE PURPOSE OF VODAFONE Vodafone has three core purposes for its operations: • Enabling a digital society – Connecting people, places and things through fixed and mobile networks • Planet – Ensuring commercial success does not come at a cost to the environment • Inclusion for all – Enabling the digital society to be accessible to all “I always say, ‘we are the digital backbone of our society’. During this pandemic period we became aware of the required infrastructure for working and learning from home. We provide the mobile network, but also the fixed-line network to our society. I believe that Vodafone delivered a great service by enabling everyone to work and learn from home,” says Ipiv.

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“When it comes to the planet, we do not want to do business that is detrimental to our environment. We believe that digitalisation can help businesses to become more efficient in using resources. From a supply chain perspective, we believe in a circular economy.

Take for example a smartphone. We bring the products to market, collect them back, repair them, refurbish them and then reuse them again. In the fixed-line area, we refurbish and reuse up to 80% of our products, which we are very proud of.

“Inclusion for all focuses on access to connectivity, digital skills, and creating relevant products and services such as access to education, health care or financial services.

Many people around the world do not have access to banking facilities. Vodafone Group developed the first mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa. This provides financial services to millions of people who have a mobile phone but limited access to a bank account.”

For example in Africa, 40 million people can transfer money using our M-PESA platform.

“In my opinion simplification is a key enabler for digitisation” HÜSEYIN IPIV

HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, VODAFONE

Chain at Vodafone Germany. It will help us to reach the next level on our transformation roadmap delivering business growth by focusing on customer experience.”

Why the people of Vodafone chose to put customers at the centre of its transformation “People often refer to companies as human beings,” says Ipiv. “It’s not Vodafone who does something, there is no ‘Mr or Mrs Vodafone’ it is the human beings working at that company, and usually it needs one or two people to make a change in the company. If you believe improving customer experience is the right strategy, then you should drive for it.

“Two and a half years ago, we said: ‘we need to change’. Digitalisation is all around now is the right time. We developed a cross-functional team from digital, retail, IT and supply chain. We sat down and assessed how traditional supply chain organisations are functioning. They are mainly looking at costs and processes to add value to the company, but we said that one element is missing, and that is the customer.

“This cross-functional team worked together four days a week for three months and defined a customer journey along the supply chain by asking: how should a customer perceive and feel the supply chain when purchasing a product from Vodafone? We used various creativity techniques, developed personas, analysed data, talked to customers, invited our partners to give us feedback on our ideas or talked to various experts to challenge our views. We had a clear focus on improving the customer experience and digitisation was the enabler. This is how we developed our supply supplychaindigital.com

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chain strategy and transformation roadmap thinking from the customer perspective first.

“After 2.5 years, we can say that this was absolutely the right approach. The supply chain team is delivering significantly more value to our customers and to Vodafone compared to the ”traditional” supply chain approach focusing on cost and process optimisation only.”

Vodafone and its partners Along the way, Vodafone’s partners have been fundamental in its supply chain transformation.

“We have a few key partners,” says Ipiv, including Arvato, Loxxess, CTDI, COMSPOT, UPS, GLS, and DHL. “These are the biggest partners that we have at Vodafone. In our supply chain functions, we decided to be as lean and as simple as possible, which requires dependence on your partners. You need to trust them and, at Vodafone we do!

“I always say that I want our partners to make Vodafone a better company. They should share the same values and support us in becoming better when it comes to customer experience, reducing costs, increasing efficiencies, and optimising processes. At Vodafone, we want to become better every day, and our partners should support us in that. Our partners should not be silent if they recognise that our processes are not good. This is what I expect from our partners to drive us to become a better company.

“A good example is our very close relationship with Arvato and their continuous support improving the customer experience. Arvato is analyzing our operational performance and providing insights on how to improve especially in the return and after-sales space, which is usually a very critical area of customer experience,” concluded Ipiv.

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MISSION ONPROCESS: POWERING THE WORLD’S CIRCULAR SERVICE-SUPPLY CHAIN WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

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PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

ONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

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OnProcess Technology is on a mission to digitise the after-sales supply chain, to help businesses save time and money, and reach net zero into the bargain

W

e live in crazy times, in which volatility and uncertainty seem to be the new normal for businesses. Pandemicfueled demand has outstripped supply to such an extent that supply chains now seem inflexible and unresponsive. Then there’s labour shortages and soaring inflation, and of course all of this is taking place against the backdrop of net zero - as countries push to be carbon neutral by 2050.

From this maelstrom two business buzzwords have emerged: transparency and agility. These are the qualities needed if companies are to first survive the chaos, then go on to thrive. One thing is for certain: transparency and agility are not to be found in spreadsheets nor filing cabinets. The future of trade is smart digital technologies.

Enter OnProcess Technology, a company that helps its customers simplify complexity and harvest meaning from vast fields of data, with a view to finding ways of doing business better.

More specifically, OnProcess helps its customers optimize their after-sales service supply chains. This is the part of the supply chain that provides services around a product once sold, such as parts and materials, repair and maintenance.

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OnProcess Technology

OnProcess Agora, which automate processes on “ONPROCESS IS is an integrated stack the fly,” he says. “And IN A REMARKABLE of tools that offers this is the secret to insight and untangles POSITION. WE HAVE dramatically reducing problems. “Agora costs, transforming the A PHENOMENAL provides full control customer experience and and visibility across the helping our clients hit their LIST OF MARQUEE service supply chain,” sustainability targets.”

CUSTOMERS, AND explains Oliver Lemanski, Lemanski says many A GREAT TEAM” CEO of OnProcess. “It service supply chains allows our people to lack agility because automate processes and businesses have been OLIVER LEMANSKI CEO, dramatically improve slow to join the digitalONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY efficiencies across the transformation party. service supply chain.”

His view is borne out A typical service supply chain is a web of by a recent McKinsey study, which reveals disconnected, manual processes managed the average supply chain is just 43 per cent by siloed departments, says Lemanski. digitised. The same McKinsey research “It’s in desperate need of digitisation and suggests that if firms are going to digitise automation,” he adds. This is why OnProcess only one part of the supply chain then it built Agora: it unites the requisite tools for should be the post-sale service portion control and visibility across the service supply because doing so can deliver an uptick in chain. “It gives us the ability to reimagine and efficiency of around 65-70 per cent.

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ONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

OLIVER LEMANSKI TITLE: CEO INDUSTRY: SUPPLY CHAIN LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Oliver Lemanski is CEO of OnProcess where he is leading the company into its “Digital” chapter, providing technology solutions that drive the world’s circular service supply chain.

Prior to this, Oliver was Managing Director EMEA for five years at OnProcess, successfully driving year-on-year growth in the region while establishing strategic relationships with Elekta, HPE, Cisco, Varian, SAP Ariba and others.

Before OnProcess, Oliver held senior management positions at TNT Express where he led its Global Service Logistics business, and at MGH Consulting and Accenture Services where he worked with leading brands to define and execute their Aftermarket strategies.

EXECUTIVE BIO

This is because in many non- or partlydigitised service supply chains there’s a lack of internal coordination and cooperation, Lemanski explains. “This leads to a silo mentality, where decisions are made in isolation. Plus cost savings are also hard to achieve where there’s no clear central purchasing strategy.”

OnProcess addresses such problems by leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies, such as internet-of-things (IoT), robotics, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and big data.

Through Agora, it combines synchtech to automate and augment post-sales service operations. “We also gain insight into new ways of working that can benefit the customer,” Lemanski says.

This ability to deliver significant gains through digital transformation feeds the company’s evangelical zeal on digitisation, which is summed up by its ‘Go Digital’ vision.

“Our aim is to energise employees, delight customers, to innovate, while consistently deliver solid financial returns both for our customers and ourselves,” Lemanski says. The company also has a loftier mission: to power the world's circular service supply chains.

Since the beginning of time, supply chains have been linear - ‘take, make, use and throw away’. This might have kept the wheels of industry and commerce turning for millennia, but it has also ended up poisoning our planet. “When I started in this industry 20 years ago bits of kit were manufactured in factories, went through a forward supply chain, were sold through some sort of retail network, then ended up in the bin or landfill after they had been used,” says Lemanski.

The circular supply chain is an antidote to this because manufacturers and distributors recover products and parts from the field when no-longer needed and re-purpose them back into the value chain either as raw

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ONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

“ WE USE A COMBINATION OF TECH AND VERY CLEVER ANALYTICS TO HELP CUSTOMERS PLAN AND DELIVER INVENTORY, AND THEN TO GET IT BACK” OLIVER LEMANSKI

CEO, ONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

materials for new products or as refurbished or remade new products. And because the service portion of supply is the point at which products and parts are identified as no longer needed, companies such as OnProcess are vital if the circular supply model is to gain traction sooner, rather than later.

With the 2050 net-zero target looming large in the rear-view mirror, the clock is ticking on sustainability. Lemanski says: “Sustainability is in our mission. On one front, of course, we have a personal responsibility as employees to do all we can to help OnProcess be net zero. But on a much wider front, we operate a global network of supply chain activities for our customers. We’ve thought very carefully about the tools we’ve built into our platform, and how they can empower our customers - and also their end users - to achieve more sustainable outcomes.”

“We can help companies reduce carbon emissions by facilitating the use of local tracking, recycling or disposal offerings.

And we can help reduce the use of earth’s resources by improving product and part returns and driving greater circularity into their service supply chains.”

Often, waste can run into tens of millions of pounds, dollars or euros.

One example of this is an OnProcess customer who is a leading provider of TV entertainment services, through set-top boxes. With subscribers to such services often moving to another provider, or deciding they can no longer afford the fees, many boxes become obsolete, which was the case with this company. But because its focus was on helping its customers use the boxes, rather than on returning them, its box-retrieval record was patchy. For voluntary disconnects its retrieval rate was 81 per cent, but for non-pay disconnects it was a paltry 37 percent. That’s a lot of waste - both in terms of money and carbon. The provider realized that they needed to outsource asset recovery, and that’s when they sought out OnProcess.

Today, the company’s returns process is much simpler for consumers, who no longer have to find a shipping container, package up their set-top boxes and take them to the provider’s store or UPS facility.

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HELPING OUR CUSTOMERS WORK TOWARDS THEIR NET ZERO TARGETS Sustainability is now a musthave rather than a nice-to-have, and OnProcess is helping its customers work towards their net zero targets.

It does this by helping businesses move away from linear supply chains and adopt circular ones instead. This model of supply chain helps by: • Cutting waste and pollution out of processes • Keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible.

• Regenerating natural systems.

DID YOU KNOW...

Asset and parts recovery is a crucial part of the process. By introducing post-sales service supply chain management, OnProcess helps customers become part of the solution.

A recent project for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) illustrates this nicely.

Working with OnProcess, HPE was able to help its customers recover and refurbish IT assets across the globe. In doing so, HPE saved:

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• 5,547 metric tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent of the CO2 emissions from 1,206 cars).

• 19,815 MWh energy (the average energy consumption of 14,007 households).

• 577 metric tonnes of waste from being dumped in landfills (roughly the same as 19,583 moving boxes full of waste.

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Instead, every disconnecting customer is sent a recovery kit that includes a fitted shipping box and prepaid UPS label. Now, its recovery for voluntary disconnects is 95 per cent and 55 per cent for non-voluntary.

“Not only did we help deliver $60 million in cost savings but the company is also delivering a good returns experience for its customers,” says Lemanski.

“VISIBILITY OF THE SERVICE SUPPLY CHAIN IS VITAL BECAUSE THIS IS THE PART OF SUPPLY THAT INVOLVES CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE AN ONGOING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BUSINESS” OLIVER LEMANSKI

CEO, ONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

So this is what agility and transparency in the service supply chain looks like on the ground, and at the heart of this case study is data. Or more specifically, data that offers a big-picture view of processes and issues, rather than a fragmented view - like jumbled pieces of a jigsaw - that’s all too common in businesses that have not embraced digital transformation.

“Many service supply chain functions work in data silos, '' says Lemanski of such companies. “Applications don’t talk to one another, data is not properly shared, and cross-functional visibility is poor. The result is that when a crisis hits – such as the Suez being blocked for more than two weeks – then this lack of visibility does not allow companies to re-adjust processes and mitigate risk.”

Lemanski continues: “Our approach is to build a standardized data-layer that pulls together all these silos of data. It cleans it, supplychaindigital.com

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“One reason OnProcess is so good at helping our customers on their digital journeys is because we’ve been on that same journey ourselves” OLIVER LEMANSKI

CEO, ONPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

then structures it around the customer and the post-sales experience they should have.”

By joining these siloes together in a circular fashion, OnProcess gives customers full visibility of recovered assets. This can bring endless benefits, in terms of time-, money- and carbon-savings.

“Visibility helps cut purchasing levels, and can also give a company before-it-happens visibility of soon-to-fail parts, allowing it to be more proactive when it comes to dispatching spares, '' Lemanski explains. “And that’s just two examples among many.”

This aspect of OnProcess’s work bolstering customer satisfaction - is a crucial part of what it offers clients, because the service supply chain has a huge say in whether customers remain with a company, or leave.

According to research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, as few as 15 per cent of a business’s most loyal customers can account for up to 70 per cent of its total sales. One reason OnProcess is adept at helping its customers take the digital plunge is because it has been on the same journey itself. Years ago, before digitisation, Lemanski admits the company had itself “disappeared into our silos.”

“As a business process outsourcing company, we had got into a bit of a rut, so

we looked at our mission and strategy, and decided the key for us had to be how we could go digital, and also how fast.

“We realised we needed to drive a completely new culture, and that our culture needed to be about collaboration - not only among ourselves, but also with our customers. And the thing about collaboration is that it's inclusive, and it welcomes diversity.

You innovate together, and you think about what you can achieve together.”

But with OnProcess, ‘collaboration’ was never going to be the final word, however important. “Ultimately, it all comes down to data,” says Lemanski “There’s data from our customers’ systems, from their end customers and their supply vendors, and from the machines themselves, through the Internet of Things.”

He adds: “Everyone is giving off data the whole time, and this creates opportunity.

Technology vendors like us are able to provide solutions that can help businesses understand what their ecosystem looks like in its entirety.”

Which takes us back to visibility. Only with visibility can a company make sound decisions, and it is this that builds resilience in times of difficulty.

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Partners in

Passenger Safety

WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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Natalia Pickett, Head of Procurement, KeolisAmey Docklands, sheds light on the vital role procurement plays in more than 117 million annual rail passenger journeys

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117 million Passengers use the DLR each year

ondon’s Docklands Light Railway, known as the DLR in local shorthand, is the UK’s busiest light railway network and one of the vital transport arteries for business and leisure in the sprawling British capital. It is operated by French transport specialist Keolis and British infrastructure engineering firm Amey, under the joint venture KeolisAmey Docklands.

The service is responsible for the comfort and safety of more than 117 million passengers each year, giving the transport network an enormous impact on the economy, and the day-to-day lives of Londoners and tourists alike. Cutting through the city’s financial hub in Canary Wharf, the line also feeds into convention centres and cultural hotspots, as well as residential areas and retail destinations.

Though the pandemic has significantly reduced the number of passengers over the past 18 months, it is a responsibility that Natalia Pickett, Head of Procurement at KeolisAmey Docklands, takes incredibly seriously.

“Safety is a word I say a million times a day, because whichever solutions we implement, services we buy or technology we deploy, the safety of our passengers, staff and transport crew is the most important factor –always,” she says.

Pickett’s procurement division is responsible for sourcing and implementing everything from vital services and back office supplies, to spare parts for maintaining rolling stock.

When someone once asked Pickett’s husband what his wife does for a living, he joked that she is a “professional shopper, at an industrial supplychaindigital.com

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Title of the video

“ Safety is a word I say a million times a day, because whichever solutions we implement, services we buy or technology we deploy, the safety of our passengers, staff and transport crew is the most important factor” NATALIA PICKETT

HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, KEOLISAMEY DOCKLANDS

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scale”. To some extent, she says this is true: “If you imagine your thought process at the DIY shop when you’re redecorating the bathroom, there are parallels to the considerations in my professional life: whether the product is good quality, safe, value for money. But there is much more to it than that."

Pickett describes herself as part matchmaker, part problem solver –the key to both being partnerships. “Those are really the core of my work, and I’m pleased to say that the team and I are very good at it. Procurement is not only about saving money. That is fundamentally not true; savings will be the natural outcome of procurement processes,” she says.

“Partnership is another of those words I repeat a lot, because it is very important to me. With my suppliers, we must learn from one another, bounce ideas between one another and grow together; it is almost love,” she jokes. “We need to reach the stage of the relationship where we can talk

KEOLISAMEY DOCKLANDS

NATALIA PICKETT TITLE: HEAD OF PROCUREMENT LOCATION: LONDON DOCKLANDS, UK

EXECUTIVE BIO

about the good things, the bad things –it doesn’t matter to me. As long as we’re talking then we can find a solution, which is what procurement is really all about.”

Pickett and her team operate in a unique procurement environment. Unlike malleable sectors such as IT, procurement in the rail and wider transport industry runs at a more cautious, measured pace. Safety concerns mean Pickett is unable to “simply change a nut here and a bolt there because it is cheaper”, but these stringent regulations do crystallise a fundamental level of quality adherence not often present in more agile sectors.

Pickett says, “One of the key reasons for the success of Keolis in achieving operational excellence has been its choice of its technology partners.

Amongst those suppliers GOAL SYSTEMS stands out through its provision of the latest technology for the optimisation of the planning of material, technical and human resources .The partnership has grown steadily over the

Natalia Pickett is an experienced procurement and sourcing professional with more than 25 years’ experience. In her current role she is responsible for developing and implementing commercial strategy and contracting models to support a variety of rail network contracts, including DLR, Wales and Borders Rail, and Metrolink. Pickett has worked in senior procurement roles at Network Rail, Regus and Shell, and earned a masters in Math, Physics and Computer Science from Moscow Railway University, and latterly an MBA in management from the Open University.

KEOLISAMEY DOCKLANDS

“ With my suppliers, we must learn from one another, bounce ideas between one another and grow together; it is almost love” NATALIA PICKETT

HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, KEOLISAMEY DOCKLANDS

Goal Systems Improving the Productivity of your Business!

Goal Systems provides the software to maximise the efficiency of timetabling, scheduling and rostering for employee and vehicles for transport operators.

LEARN MORE

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last few years as Keolis have entrusted transformation. “I don’t like to use lots more key operations and tasks to of different computer systems and GOAL SYSTEMS. pieces of software,” she says. “I find that The DLR Goal have adapted their approach the more systems you use, the more has a to suit the UK market and introduced noise you have to deal with. But we robust, standardised and automated do use Microsoft Dynamics and IBM departures solutions which are driving a more Maximo, which is a very robust asset record efficient and more profitable operation management ERP system and very with high levels of internal and external important to our procurement analysis. customer satisfaction.”

Using this system I can instantly know what All suppliers in the rail industry can be found a good is, how we bought it, what we spent on the Rail Industry Supply Qualification and use the information to review our System, a sector-specific database which categories. From a digital perspective, they holds all their insurances, certifications, are enough for us.” licenses and financial information. “It makes Not all Pickett’s procurement efforts are my job quicker,” Pickett says. “And it also dedicated to steel, tracks and carriages. makes suppliers’ lives easier because they Services play an equally important role don't need to answer all those same questions in keeping passengers and staff safe and again for me.” comfortable. That comes with its own set Pickett’s teams also leverage a suite of challenges, particularly as the size of of other digital procurement tools, though KeolisAmey Docklands belies its impact. she admits she may be considered “a little “We operate a large service, but our actual old fashioned” in her approach to digital company is only around 860 employees,

99%

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GOAL SYSTEMS One of the key reasons for the success of KeolisAmey Docklands in achieving operational excellence has been its choice of its technology partners!

Among those suppliers, Goal Systems stands out by providing the latest technology for optimising the planning of material, technical and human resources. The partnership has grown steadily over the last few years as KeolisAmey Docklands have entrusted more key operations and tasks to Goal Systems.

Goal has adapted their approach to suit the UK market and introduced robust, standardised and automated solutions which are driving a more efficient and more profitable operation with high levels of internal and external customer satisfaction.

“ I think in 2022, we will be back to business as usual. […] It will be a time to achieve efficiencies” NATALIA PICKETT

HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, KEOLISAMEY DOCKLANDS

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which is nothing compared to the biggest networks. We can be limited in finding suppliers that want to work at that scale,” she says.

After around a year of negotiations to secure a quality occupational health provider, Pickett encountered Medigold Health. “They were different. They were keen to work with us, but beyond the usual services, it was apparent that they care about our staff as much as we do. They offered insight into how to reduce blood pressure, how best to approach dietary requirements. When we inevitably have staff off sick, they help us bring people back to work as swiftly as possible, because while we are paying them on leave, we need to cover

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their job, meaning we are paying twice. But this is not about simply pushing people back to the track, it’s about caring for our staff while minimising spend, and Medigold are a great partner for that.”

Another example of this close collaboration is Xrail, a rail services supplier which provides trackside cabling to KeolisAmey Docklands.

Xrail was discovered through the Rail Industry Supply Qualification System, though none of Pickett’s team had heard of their work previously.

“But we followed procedure –as is our mantra –and invited them for a presentation,” she says. “And then the magic happened.

This sounds like such a matter of fact, one-

dimensional job on the surface but they are so passionate, so innovative, and we all thought: ‘wow’. We awarded them the contract, and they have been fantastic.”

Pickett’s decision to offer Xrail the contract was further vindicated some months later.

While sleeping rough at an organised event to raise money for The Railway Children Charity, she encountered Monica Barbosa, Xrail Group’s Director of Business Development and Communications. “It was an accidental meeting, but we got to talking and realised we are cut from the same cloth,” Pickett says. “It was an interesting experience and great to know we’re passionate about the same values. This is what I mean when I talk supplychaindigital.com

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“ When the new franchise started on 1 April this year, nobody noticed.

The suppliers delivered on time, the network didn’t stop, and that was our real achievement” NATALIA PICKETT

HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, KEOLISAMEY DOCKLANDS

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2014

Year Founded

Transport Industry

about the importance of partnerships that go beyond saving money.”

Pickett’s partnerships extend beyond London. The joint venture between Keolis and Amey expanded in 2017, landing the contract for the Manchester Metrolink, a light rail network that is the largest of its kind in the UK. Procurement played a central role in the project, but it was largely invisible –and that was by design.

“We began by providing numbers and what we can achieve with suppliers, but procurement’s real role in the launch of this service was in the realisation. Our job was to ensure that day one looked no different to the previous day. So when the new franchise started on 1 April this year, nobody noticed.

The suppliers delivered on time, the network didn’t stop, and that was our real achievement.

The purpose of my role is to make sure that everything works and I’m not noticeable.

It’s similar to HR: why should anyone notice if everything runs nice and smooth? So well done to us.”

When KeolisAmey Docklands was awarded the ISO 55001 asset management certificate, “we were very proud of it”, Pickett says.

“And I'm particularly proud of the fact that to get this certificate, we as a procurement function didn't need to do anything extra.”

Pickett hopes to remain quietly exceeding expectations and out of the limelight in the coming year, when commuters begin returning to work and cities reopen to tourists. “I think in 2022, we will be back to business as usual. And I will do all my standard efficiencies projects, and we have taken over maintenance of the Lewisham extension – seven stations in south London. It will be a time to achieve efficiencies.

Nothing is certain, but this is the plan.”

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Number of Employees supplychaindigital.com

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