1. Background
SUKA is a digital platform solution that could be customised to fit with any supply chain. The case study context presented here, is however of a construction material supply chain. The objective was to connect and align the customer with the internal value chains of a vertically integrated organisation.
The organisational value chain or simply “value chain” refers to a set of activities or steps a business in any particular industry, performs to deliver a product or service of value to its customers. It reinforces the strategic importance of each of the contributing steps as a potential creator or destroyer of value. The objective being to align these with the critical success factors of the business to create value for customers and thereby drive competitive advantage and improve margin for the business.
The value chain is usually part of something more extensive, beyond the boundaries of any one particular business and then we simply refer to it as part of the supply chain, or if viewed in totality, the end-to-end supply chain.
2. Challenge
Most businesses and their respective value chains involve multiple stakeholders, e.g., distinct teams and different business departments, within a business unit, each with different priorities, performance targets, and success criteria.
Operational silos are created when data is not shared between these groups, or there is no underlying digital visibility of activities.
Operational silos reduce collective intelligence and value-creating capabilities that remove competitive advantage and ultimately reduce margins and overall profitability.
3. Consequences
1) Bulky, slow and wasteful activity that focusses on internal processes and not on critical success criteria or delivery of customer value.
2) Late or incorrect deliveries and product returns
3) Shrinking margins
4) Loss of customers and revenue.
4. Scope
Create a digital platform solution to accommodate all of the participating stakeholders and enhance overall operational visibility, customised to each of the contributing teams and associated steps.
5. Solution
Data ingestion is automated from all activities and teams and aggregated into a cloud platform.
The unified data is curated for each of the underlying teams and associated activities and aligned towards customer order fulfilment.
Customer order fulfilment is optimised via a recommender system that incorporates customer demand, selection criteria and multiple supply chain variables.
The customer can track and receive updates on their delivery.
Incorporates a slick and easy payment step and auto generated invoicing to the customer’s inbox.
6. Benefits
1) A user interface that alerts and recommend required action (aligned with critical success factors).
2) There is full operational visibility of product demand, inventory, before and after orders, capacity utilisation and availability for each facility and supply location and the resources necessary and shared internally, to meet critical success factor activities.
3) Streamlined process and improved operating margins.