Expertise & Clear Advice

Finding the optimal location for new Support & Services Centers has always been talent driven. But now technical skills are becoming decisive and this has a profound impact on location decision processes.

For many companies transportation of goods is the highest operational supply chain expense. It is not uncommon that transportation costs represent 50% or more of the supply chain spend. Despite transportation rates being volatile, the all-time low prices over the last years will not be the standard for the future.

Technologies as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) are on the rise, fueled with an increasingly complex business environment (e.g. Brexit, the Amazon effect, US-China trade war). This forces companies to rethink their Supply Chain towards a more repetitive and proactive attitude.

Many Life Sciences companies are not benefiting from innovative supply chains and technologies. Managing and rationalizing the supply chain from a cost and quality perspective is not a key priority for business executives. For high margin products the focus is often on de-risking the supply chain. 

Nijmegen, the Netherlands headquartered consulting firm BCI Global has made it to Forbes’ 2019 list of America’s Best Management Consulting Firms. Yesterday, the prestigious business magazine Forbes released its annual listing of best management consulting firms. The economic, location and supply chain consulting firm BCI Global (Buck Consultants International) is one of the selected firms.

Buck Consultants International (BCI) has hosted a number of interactive sessions on Control Towers (CTs), enabling over 100 Control Tower using participants debated the trends and developments. The most important conclusion has been that although Control Towers have been widely adopted, the step toward an End-to-End Supply Chain scope and the convergence of the physical and digital world (digitalized Supply Chain) still needs to be made by most companies.