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. The important question is: is your Supply Chain ready and set not only to perform the right service today, but also for the next developments that might happen tomorrow? What should you do or not do? What are the challenges and opportunities? Based on what do you make your decisions? Which value could a COE (Center of Excellence) add in this constantly changing environment?
There are a lot of discussions about COE and adding value in the Supply Chain, but what does it actually mean? Typically a COE is about bringing together knowledge, expertise and resources within a certain field. The goal is to achieve and sustain the best-in-class performance and value to the customer. When you think about building this it involves an organization, processes, people and analytical tools. However, when we put this in the Supply Chain environment it involves a lot more than this.
The power of your organization and a COE is not only determined by how well organized you are, your processes and analytical tools, but more-and-more also based on your ecosystem. Are you able to retrieve information with the right level of detail and quality in a simple and repetitive way? When we ask this question before we a do a tender or Network Study the answer is most of the times “yes”. When we execute the reality is in most cases rather different.
A key cornerstone within a COE is the use of Advanced Analytics. These advanced analytical capabilities need to support scenario planning and what-ifs fairly quickly. A new trend is to use Supply Chain Network Design capabilities for Sales & Operations planning, supporting a true Integrated Business Plan. The “digital twin” is a phenomenon that is gaining traction these days.
When you think about these developments the obvious question is: what value does a COE or certain technology add to my customer? To find out more file your download request below for COE presentation.
Read a case study on Supply Chain Center of Excellence.
Explore more about Supply Chain Analytics.
