Profile
For an instantly recognisable toy company, deterioration of service to leading UK retailers brought into question the sustainability of the UK/Ireland business unit as an operating unit. Rated as the worst major supplier in an industry survey, operational performance was undermining turnaround.
Goal
Transform the performance of the supply chain in a re-vamped organisational structure. A phased development programme was required to:
- Stabilise the business and deliver basic service expectations.
- Build integrated ways of working to enhance internal capability and competence in supply chain management.
- Launch category leading innovations in supply chain collaboration.
Approach
Our transformation programme progressively moved the business from underperforming in the market to category leadership. Critical elements that form part of our diagnostic methodology included:
- Process – gauging the coherence of core processes and the value added, set the benchmark for re-design. By precisely assessing inputs to decision making in demand and supply planning processes, activities were streamlined to improve both accuracy and efficiency.
- Organisation - evaluating the organisational design and the behaviours it drove in the business - along with the capabilities of individuals and teams - indicated the changes and developments required.
- Logistics Management– current operations were reviewed to determine service and cost performance. Re-structuring of the distribution network from 5 regional warehouses to one central fulfilment centre, coupled with updates to carrier agreements, step-changed results.
With a sound operating platform in place, the game-changing opportunity of improved supply chain collaboration could be realised. With a specific approach to each major customer, operating processes new to the market sector were built to leverage greater transparency and advanced analytical insights.
Result
Embedding supply chain management best practice drove:
- Five-fold sales growth.
- Average retail stock availability improvement of 12%.
- Operating profit improvement > 25%.
Takeaways
Supply chain excellence supported market share gains to the No.1 UK Toy Supplier.
