Tag: IT|software|supply chain

Leading British retailer Asda will leverage world-class Blue Yonder capabilities to optimise its end-to-end operations and deliver ambitious business transformation.

The UK retail market is one of the most dynamic markets in the world, where consumers demand great products and an excellent customer experience, through any channel at any time. That is why Asda, one of Britain’s leading retailers with a unique position in the market, has selected to digitally transform its end-to-end supply chain and retail operations with Blue Yonder.

Asda will implement several SaaS-based capabilities within Blue Yonder’s Luminate Planning, Luminate Commerce and Luminate Logistics, as well as Luminate Control Tower, all running on the Luminate Platform.

Asda consists of supercentres, superstores, and smaller supermarkets. The retailer also runs petrol filling stations and Asda Living stores, which offer its popular George clothing and home merchandise lines. The company employs more than 140,000 colleagues serving more than 18 million customers who shop in its stores and online weekly.

With the company needing to transition from its legacy solutions as a result of moving to a UK-based ownership, Asda was looking for end-to-end retail solutions that would cover commercial, supply chain, logistics, and retail operations. This includes artificial intelligence- (AI) powered forecasting, end-to-end supply chain visibility, omni-channel fulfilment, and workforce management capabilities.

With Blue Yonder, Asda will be able to:

• Use machine learning (ML) at scale to provide a demand projection with calculated business impact and risk that enables better inventory management, waste reduction and an improved understanding of demand drivers and customer behaviours.
• Leverage ML to optimise pricing strategies reducing excess stock and avoiding waste.
• Deliver efficiency and value across the entire omni-channel retail business with a connected platform.
• Horizon scan thanks to visibility into forecasting, fulfilment and transportation, leveraging Blue Yonder’s automation while keeping a high level of control.
• Gain inbound visibility for both domestic and import orders ensuring products are available to meet consumer demand at the right place, at the right time.
• Provide Asda colleagues in stores and in distribution centres with a robust workforce management capability.

“We are embarking on a large-scale, exciting business transformation project to build our Future, in which we want to work with the very best retail technology providers in the market with proven experience and world-class capabilities,” said Carl Dawson, chief information officer, Asda. “We are looking forward to implementing this project with our strategic partner Blue Yonder, as we continue to build a fast, effective and agile business.”

“We are looking forward to supporting Asda with our innovative capabilities and experience,” said Johan Reventberg, president, EMEA, Blue Yonder. “We have built a strong relationship with Asda over the years, and we have consistently demonstrated how our advanced capabilities can help them fulfil their potential and drive value, early and often. Not only are our solutions a fit for Asda’s long-term goals, so is our culture and our values. We are honoured to embark on this exciting journey with Asda and look forward to bringing value to both Asda, their partners and their customers.”

 

The new Supply Chain Act will take effect in Germany in 2023. The textile discounter KiK, already concerned with ensuring that suppliers comply with labour and environmental standards, took steps several years ago, which now puts it ahead in preparing for the new law. In 2015, the company said goodbye to Excel lists and e-mails in order to manage its supply chain with the CSR module of Setlog‘s OSCA software. So the most important homework for 2023 has been tackled.

11th June, 2021 will go down in German economic history books. On that day, the German government passed the Supply Chain Act after lengthy discussions. The goal is to ensure that environmental and human rights standards, especially in developing countries, are met and that millions of families have a better standard of work and life. The new regulations will initially apply to companies with more than 3,000 employees from 2023, and to companies with more than 1,000 employees from 2024.

What looks like a long lead time at first glance will seem to happen quickly – especially for companies that have not yet dealt with the issue. Anyone who manages a company that employs fewer than 1,000 people cannot easily cross the topic off the agenda. Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) experts are preaching at the top of their voices that even mid-sized companies that supply large corporations should be concerned with the new supply chain law.

“Corporations will secure in new contracts that not only large, but all suppliers comply with the legal CSR regulations and that their supply chains are transparent,” emphasises Ralf Duester, co-founder of the software provider Setlog. The Bochum-based company has numerous customers – from medium-sized companies to corporate groups – who have been managing the issue of CSR with suppliers, purchasing agencies, auditing institutes and other supply chain partners via the Setlog software OSCA for years, thus bringing transparency to the supply chain.

KiK meets high standards

One of the long-time OSCA users is KiK Textilien und Non-Food GmbH in Boenen. Germany’s largest textile discounter has 70% textiles in its assortment. The rest are non-food items such as toys, accessories, gifts and stationery. The target group of the company, which is active throughout Europe, primarily includes families with children, young mothers and people on a budget who want to dress fashionably. Like most suppliers in this industry, KiK – the acronym stands for “Kunde ist König” (customer is king) – has almost all of its items produced by suppliers in Asia. The majority of the goods come from China and Bangladesh, the rest mainly from Pakistan, India and Turkey.

Anyone who works with KiK must meet high standards. Lower prices than the competition and good delivery reliability are not the only reasons for the company to relist a supplier. “Anyone who wants to cooperate with us is not only checked at the beginning, but has to undergo regular audits,” emphasises Ansgar Lohmann, who heads the CSR department at KiK.

The audit is extensive. Ten sub-areas along the core labour standards of the International Labor Organization ILO are audited in a matrix developed by the company. The auditors commissioned by KiK primarily examine working hours, minimum wages, social benefits and environmental protection requirements on site. However, they also check whether fire extinguishers, fire doors and smoke detectors are in place and look at the statics of the building.

The inspectors, who are liable to KiK for their findings, also keep an eye on official approvals such as fire protection, environmental or business licenses. The following applies to all suppliers: Those who show no willingness to develop further are not even listed. KiK carries out a total of 800 audits per year in its supplier pool.

Ansgar Lohmann’s 13-member team makes this effort because binding compliance with environmental and social standards has long been important to the company. In industry initiatives, for example, KiK also promotes company accident insurance in Bangladesh, building safety, fire protection and compliance with human rights.

Audit management made easy

Managing 800 audits is a challenge. KiK realised years ago that a flood of e-mails and Excel spreadsheets are unsuitable for managing such a Herculean task and bringing transparency to the supply chain. In 2014, the company decided to look for software support. “It was important for us to have a holistic approach with factory checks in an automated system that delivers data in real time,” Lohmann reports.

After analysing various providers, KiK chose OSCA, the software from Setlog. Back in 2013, the SCM expert integrated the Vendor & Compliance Management tool VCM, now known by the abbreviation CSR, into the cloud-based SCM software. The solution can be used as a stand-alone or in combination with OSCA’s SCM module. It covers the entire supplier relationship from onboarding through quality management, audits including rework, document management, reporting and ratings.

“We were convinced not only by the good price-performance ratio, but also by the fact that the software is compatible with other systems and is so easy to understand that even less experienced suppliers can use it,” explains Lohmann.

After the decision was made, everything happened quickly. In May 2015, the discounter gave the green light for the IT project. Less than three months later, it went live with OSCA. Then the company integrated the purchasing agencies, the testing institutes, and the training and qualification partners. Just one year later, all suppliers had been trained. Since then, all players have been communicating in real time via the software. E-mails and Excel lists have been history for the CSR department ever since.

Predefined pattern

The daily routine follows a predefined pattern: If an audit is to be carried out, the CSR team commissions an auditing institute via OSCA, which confirms the agreed date and the order. The audit report, including photo documentation, is uploaded to OSCA. The audit criteria are weighted differently to produce an overall score. If improvements are necessary, they are discussed with the responsible persons on site.

Deficiencies must be rectified within a specified period. An early warning system displays all audits on a dashboard of the CSR team and automatically informs employees about the progress of rectifications according to a traffic light system.

Whenever a KiK employee wants to find out about a supplier, all they have to do is press a button to see how good the factory is. Other analyses can also be visualised on the dashboard – such as the performance of all procurement agencies or the CSR performance of an entire procurement country. The monthly evaluations are not only well received by management, they also serve as a basis for strategic decisions, the company’s regular sustainability reports, and can potentially be incorporated into the risk assessment of binding due diligence requirements.

Since 2015, KiK has been working to continuously improve the area of CSR. Currently, the company is doing its utmost to integrate the so-called Tier 2 suppliers into OSCA. This involves the weaving and dyeing production stages.

But Lohmann knows that KiK alone can only do so much. For him, it would be important for the industry giants to pull together – so that standards for complaint management are introduced, for example. “Today, it is the case that some factories have 20 hotline numbers for complaints to their major customers,” Lohmann reports. KiK is therefore involved in the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles and hopes that standards will prevail.

Now that OSCA has been in use at KiK for more than six years, the flow of information has sped up considerably. “Things are up to three weeks faster today than before the software was introduced,” Lohmann sums up. Thanks to the software, resources could be used elsewhere. “But the most important thing is the time saved. If a defect has been reported in a factory, we can react immediately,” reports Lohmann.

Another advantage of OSCA is its easy connection to other systems. At KiK, the results of the audits are imported directly into the SAP system via an interface from OSCA – in which things such as a supplier evaluation is possible at the push of a button. “A buyer can, for example, call up the performance of a supplier in real time over the entire year,” explains Lohmann.

If Lohmann had to choose software now, he would choose OSCA again. “It meets our requirements,” he says. Among the five most important secrets of success in this context, he counts:

• Understandability of the software: it is easy to learn and is available in multiple languages
• Fast IT implementation: The software goes live within one quarter
• Easy IT compatibility with other systems: Interfaces can be easily set up to other IT systems
• Clear management cockpit: Users can see at a glance how a supplier is performing at the touch of a button
• Reliable audit templates: The software automatically creates resubmissions and displays a to-do list for employees

With CSR, KiK is on everyone’s lips. Politicians, journalists or members of non-governmental organisations regularly contact KiK to find out more about the topic. Competitors openly ask KiK how the company has tackled the issue. Presumably, Lohmann’s phone will ring even more often by 1st January, 2023.

Simulation modelling, the process of creating and analysing digital prototypes of existing and proposed systems to predict their performance in the real world, has become one of operational research’s most important fields. The tools that simulation modelling provides both in engineering and business disciplines can reap abundant benefits for any organisation that utilise them.

Some of these benefits include:

• Shorter design and development cycles with the ability to modify and re-test a model without the need to spend time and money building and testing multiple prototype iterations.
• A virtual platform for creating realistic test scenarios. Other types of prototypes are not always practical for testing all possible operating conditions. With simulation, there are no ‘physical limits’ to the operational scenarios that can be modelled and tested.

Simulation modelling has advantages over more traditional approaches, such as mathematical forecasting, and optimisation. These approaches are more ‘theoretical’ and often-based on mathematical assumptions and constants about how an object and/or process will behave. With simulation, you do not need to make as many assumptions – with an accurate model design and the right simulation software, you can try different scenarios and know exactly what the behaviours of objects and processes might be.

Simulation modelling software is available in many forms. Some utilise spreadsheet scripts linked with relational databases and automations, which are regarded as the simplest and most universally used general purpose simulators. Whilst others provide more explicit discrete event simulation, with process-centric elements that model the transactions and flows within systems.

Additionally, some offer agent-based simulation or systems dynamics approaches, and only one, as far as we are aware, provides its users with a ‘hybrid’ multimethod approach for creating realistic and insightful scenarios. Multimethod modelling environments which ‘package’ discrete event, agent-based and system dynamics approaches can be used to simulate systems of greater complexity and at different granularities, more simply.

AnyLogic, a simulation package, serviced by DSE Consulting in the UK and Italy, is regarded as being the first tool to introduce multimethod simulation modelling. No doubt its competitors will follow with similar approaches, but for now, AnyLogic retains the pole position in its field.

AnyLogic provides its users with various visual modelling compatibilities that are embodied in process flowcharts, state charts, action charts, and stock & flow diagrams. It also provides animation and visualisation facilities too. Such capabilities are augmented by the fact that it can draw from extensive sets of 2D and 3D graphical objects to visualise vehicles, staff, equipment, buildings, and other items and processes related to business.

Moreover, it can convert a model’s logic and metrics into interactive dashboards, capturing your key performance indicators in an and integral way with CAD layouts and GIS maps within its outputs. These graphical features have been found to be particularly useful for engaging and informing stakeholders when simulation projects they add a positive ‘feel’ to the simulations which inspire confidence in the end results.

Additionally, AnyLogic uses an extensible Java IDE that allows users to import custom 3D models, icons, drawings, and other geometric and operational data files into its modelling environment. There is also an existing set of industry-specific libraries, which act as verticals for a range of  business processes and workflows to make modelling extremely rapid.

Software today would not be attractive unless it has a cloud component. AnyLogic has a range of cloud capabilities from subscriptions to local server-based, which position it for use on a range of platforms from the desktop to fully portables phones and tablets. Its private cloud infrastructure can be integrated into company workflows so that the models it outputs can be deployed virtually, anywhere.

DSE Consulting experience healthy sales of its multimethod simulation package and have caught the industry’s eye for innovation. It was recognised by the Midland Enterprise Board in 2020, as ‘best International software reselling business in the UK,’ in its field. The award was given for its help to organisations management teams and business leaders in solving the latest data analytics problems.

In 2021 the company became a headline sponsor for The OR Society’s Simulation Workshop, an event which celebrated the latest simulation and modelling breakthroughs, internationally, across industry and academia.

 

 

 

Austrian children’s bike producer woom, based in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, has commissioned German company Setlog to set up and implement its OSCA cloud-based supply-chain-management software. The goal is to achieve secure procurement of products and managing rapidly growing procurement volume due to accelerating business growth at woom.

The abbreviation OSCA stands for Online Supply Chain Accelerator. The staff in Klosterneuburg is relying on this software to speed up procurement processes and slash procurement times. Moreover, the solution will make all of the procedures along global supply chains more transparent and efficient.

“I am convinced that OSCA will give us major support as we tackle the current challenges in the supply chain,” says Guido Dohm, Managing Director of woom. “The cloud-based technology will improve the reliability of statements about the availability of the bikes. Real-time information and more efficient communication will cut procurement times.”

“We are pleased that the young and innovative company, woom, is relying on OSCA to manage their value chain.” says Ralf Duester, Managing Director of Setlog: “The focus of the implementation will be to create transparency along the entire supply chain and accelerate processes through collaborative work on a single platform between all of the partners involved.”

Over the coming months, departments at woom will be networked with suppliers, factories, warehouses, freight forwarders, shipping lines and quality assurance personnel through the platform of its German partner. Order tracking, including document exchange, will be fully automated and paperless – container transport will be optimised. All communication will be handled directly through the dialogue function of the platform.

The woom supply-chain team in Klosterneuburg can centrally manage and control all procurement procedures – from supplier selection to price negotiations and allocation of production orders, through to production and shipping management.

“The new digital supply-chain management not only means cutting procurement times and better service quality for our customers, but it also encourages the steady integration of social standards into our operational procurement activities and will help us to be more conscientious in our use of resources,” says Dohm.

The digitalisation of supply-chain management is just one of a range of measures designed to improve reliability in procurement and raise sustainability at woom. Another measure is a gradual shift of production for the European market to Europe. Since the beginning of this year, at a factory owned by the German company Sprick Cycle GmbH located in the southern Polish town of Świebodzin, woom Original bikes – the classic woom 1 through 6 children’s bikes – have been rolling off the production line.