Integrated Supply Chain

The value chain is one of the key economic success factors for our customers. In the "old world", stable framework parameters and increasing competitive pressure meant that cost optimization, responding to increasingly individual customer expectations, and shorter delivery times were at the top of the agenda. In the "new world", e.g. as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing importance of sustainability as well as other changed framework conditions (e.g. increasing regulation, technological change, geopolitical conflicts), agility, adaptability, security of supply, sustainability and risk minimisation are increasingly coming to the fore. At the same time, companies must continue to compete globally.

Overview

The aforementioned factors lead to sensitive disruptions in global supply chains that have been well established over the years. Yesterday's rules of the game have fundamentally changed, and the finely tuned system of procurement, production and global distribution has come apart at the seams.

For companies, this means increasing uncertainty as a result of constantly new challenges. Today, many companies are asking themselves whether they can still meet the demand of their customers, now and in the future, within the required framework and at competitive costs. We support you with our many years of experience in achieving the growth and profit targets you have set.

The essential questions that we answer with our clients are:

  • What are the essential requirements that our supply chain must meet?
  • How do we achieve high transparency and planning reliability?
  • How do we achieve the optimum between inventories, lead times, response and delivery capabilities and costs?
  • How can we avoid disruptions in the supply chain, minimise risks and improve delivery speed?

In an initial diagnostic phase, we identify the relevant areas for action and begin to develop answers accepted by your employees together as a team.

Services

Our value proposition

Questions for our team

How would you describe the key benefits of an Integrated Supply Chain?

An integrated supply chain enables the companies involved to help each other, to develop together on the basis of existing best practices and to optimise efficiency and productivity holistically rather than singularly. In this way, processes can be made more efficient through the joint exchange of information, duplication of work can be avoided and, through the exchange in real time, processes can be made much more efficient and productive in both the short and long term. By centralising the data, all companies involved always have the same and current information status through real-time updates.

This in turn significantly improves the accuracy of both demand and sales forecasts and reduces the risk of overproduction. Transparency across company boundaries enables the localisation of inefficiencies and waste in processes. As a result, wasted money and resources in the supply chain can be eliminated and allocated to value-adding processes, which has a positive impact on the success of all companies.

Close cooperation across value creation stages and the resulting detailed knowledge of upstream and/or downstream processes can lead to innovative, creative approaches or unique selling propositions with which companies can clearly differentiate themselves from their market competitors.

How can the approach of FTI-Andersch around the integrated supply chain be described?

We pursue a holistic approach – partial optimization falls short in our experience and are often not sustainably successful. Our team consists of experts with many years of industry experience in the areas of supply chain management, purchasing and production. Combined with our competencies in the areas of digitalization, finance and strategy, companies thus benefit from a comprehensive perspective on the topic of "supply chain". We rely here on a partnership approach – we listen carefully, discuss challenges and possible solutions and ensure a joint, accepted implementation on the ground.

Can you be more specific about the challenges around strained supply chains and procurement?

In the past, the focus of procurement activities was primarily on cost optimization, with other factors often playing a subordinate role. Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, other issues have increasingly come into focus, e.g. guaranteeing security of supply.

However, these and other challenges can usually only be solved in the short term to a limited extent. This is especially true at a time when entire sectors and industries are facing similar problems. It is therefore all the more important to develop and implement customized concepts together with all the divisions involved in order to address the specific requirements of the respective product group in the best possible way.

How we help our clients

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