Supplier capacity management for a leading jewelry maker
Which organization could facilitate the management of subcontractors?
“The implementation of an S&OP process between this luxury player and its subcontractors has increased production capacity and improved service quality.”
Context
In a context of outsourced manufacturing and strong growth, the need to secure production capacity has become strategic for this jewelry maker. The failure to collaborate with subcontractors leads to a lack of control of Supply Chain which:
- Complexifies planning and disrupts teams,
- Penalizes store inventories and leads to a loss of confidence from sellers,
- Generates customer dissatisfaction and loss of revenue.
Which organization could facilitate the management of subcontractors?
Approach
In a first step, we immersed ourselves in the activity through days spent with the professionals throughout the chain, from product design (creation and marketing) to planning and execution (supplier factories). We shared this immersion through collaborative workshops bringing together the different business lines, which allowed a strong transversal approach.
The diagnosis was shared with suppliers and customer teams. The search for the solution was carried out jointly, which made it possible to break the contractual straitjacket in which they were operating.
The new working method was formalized and a piloting tool was built and implemented in a test phase with 3 suppliers.
Results
The process defined has helped to improve the collaboration between this luxury player and all their subcontractors.
The identification of the blocking risks or the higher production potential are now anticipated and rebounded to the commercial level, which makes it possible to adjust the business objectives intelligently with the production capacity. An S&OP process has been created.
A segmentation of the suppliers allows to better organize the work and to concentrate on the strategic segment in case of hazards.
The tool implemented allows the scheduler to free up time (replacement of all Excel files and automation of certain tasks). It becomes a strategic input for commercial arbitration decisions and for the follow-up of the manufacturing plan.
