What does an optimised supply chain look like?
When procurement, logistics, production, order processing and planning work intelligently together to satisfy customers’ wishes in full and create profitability for the business. This requires the ability to cope with very different market conditions, supplier capacities and customer requirements.
How do you take account of customer needs in planning and what are the trends in this regard?
Our planning is an end-to-end process, in which everything from sales planning to production planning is combined into a single, system-based organisational unit. This makes it possible for us to look after different customer groups on an individual and customised basis. Maximum transparency and short communication paths facilitate swift and sensible decision-making. That’s how we make customer centricity a reality.
In terms of sustainability, customers place clear demands on us as producers, whether in relation to palm oil, microplastics or our carbon footprint. The Migros Group is a role model in this area. Even the traceability of raw materials is becoming ever-more important for customers. All these environmental issues have a huge impact on procurement, which must constantly come up with innovative solutions.
What role does procurement play in the supply chain and in product innovations?
The Mibelle Group Procurement team’s purpose is to purchase affordable, reliable and innovative items and services. Thanks to the Migros Group’s structures it can achieve and exploit economies of scale. We keep a constant eye on the supplier market and, at the same time, nurture a strong link with our innovation team in the area of research and development. Our knowledge means we can keep our colleagues constantly up-to-date on the latest technologies, ingredients, packaging solutions, etc.
What do you do when major supply shortages unexpectedly arise, as in the case of Covid-19, for example?
Residual risk in terms of supply can never be fully ruled out. In crisis situations like these, our employees are specially trained to think holistically and are committed to ensuring that the customer or consumer does not notice anything is wrong. In fact, we go the proverbial extra mile for our customers!
How important is digitalisation for the supply chain?
Targeted use of the latest technologies and digitalised processes helps us keep operations lean and running smoothly, while also ensuring smart use of resources. Systemic networking will, however, be much more pronounced in the future. The idea is that artificial intelligence will take over elements of operational planning and procurement. We need impeccable data and networking for this to happen, so data governance will be the hot topic over the next few years.