How do large companies analyze and solve complex supply chain challenges? For over a decade, Optilon has helped one of the world’s leading companies in food processing and packaging with supply chain design and network optimization. The result? Improved structure, faster workflows, and greater efficiency.
CHALLENGE
How do we design an optimal supply chain?
For larger companies, which often have larger and more complex supply chains, evaluating investments or divestments is no simple task. It involves more than just analyzing costs or impacts in one single market – it’s about understanding the ripple effects across multiple factors and how your entire network will be affected.
Take a real-life example: About ten years ago, a world-leading food processing and packaging company faced the challenge of closing a factory in Sweden. Shutting down the factory raised critical questions. How will it affect customers who depend on that site for materials? What happens to the equipment? And how will the overall cost structure evolve?
Previously reliant on time-consuming spreadsheets, they recognized the need for a robust solution to address these types of complex supply chain challenges.
SOLUTION
Network optimization to ensure a cost-effective blueprint
After exploring various options, the food processing and packaging company chose to partner with Optilon. Through in-depth discussions, we decided to implement a robust system for network optimization – a critical component of supply chain design. While designing a supply chain involves creating a blueprint for how goods, information, and resources flow between locations, network optimization ensures that this blueprint is cost-effective and efficient by analyzing and selecting the best configuration of nodes (such as factories and suppliers) and links (such as transportation and duties).
Our team provided the tools and expertise to guide our customer through every stage, from installation to designing a customized input model. By parameterizing their supply chain in a decision model and integrating it into an optimization solution, we could simulate and optimize various scenarios, such as closing the factory. This allowed our customer to compare their current supply chain network against different scenarios, visualizing how key factors like cost categories, customer supply, lead time, and raw material flows might shift.
During a hands-on collaboration phase, we worked closely to overcome initial challenges and ensure a smooth startup. Once the model was finalized, our aftercare program provided ongoing support to ensure long-term success with the solution.
RESULT
Results and benefits of Optilon’s supply chain design solution
Upgrading to a robust supply chain design solution has delivered significant benefits to the food processing and packaging company, including improved structure, faster workflows, greater efficiency, and reduced operational costs. The implementation of an automated workflow has eliminated much of the manual labor previously required for data management. From a user’s perspective, the company finds this way of working far superior to Excel, as it handles large volumes of data more effectively.
MAIN BENEFITS
- Improved structure
- Enhanced capability to analyze complex problems
- Increased efficiency
- Reduced costs
- Improved ability to analyze different business cases
Today, our customer continues to use the network optimization model to address the very challenges they faced a decade ago, including analyzing factory closures and their ripple effects. Building on this foundation, they now tackle scenarios such as demand reallocation between manufacturing sites and evaluating smaller investments like enhancing capacity or capabilities at specific locations.
For instance, the model is employed to assess the impact of relocating a customer from one factory to another. This enables the company to identify opportunities to optimize transportation costs, improve factory utilization, and leverage favorable import-export tariffs. Additionally, by analyzing raw material fluctuations, they can anticipate operational impacts and prioritize suppliers who meet volume targets within desired cost thresholds.
These applications underscore the system’s ongoing value, transforming complex supply chain challenges into actionable insights that drive better decision-making and long-term efficiency.
The company has access to Optilon’s technical support for maintaining and enhancing the solution when needed. This includes assistance with tasks such as upgrading the platform, modeling new problem scenarios, or extending its functionality and structure. However, the solution is designed to empower customers to be self-sufficient, enabling them to operate, adapt, and develop it independently. Optilon’s support is available as a trusted partner to provide expertise and guidance whenever additional help is required.
They also turn to Optilon to meet staffing needs. As a relatively small team with specialized expertise, recruiting for roles requiring deep knowledge and an intricate understanding of the company’s supply chain is challenging. For them, the best way to bridge this knowledge gap in the short term is by engaging a consultant from Optilon.
Are you ready to simplify your supply chain challenges?
If you’re facing similar challenges, let Optilon help you turn complex into simple. With a track record of over 1,000 successfully completed projects and a 30-year integration heritage, Optilon is a trusted supply chain optimization partner.
Book a meeting with us to discuss how we can help you design a tailored supply chain solution that aligns with your business goals.
