Strategic Supply Chain Review

Dentsply is the world's largest dental products manufacturer, distributing in over 100 countries

The Challenge

• The world-wide supply chain was a source of continual customer service failure. Costs were 40% over the benchmark
• The European operation was experiencing over 30% service failures and an inability to locate stock leading to very low levels of customer satisfaction and increased costs
• ProActive were aware of a series of operational crises that were threatening the multitude of factory warehouses in Europe

The ProActive Approach

• ProActive devised a European Supply Chain Strategy document to interface with the US production strategy and the worldwide sourcing strategy
• The model included a Transport Programme for the 3 European operations to reduce the 17 factory and local warehouses to 3 central stockholding points all with state of the art information and operational systems.
• Outsourced and re-tendered all distribution requirements over 5 years.
• The team also developed a customer service model to enable maximisation of benefits from the revised supply chain.

The Results

• On time and in full deliveries improved by 99%
• Availability of total stock range improved by 99%
• 37% reduction in inventory value
• 17 factory and local warehouses reduced to 3 central stockholding points
• Physical logistic spend reduced by 26%

"The Supply Chain review has identified the optimum solution and a clear step by step implementation plan to achieve our ultimate goals in each market sector"  - Director of Operations

The Challenge

• The European operation was experiencing over 30% service failures and an inability to locate stock leading to very low levels of customer satisfaction and increased costs
• ProActive were already engaged in a strategic review, and additionally mobilised a crisis aversion team when the operation was clearly in danger of "falling over"

The ProActive Approach

• Having established a series of essential KPI's, the management team were made aware of a pending disaster as the Christmas peak approached
• ProActive immediately set up a 'Crisis Aversion and Operational Excellence' team. 20 skilled operatives (multi-lingual) and a project manager were drafted in to clear the backlog of shipments and achieve operational turnaround within 7 days
• The team optimised layout, handling and throughput to enable ongoing stability to remain after departure

The Results

• Stable operations were resumed within 7 days; Order backlog cleared, bottlenecks removed
• Existing team brought along and kept on side to enable skills transfer

"The ProActive team certainly averted a major meltdown of our distribution operation - it was a very impressive recovery and left us in a strong position to move forwards"  -  Director of Operations
 

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