PRESS RELEASE
Bridgestone and bluecruxbringreliable visibility to the ELA Awards
- Bridgestone Europe/bluecruxVisibility Project (Vi-P) projectnominated as finalist in ELA Awards
- Vi-P creates the ultimate linked supply chain for Bridgestone in Europe
- Sound methodology for change management as key success factor
Fresh from the success of winning of Belgian Supply Chain Award – Project of the year 2016, the Vi-P project of Bridgestone Europe/bluecrux has been selected as one of just six finalists for the ELA Award Project of the Year. The “ELA Award” presented by the European Logistics Association (ELA) has become one of the most prestigious and important European logistics awards and is much sought after by companies throughout Europe.
The fact that the project name is Vi-P is no accident. Vi-P stands for Visibility Projectand also Very Important Project. Vi-P was launched in 2013to increase both the Visibility on availability andreliability of the end-to-end supply chain. It was one of the key tactical projects at Bridgestone Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation headquartered in Japan – the world’s leading tyre and rubbercompany. The project fits with the company’s strategy ofimproving customer satisfaction while reducing costs.
Vi-P addressed all aspects of transformation: process definition, system implementation, changes in the organizational set-up and its people to bring about a new harmonized ecosystem. From manufacturing sites to customers, changes were made to create the ultimate linked supply chain. As a result, key stakeholders have seen very positive changes to their day-to-day roles and were universal in their praise:
- “I have moved from a reactive to a proactive way of managing the replenishmentof our Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs). My new tool (OMP) optimizes the distribution of tyres over the full network and ensuresthat deployment is feasible, fair and reliable. I can check the plan over a three-month timescale, and work on a short-term weekly forecast, adjusting the monthly sales forecast to meet our latest needs.” - Local Distribution Planner
- “Orders can now be allocated much further in the supply horizon– taking into account inbounds to RDCsbased on planned production. In terms of customer service, we have enriched the information we provide to our customers and canaccess it via BOOST (our new SAP order-entry system).” – Customer ServiceTeam Lead
- “In this newly created roleI’m the SPOC for strategic customers to align on forecast, product availability, order follow-up and product line-up management.Not all customers can work in a collaborative way,so I canalso createOpportunistic Direct Shipments. In that case, I place a large order directly with a Manufacturing DC instead of an RDC to deliver a full truck-load to the customer.” - P2P Planner
- “Vi-P has given me visibility on which part of production is serving customer orders, ensuring that those SKUs have priority.”- Production Planner
- “We haveimproved the timely execution of stock movements from manufacturing sites to RDCssignificantly. Additionally, we now have a clear view of the shipment priorities towards the RDCs.” - Market Operator
- “I can now communicate the improved visibility to my customers and adhere to the new order-management policy.We have abandoned our ingrained bad habits to achieve sales results at month-end,and put everything in place to ensure we deliver on our promises.” - Sales Representative.
Across 18 countries more than 850 people along the supply chain and sales organization were mobilized.As a result there was a sharp focus on changemanagement. A solid impact assessment at the outset and a subsequent transformation plan ensured that every impacted person knew that they were a “VIP in Vi-P!” Vi-P has delivered measurable results ahead of the initial project schedule, surpassing the initial business case expectations of sales increase and cost reduction, and within project budget.
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