Cross Trade Supply Chain Merger Integration
The Situation
In the immediate aftermath of a global merger of the world largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, work programmes across the organisation were established to develop integration plans and a migration strategy to ensure continuity of business in the ‘new world’ of the combined organisation.
In the Supply Chain / Logistics area, new systems were deployed to ensure that both legacy organisations could continue to supply product and meet customer demand, whilst preparing the company on a global scale for merged operations. A supply chain ‘Cross Trading’ system was designed and deployed, for implementation at pace to provide this stability and security of product supply.
The Task
The supply chains of the two legacy organisations operated on fundamentally opposing principles, with one being ‘supply led’ driven against a centrally managed forecast, where the other was ‘demand led’, placing orders on factories directly, whatever the source. Deployment of the Cross Trade system enabled a consistent, Demand and Supply Management model that allowed for each scenario such that operating units could continue without disruption to existing working practices, incorporating Forecasting, Customer and Supplier Managed Replenishment models and consistent Finished Goods Inventory Management. The task at hand was to enable this capability on as wide a basis as possible, as quickly as possible.
The Action / Approach
Established the deployment programme, scoping the assignment, negotiating services contracts and mobilising a team consisting of consulting, contractor and in house staff, working on an international rolling work programme to deploy the system consistently at scale. The team comprised approx. 10 staff working to a tight deployment timetable applying a deployment template for operating units.
The Result
The initial objective of the programme to implement the system in 35 countries in 15 months. This was far exceeded, enabling deployment in 53 countries in the space of 10 months.
