End to End Supply Chain Strategy, SCM Automation & Customer Experience Framework for Y-Not

scm automation supply chain strategy design to order supply chain customer experience framework logistics

About the Organization | Y-Not.com

Y-Not Design and Manufacturing is a reputed woman-owned business enterprise based in Miami, Florida. They design, manufacture, and deliver high-quality promotional products. Y-Not’s strength is to transcend ideas into innovative product ideas.

Founded in 2007, we proudly serve clients across the world with a record-breaking excellency in customer satisfaction. Our unparalleled promotional products company operates worldwide and supplies custom-based, top-caliber products.

Y-Not Supply Chain Business Case

Y-Not’s supply chain is designed to order supply chain and it is one of the very complex supply chains. Y-Not is growing at a good pace and one of the major bottlenecks is the efficiency in their supply chain and the number of manual touchpoints within the supply chain. This requirement of manual intervention within multiple nodes within the supply chain is derailing the company from achieving its tall objectives. This project is aimed at setting up a supply chain strategy and not just that but also to automate the complete supply chain from end-to-end for Y-Not. So, the business case covers from receipt of a lead from a customer, conversion of a lead to customer sales order, design, and production of the product, and getting it delivered to the customer.

OPPORTUNITY

There were multi-fold opportunities within Y-Not’s supply chain in terms of optimization and we have grouped them into 4 major themes.

Theme 1: Customer Experience Framework

Post COVID-19 the voice of the customer has taken a very drastic transformation and, in each sector, there is a tremendous change in terms of expectations from the customer. The organizations who were understanding this change and revisiting their complete business strategy, business model as well as workflow of the processes are gaining a competitive edge. Hence one of the top priorities for Y-Not is to develop the customer experience framework right from the lead stage till the delivery of products to the customer. As part of this, each touchpoint of the customer would be documented and they would be made reliable and efficient. This would have a direct impact on the company’s growth as we move forward.

Theme 2: Workflow Automation

Part of this opportunity is complete automation of every activity within Y-Not’s supply chain. This workflow automation would remove all the manual touchpoints within the supply chain as much as possible and enable Y-Not’s supply chain to run in an auto-pilot mode most of the time, until and unless there is an exception.

Theme 3: Performance Management

As part of this opportunity, we look at the accountability of every resource within the Y-Not supply chain. Post COVID-19 in the new normal, most of the organizations are now relying on the new way of employees working from home, i.e., remotely. This is posing a whole set of new challenges in terms of employee accountability. So, as part of this opportunity, we will be revisiting the complete performance management system within Y-Not.

Theme 4: Supply Chain Optimization

As part of the supply chain optimization, we will focus on supply chain on-time delivery and cost. By this stage, we would also finalize and implemented the new customer experience framework. Thus, as part of this supply chain optimization, we will focus completely on the reliability of our systems as well as cost optimization.

Tools & Techniques used

Value stream mapping
Gemba study
Unit economics study
Process diagrams
Market research tools
PUGH matrix
In-house SCM optimization tools
FDM Mapping

SOLUTION

Y-Not Supply Chain Optimization Framework

A solution framework for customer experience

We have developed the customer experience framework.
We have evaluated the current state using the value stream mapping and came up with a list of gaps.
Developed action plan to fix all the gaps such that the customer experience is enhanced.
Implementation of relevant process controls.

A solution framework for workflow automation

Document the current stage of ERP (ODOO) implementation.
List the areas with manual touchpoints.
Come up with an automation action plan

As part of workflow automation, we worked on 9 different pillars

Pillar 1: Task management

As part of this, all the tasks involved within the supply chain right from order to delivery are automated. At each stage, for each task, a targeted time has been automatically set in ERP (ODOO) and tracked till closure.

Pillar 2: Cascading voice of the customer

Customer expectations (voice of customer) set the tone for the supply chain execution. All the customer expectations were automatically set into the supply chain engine and tracked till execution and closure.

Pillar 3: Exception Management

Exceptions like delays, cost escalation, quality issues and so on cannot be completely avoided. Hence, whenever an exception happened what kind of actions are to be taken are defined and executed through the system itself.

Pillar 4: Transition from lead to customer order

All the activities involved within lead to a sales order has been automated with very minimal human touch.

Pillar 5: Sourcing Module

The complete activities involved right vendor acquisition, product samples, purchase requisition, purchase order and contract manufacturing. All these were brought under ERP (ODOO) and automated.

Pillar 6: Purchase Order Management

The complete workflow decisions involved in creating releasing a purchase order and getting the products are part of this.

Pillar 7: Quality Module

All the touchpoints of quality within the supply chain like the quality checks are built as part of the ERP (ODOO) workflow.

Pillar 8: Customer Notifications

All the required proactive communication for the customer is documented and executed through the system itself in a completely automated manner.

Pillar 9: Performance Management

Every supply chain KPIs are defined, measured, tracked, and reported every month. The required action plan is then driven on KPIs which are not achieving the target.

Performance Management

The supply chain KPIs were defined.
Based on the business expectation each KPI target was set.
The capacity planning model for each role within the organization was completed.

Supply chain Optimization

The same current state value stream map which was developed was used to drive the supply chain optimization as well. The key targets for supply chain optimization were on on-time delivery and cost. The To-Be value stream was developed considering these two key requirements in mind. Once the To-Be value stream was developed and all the different changes part of this are executed as much as possible through the automation workflow defined earlier. And the rest of the things are put in manual with required process controls.

RESULTS

Feedback from Y-Not Management

“Hesol Consulting have been instrumental in the growth of our company. They’ve helped us in so many areas of our business including – Right open source ERP implementation at a fraction of the planned budget, Value stream mapping our processes, Streamlining our processes in quality and safety, on time delivery, best pricing, customer service and KPI’s”.

Following are the key results from the project

The end-to-end supply chain strategy for Y-Not has been defined and rolled out.
Supply chain KPIs have been defined and the performance management system has been put in place.
The capacity planning model was developed for the Y-Not supply chain and rolled out.
End to end of supply chain project tasks are defined, tracked and controlled through the ERP (ODOO) itself.
Complete customer experience and notifications were automated and driven through the ERP (ODOO) itself.
Overall productivity management and improvement were completely automated.
Efficient and system-driven turnaround time management and control.
Cost and timeline targets were completely automated and driven by the system itself.
Proactive notifications on any exception were now set through the system itself.
Efficient management of exceptions and better accountability and exceptions were tracked right from start till closure.
Complete set of contracts and SLA management was documented digitally and driven through the system itself.
The end to end of sales order till delivery was automated and controlled through the ERP (ODOO) itself.
Seamless and proactive communication in interaction with the customer gave an end-to-end top-class customer experience which in turn will build a brand reputation.