Taking care of your omnichannel supply chain from upstream to downstream

Best practices for a seamless omnichannel experience

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  At Decathlon, Thibault Vandenberghe, chief supply officer in charge of supply for retail and digital transformation, mentions a first angle of attack to make a success of omnichannelity: think about the range, "what we sell and how we structure the offer". He also insists on the distribution network: "it is necessary to propose services adapted to the type of offer. At Decathlon, we set out the different scenarios, put in place industrial solutions and let the retailers use these solutions to tell us what worked best in order to continue learning. An example of this is the implementation of a drive-through system during Covid.

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  For his part, Adrien Homolle, supply chain transformation director at Sephora, adds two aspects to stand out: customer customisation and innovation. "More than 250 brands and 40,000 references with their own specificities require the ability to provide a demanding level of service and product availability. We respond to this via different types of delivery: classic, express, click and collect, but also via additional associated services such as engraving or smart sampling. The customer drives the need for pragmatic and adaptable solutions. In order to respond, several mixes must be taken into account: scalability, flexibility, cost, quality of service, etc.

Logistics industrialisation, customer customisation and adaptability, the keys to a successful strategy

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Questions asked during the webinar

• Concerning the IS adaptation part - we inherited 20 different ERPs in Europe which prevented us from having DCs for our clients, so we needed to enter the complex world of order orchestration layer

  Decathlon: Even with a relatively standard environment, there are major projects to make these new schemes possible. In the long term, this will require overhauls and a more modular organisation of our IS by product and teams in agile mode.

  Sephora: We have chosen an ERP (SAP) as a core model, an OMS, a front-end. Despite this, we still have other systems to connect (WMS, etc.) which require constant adaptation of our IT systems.

• "The consumer demands what the citizen refuses"... how do you manage the time -_CO2 balance?

  Decathlon: Our objective is to make environmental data visible in the choices of customers in order to make them actors (display on the product, on the services).

  Sephora: For us, the fastest delivery is the least "costly" in terms of_CO2: Click & Collect; in fact, most of our city centre shops are delivered by Green (electric or CNG). We are otherwise considering consumer expectations in terms of_CO2 information vs. type of delivery.

• How have you readapted your SC on the reverse side (return, exchange...)?

  Decathlon: Still learning from the experience of returning to Decathlon, reverse logistics is still in its infancy.

  Sephora: The returns section for shops has been developed for many years: in particular, with the revaluation of products or packaging used and returned by our customers in shop. For web returns: these can be made in shop or directly by carrier; this last point is still being improved, although it represents a very low rate in France.

• What key indicators do you track in order to measure the supply chain performance of your omnichannel offers?

  Decathlon: Product availability, asset turnover and reduction of environmental impact are the 3 key indicators of transformation (For efficiency it is indeed the triptych Cost, Quality, Time).

• What criteria led to the internalisation of depots (Décathlon) and outsourcing (Séphora)?

  Decathlon: We have invested in this business since its creation, we work with partners, but in our opinion, the choice of know-how remains a determining factor in being innovative and differentiating.

  Sephora: The outsourcing of our logistics partners is historical; but we have a limited number of partners so as to gain synergy and speed in the implementation of new tools.

• Are the indicators at Decathlon parameters of choice in the delivery solution to the customer? (Shipment of the product where it is available versus as close as possible even if it leaves from different points; the fastest versus the most economical...)

  Decathlon: The first priority is availability, then we will offer the target 3 scenarios for the customer: cheaper, faster, less environmental impact.

• Do you have different legal entities in your network that have led to questions about margins, who carries the stock, internal re-invoicing, physical returns, etc.?

  Decathlon: Yes, this is an important issue to consider because in a model with more market place the options are even more numerous.

  Sephora: Yes, we have different legal entities per country.

• What WHO technologies do you use?

  Decathlon: The technologies chosen are developed by our digital teams, and some of the components are those of the publishers of our stock sources.

  Sephora: We use Order Dynamics as our OMS, in conjunction with Salesforce and SAP.

• What technical solution do you use for omnichannel?
  In particular for the management of stocks available for sale in mini-warehouses.

  Decathlon: The work of accessibility of stocks in shops and warehouses is managed in the website application. We are limited today by the choice of scenarios and this also means that we have to manage this intelligence on all fronts. Technical architecture work is underway to decouple the display of the promise from the scenario calculation modules and to make these functions compatible with an infinite number of stock sources. This is a project that is currently being deployed and is scheduled for 2022.

• There is a lot of talk about ROPO. How do you manage web-based product search data on shop inventory?

  Decathlon: We display shop stocks in our shopping paths. If the customer decides to complete his purchase in shop without managing it in Click & Collect 1h, it is the customer identification data that allows us to reconcile the search and purchase. We do not monitor this data on a daily basis but it is done.

  Sephora: We take into account shop and warehouse stocks during the customer journey on our website, with the customer being offered purchase completion in/from a shop (C&C or SFS) or delivery.

• You have talked about reducing the environmental impact of transport by 45% in 3 years. What indicators are you monitoring to ensure that this objective is achieved?

  Decathlon: We detail this objective with indicators for the choice of modes of transport, the evolution of the energy used for these same transports, the kilometres travelled and the fill rate of our trucks.

The 2025 version is here

For a long time, the general public has been unaware of the activities of Freight Transport and Logistics, a fortiori of the Supply Chain, considering that it is above all about stewardship, handling activities and road routing.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN: A VISION THAT CANNOT REMAIN LIMITED TO THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

On 15 April, Vincent Barale, Supply Chain and Logistics Director, Louis Vuitton and François Peignes, VP Supply Chain Operations, Orano presented the results of workshops on the future of the Supply Chain.

Accompanied by Laurent Maudrux (Louis Vuitton) and Amélie Brault (Orano) they shared their experience of using Anaplan to manage their supply chain.

Find the replay of this webinar by filling in this form:

In view of the important development of France Supply Chain, which already federates 450 companies of all sizes (large groups, ETI, SMEs) and all sectors of activity, five new members are joining the Board of Directors of the Association.

Vincent LAMARCHE
VP Logistic Strategy & E2E network design - SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Charles LEONARDI
General Manager Supply Chain - NESTLE

Éric LE MIGNON
General Manager Supply Chain - INTERMARCHE

Jean-Christophe MACHET
Chairman - FM LOGISTIC

Didier SCELLIER
Managing Director France - PTV GROUP

They join the 41 members of the Board of Directors and strengthen the 2 colleges that make up the Board:

• College 1 federating industrial companies, trading and distribution companies, logistics service providers and health structures;
• College 2 representing: service providers, associations, federations, research and training organisations and individuals.

These 5 appointments are part of the dynamics of France Supply Chain which helps companies to transform themselves, and relies on the strength of its network and the power of collective intelligence with a common ambition: the Supply Chain to change the world.

On July 2nd, France Supply Chain and its partner Wavestone organised a live webinar on Blockhain applied to the supply chain. Focus on the application of the technology in the sector, presented in a pragmatic and practical way.

Blockchain - a transparent and secure transaction validation and archiving technology that operates without a central control body - has been the subject of much discussion since its concept emerged in 2008. According to the 2021 edition of the Digitalisation Panorama, 36% of the companies surveyed consider it a priority, but it is still a subject that has not been widely exploited in the supply chain sector.

This is why, around Marc Dauga, Supply Chain partner at Wavestone and member of the Digital & Technologies Lab of France Supply Chain, three startups - Ownest, KeeeX and Crystalchain - came to present concrete cases of use of Blockchain in supply chain.

Improving stock management and making the supply chain more fluid

A real lever for creating value for the supply chain, capable of reducing risks and optimising ecosystems, Blockchain and its advantages - security, disintermediation and decentralisation - are slowly proving themselves in the sector. The proof is in the client case presented by Thibault Glaunez, CPO of Ownest, about SNCF Réseau, which has chosen to implement a solution developed by Ownest on its Moulin Neuf industrial site for the assembly of track elements (EIV), allowing the transfer of tokens, digitally transferable assets with a unique and unalterable identifier, content and an owner. Thus, each part exchanged between the site and the Moulin Neuf EIV warehouse is associated with a transfer of responsibilities: "When we transfer products, we also transfer the associated responsibility tokens. We have created a consensus with individual interests for each product transfer, in order to be able to trace them and secure the logistical flows," explains Thibault Glaunez. The results? Better stock management, a rate of non-conformity linked to the loss of a product divided by two, a reduction in product loss and the implementation of concrete KPIs of what is happening on the ground.

Facilitating the synchronisation of flows in multimodal transport

Then came the turn of the KeeeX company, which presented a project for the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille, based on multimodal transport. The objectives? To increase traffic while reducing transport times and costs and improving the environmental impact. To achieve this, KeeeX has developed a secure application that can be used by all types of users. "It allows users to connect to the system, flash the container number, perform various operations and add information to the chain in real time. Each addition made is signed by the person making it. Finally, among the major ROIs of this solution, we note a reduction in the number of transactions, a very strong increase in visibility rates and a synchronization of exchanges from 14% to 100%", underlines Cyprien Veyrat, VP Marketing and Pre sales at KeeeX.

Towards consumer products will be traced from end to end 

Finally, to close this round table discussion, Maxime Michelot, head of agri-food projects at Crystalchain, unveiled a project conducted with the company Raynal & Roquelaure. Here, from the farmer to the point of sale, all the players record their traceability information autonomously on a secure, reliable and distributed system. This information is then distributed to all the links in the chain. Together, the companies connect the data and add value to it in order to respond, among other things, to the problems of controlling health risks and making the supply chain more fluid. " Not only does this meet the consumer's need for transparency, but in addition, the platform makes it possible in just a few clicks to trace the entire traceability chain and to expose potential inconsistencies in terms of the quantity or even the origin of products," explains Maxime Michelot. "Our vision? Within 5 to 10 years, all consumer products will be traced from end to end," he concludes.

Finally, in order to provide more details on this increasingly important subject in the supply chain sector, France Supply Chain and Wavestone have also published a white paper which can be found below:

An essential lever for a more sustainable world, the Supply Chain is at the heart of business transformation. Driven by digitalisation, innovation and the need for a strong customer orientation, today's organisations must be resilient, agile and focused on the circular economy. These are new challenges that call for new professions.

At a time when many professions are disappearing while others are appearing*, there is one question that we, as Supply Chain professionals, are all asking ourselves: what are the professions that will make up the Supply Chain of tomorrow?

Although we do not claim to be able to read the future, our privileged position as the^leading French network of supply chain professionals combined with that of Michael Page, the leading firm in the market for the recruitment of experienced executives, invites us to engage in this exercise.

A series of interviews and workshops with our members, conducted and enriched by the observations of Michael Page, have enabled us to arrive at a list of four professions. Four key professions for the Supply Chain of tomorrow which, although they sometimes exist today, remain the prerogative of large structures with a relatively confidential position.

Because Supply Chain is a vital issue for companies, and because Human Resources are a necessary condition and are often the first concern of Supply Chain Managers**, we are pleased to share with you the fruit of our work and latest observations on the job market. We hope that this guide will enlighten you on the issues that we identify as essential to the evolution of our profession.