Archives: fsc letters

On November 23, the Champions League was held, the battle of the winners: the Awards for the best European project, elected among the best projects of their country. This year, projects from the Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and France were competing. And the winner was ... the French project!

This project, you already know it well, it is the Kings of the Supply Chain, prize awarded every year by Supply Chain Magazine, and elected at the beginning of the year: Socamil / E. Leclerc - Witron. It was already, in short, a very European project, sponsored by Socamil / E. Leclerc and whose automatisms were designed and installed by Witron, a company from southern Germany.
The aim was to implement a fully automated warehouse of around 80,000 m² in Castelnaudary to deliver the E. Leclerc centers in all the diversity of their distribution: hyper, super, pick and collect...

The innovation is important, and lies in the gigantic scale of the project, in the different warehouse environments to be implemented and their very strong constraints, in particular the controlled temperature of -23°C and the cross-docking of fresh products. It is also obviously a data project to make this level of constraints work. And finally, it is a human project to attract to Castelnaudary, train and develop a team that was originally more oriented towards traditional warehousing and that is now becoming the pilot of a very sophisticated machine.

The ELA Awards are organized by the ELA (European Logistics Association) and are assisted for France by France Supply Chain, through a representative on the jury, Xavier Derycke, and a member of the ELA Board of Directors of which France Supply Chain is a founding member: Didier Granger.

This victory rewards once again the French Supply Chain subsidiary and its practices. It was the third time that France Supply Chain presented a file. The previous years, the projects had already reached the top 3 of the ranking, showing the great quality of the Kings of Supply Chain. The first step is now climbed: congratulations to Socamil/E.Leclerc + Witron!

Understanding space.

If, as Yves Lacoste says, geography is first and foremost used to wage war, the great explorers of yesterday and today could reply that geography is first and foremost used to bring people together.

Geographic space is the result of a long process that cannot be entered with impunity. Placed at the heart of supply chain concerns, resource flows are first established in a geography of places whose constraints and facilities, openings and closures, must be understood.

In the perspective of a sustainable activity, understanding the geographical scale on which one interacts is today to grasp the scope of one's footprint, heavy or light, in the ever increasing respect of a fragile environment.

Understand the story.

The encounter with the other is first and foremost the encounter of two stories that sometimes oppose each other but most often combine and enrich each other. There can be no serene and sustainable economic activity without understanding and respect for the mutual histories of those who choose to undertake together.

Consubstantially open to the world that it must crisscross with humility, the supply chain therefore feeds on the understanding of the history of others, which it knows how to enhance along a path that respects the trace and the contribution of each contributor.

In the perspective of a better resilience of organizations, understanding the history of the worlds in which we venture is to prepare ourselves with patience for the ruptures and surprises that the uninterrupted theater of operations likes to keep on display.

Travel the world.

In an open and connected world, no entrepreneur can ignore the hot and cold winds that sweep across the distant plains and valleys and ultimately affect his or her business. Increased interdependence is the marker, chosen or suffered, of a planetary civilization inexorably on the move.

The men and women in the supply chain know this well, as they travel the world in search of the resources necessary for their company's activity, but above all for the satisfaction of an increasingly demanding clientele in terms of the deep meaning they legitimately place in the act of purchasing.

Yet this world is regularly shaken by violent spasms that weaken the balance and lower the ambitions of an intertwined economy. To understand the geographical and historical forces of a world in perpetual recomposition is a necessity, and forgetting this is always very costly.

Without seeing the intimate and living link that brings Supply Chain and History-Geography together and that allows to grasp the connivance of the scales of time and space, the company deprives itself of a part of the intelligence of the world it wants to serve

Supply chains are constantly managing unstable balances. But since 2020, they are facing real shocks: Brexit, pandemic, blocking of the Suez Canal, war in Ukraine, departure from Russia for some companies, repeated confinements in China. All this with the consequences we know: crisis of electronic components, energy prices, raw materials, transport, etc., which reveal inadequacies and weaknesses.

It is in this context that the Minister of the Armed Forces recently asked the players in the Defense Industrial and Technological Base (DITB), including the aeronautics industry, via the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA), to prepare to produce more equipment faster.

But how to do this, when new issues emerge due to the rebound of civil aviation, the dual nature of highly internationalized production chains (civil/military) and the lack of skills?

We could also - in a not so distant future - no longer have the required raw materials, for geopolitical reasons (pre-emption by a State), ecological reasons, or regulatory reasons (no more water, no more minerals, no more titanium...). In addition to all this, there is the issue of information system security, as cyber attacks have become the rule.

Crises no longer follow one another, they overlap. The next world is increasingly complex and unstable. We have to become "super agile", to go beyond resilience (which in physics is only the absorption of the shock).

Operations and Supply Chain are on the front line of this new economy. But are they ready? The question may seem provocative. However, it is unavoidable. It is only the synthesis of many questions that are emerging. The complexity of the answers reveals the many challenges that Supply Chains face:  

1. Do you know how to identify and interpret weak signals ? This is the first step, to anticipate hazards, to bring them up in a risk analysis to interpret them.
2. In some industries, the risks identified two years ago (when the risk management plan was renewed) are almost all proven.
3. Do you know who you can count on? customers, suppliers, employees, partners, the state?
4. Do you have the will to 'super collaborate' and are you ready to take the plunge? Sharing of skills, means of production, transport, transmission of critical information.
5. Have you prepared for crisis governance? Shortening of decision circuits, a single decision-maker, arbitration rules, ultra-fast communication/dissemination of decisions for powerful and agile execution.
6. Will you be able to "cut" your systems, or isolate them? work in rustic mode (let's say it: paper, pencil, phone...), Secure the "extended digital".
7. Have you defined your priority customers, those who will ensure your future survival, and the others?
8. Will you be able to review your production rates quickly, reconfigure your production and distribution scheme, change suppliers at the snap of a finger, and accelerate qualification processes?
9. Do you know how to change your BOM if a material is missing?
10. Have you done stress tests? with a digital twin of your supply chain .Your "Time to survive", and your "Time to recover" estimated according to the scenarios [1].
11. Have you cleaned up your data? the good ones, the outdated ones? What about governance, uniqueness, quality, etc.?
12. Finally, do you have enough cash in front of you? It is, whatever one says, the nerve of the g...

There are many other critical questions depending on your industry and its supply chain characteristics. The fundamental question is whether your company is sovereign, i.e. in control of its destiny, with its partners, to face a more complicated world.

[1] These are literally the times of "survival" and "recovery/healing". For more information: https://hbr.org/2022/10/fixing-the-u-s-semiconductor-supply-chain

Agility, a philosophy of action. 

Beyond the method laid down in standardized procedures and artfully deployed by certified masters, agility is not limited to an assembly of ordered and timed tasks, useful in the management of complex projects. It is first and foremost immaterial, nourishing itself by walking at the source of the motivations of those who decide to undertake. 

Akin to the old warrior spirit, agility is the philosophy that considers, without naivety, difficulties as opportunities and seeks to overcome obstacles in the never-lost perspective of achieving the designated goals. In short, agility is the lifeline of a moving will. 

Agility, a rigor in action.

To understand the stakes of a moving world that often conceals, to accept the incompressible part of uncertainty that always disturbs, to adjust the right balance necessary for the right decision at the right moment that relaunches the action, are all part of a learning process that is slowly cooked with the experience of the blows of which each lesson must be read. 

Proactive or reactive, agility requires an intelligence of situation worked which draws its science from the understanding of the springs of anticipation and reaction. It is not innate but a progressive and demanding acquisition that is sharpened by confrontation. 

Agility, the daughter of the plan in action.

The sterile opposition between the cold and rigid world of planning and the warm and liberated world of agility does not stand up to the facts, which show that a group moves forward better when it sees the course to be followed while enjoying the freedom of action necessary to engage its own capacities. 

In the pursuit of the chosen objectives, whose achievement will obviously suffer from the roughness of adversity and uncertainty, agility must guarantee the adaptability of the plan, whose starting hypotheses can be revised and whose deployment methods can be adjusted if not reversed. Agility is found in the plan, which it brings to life.

The center of gravity of a Supply Chain which wants to gain in agility thus relates more than elsewhere to the women and men who make it live and who allow it to survive and to strengthen itself by adapting it to the unpredictable contingencies of a world which will remain uncertain. 

4.5 million recruitments to come in 2023, such is the observation of the Adecco-Analytics employment barometer, which reflects the exponential recovery of the job market in recent months. Among the professions that will recruit the most, we find naturally those of the Supply Chain, still unknown to the general public despite the numerous career opportunities and various challenges that the sector offers. 

To overcome these problems of attractiveness, the HR LAB has been supporting the France Supply Chain ecosystem for several years in the constitution of its talent pool, in particular through a synthetic and accessible tool made available both to professionals in their search for rare pearls, and to students to find their way through the maze of training courses.

After a first edition published in 2020, we listened to the expectations of the various stakeholders and reworked the content to make it as complete and relevant as possible. Indeed, presenting the training courses through their selection criteria, content, pace, contributions, etc. and issuing a professional "company" opinion is an asset to convince and inform the public of the interest of these professions and this is what we have endeavored to do. Through direct contact with identified training organizations, we have listed 140 courses since last March. We thus have an overview of the Supply Chain "academic community".

This work is the result of a long collaboration between the members of FSC and the 90 or so training organizations that have demonstrated their collective intelligence in the service of an innovative, enterprising Supply Chain "Made in France" that is aware of its many challenges.

To discover the new panorama of Supply Chain trainings and to better understand the approach, go to the France Supply Chain website and to the LinkedIn page on the afternoon of October 10th!

Numerous women are involved on a daily basis in all Supply Chain professions. However, they only occupy 10% to 20% of Supply Chain management positions. This inequality of representations is certainly one of the challenges to be met by our profession. 

Beyond the numbers, we thought it would be interesting to capture the testimony of 9 women in Supply Chain, on their career path and what drives them. We hope you will be touched, as we were, by their passion and commitment.

These lively, diverse and inspiring testimonies allow us to better understand our businesses and illustrate how they are: varied, rich, exciting, offering bridges and real developments, serving essential issues, particularly CSR.

Our professions are indeed gaining to be (better) known. The development of the attractiveness of our professions is at the heart of the LAB RH mission of France Supply Chain.

THANK YOU LADIES!

Thanks to Appoline LECORPS, Caroline GUDIN, Clémence LETURCQ, Emma ARRONDEAU, Gaëlle ALMEIDA, Laetitia STERPIN, Latifa GAHBICHE, Pénélope LAIGO and Sandy MOURET

Special thanks to Claire HABEGRYTZ and Claire SCHMAUCH for their precious help in the realization of these contents.

The news of France Supply Chain this month is the holding of the board of directors on September 22 where it will be question of the first results of the launching of France Supply Chain international. This last one will be prolonged by a conference " GO TO AFRICA " on the evolution of the roadmaps of companies from a supply chain or local market share point of view.

Answering any question about Africa in a comprehensive way is a challenge.

It is important to be aware of the size of a continent larger than the combined surface of the United States, China, India, Japan and the whole of Western Europe with the United Kingdom.

Also it is a question of taking into account, for the 55 countries, the disparity of size, population, political and banking governance, life of religion, food self-sufficiency, access to the sea, reserves of raw materials "world", surface of arable land and forests, maturity in transport & logistics ...

This being the case, we can analyze some consequences of subjects that impact all countries, even in different ways.

1. The deterioration of China's domestic economic situation with its "Zero Covid" policy, which despite record trade surpluses, has led to a slowdown in investments and loans in Africa, mostly for infrastructure projects.
2. Russia's war against Ukraine, which is not recognized as such by the majority of African states, is affecting different countries in different ways. The weakness of cereal exports is especially affecting North Africa, led by Egypt, while the shortage of fertilizer is affecting Sub-Saharan Africa.
3. To date, Covid has had less direct impact than in Europe except in South Africa. Several reasons have been put forward without clear conclusions (youth of the population, means to fight known epidemics, resilience of the populations, ...). On the other hand, the attention that the majority of international groups have had to pay to the management of their Supply Chain, in their main geographies, has led them to put on hold a number of investments in Africa. For the record, Africa only contributes to about 3% of world trade, "this explains that".
4. Global warming, which has become undeniable, and the demographic outlook over the next 25 years (one generation to go from 1.2 billion inhabitants in Africa to 2.5 billion excluding the "catastrophe") will inevitably lead to massive population movements. The challenge for Europe, which remains Africa's leading trading partner, is to control these movements and therefore to deploy investment programs (envelope currently being released) in co-construction with investors/local entities to avoid uncontrollable migrations. These co-constructions should encourage the establishment of industries to replace regional imports on a model inspired by the European community. These require a quality intracontinental supply chain, which has made good progress in port infrastructures, except for multimodal containers, but which remains weak overall in downstream logistics infrastructures (warehousing and secondary distribution in corridors or on transverse routes to be created). The weakness is due as much to the lack of means as to the lack of players for a healthy competition.

In conclusion, it is difficult to draw a global development forecast, but we have seen a revival of roadmap studies by French and European companies in recent months. Even if financing remains expensive, will remain so for a long time and is limited in the face of an enormous investment need, opportunities exist. It is therefore necessary to find a way between an "Afro-optimism" tinged with naivety and an "Afro-pessimism" reflecting a lack of knowledge of local economies. This is the challenge of the discussions to be held during the conference on September 22 and through the Africa Chapters of France Supply Chain International!

Created in the continuity of the beautiful dynamics of 2021, the Letter of France Supply Chain comes to life thanks to the words of our members in the section "the post of the week". Seven months that you participate in its creation by sharing with us a reflection, an experience or a personal aspiration. Representing the 50 years of the association, the transparency of the messages and the richness of the points of view created the value of the letter. With half of the year gone and the summer holidays coming, France Supply Chain announces the beginning of the summer break of its letter.

So get your pens and pencils ready! Take advantage of the season to enjoy writing your point of view so that it is highlighted in the letters of the new school year. In order to help you write your post, there are six tips to keep in mind.

• Take a topical issue

You are in the front line to share meaningful experiences. For example, at the beginning of January, Éric Le Mignon, General Manager Supply Chain Intermarché explained the role of the Supply Chain and the mobilisation of his teams in the distribution of the Covid self-tests. More recently, Ali Berrada, President of the Logismed trade fair, told how Morocco has made logistics and the Supply Chain an essential lever for its competitiveness. You can also be able to detect and decipher trends: the European taxonomy, as Luca Silipo did. And of course you can put the spotlight on the CSP initiatives in which you are involved , like Xavier Derycke, VP Supply Chain Transformation Rexel Europe, on the 2022 guide to higher education to enhance the value of Supply Chain functions produced by Lab RH.

• Choose one key message and one only

Once you have chosen your theme, put forward the idea you want to defend. In order not to get lost, it is important to have a common thread allowing you to select the information that supports your main idea.

• Be concrete

Overly conceptual discourse will scare the reader away, as will generalities. Illustrate what you say with examples, figures, proof of what you say.

• Speak clearly

Avoid technical jargon and buzzwords, be precise and unambiguous.

• Keep it short

Avoid long sentences that will lose your readers. "Subject + verb + complement" is the most effective structure.

• Finish with a flourish

Finally, broaden the debate on the future, give some perspectives or, why not, add a humorous twist, a punchline to end on a high note!   

Once written, send us your editorial to cassandre@francesupplychain.org. If you have any doubts or need advice, we will be there to help you.

Get started, invite your employees to participate, the Letter from France Supply Chain is waiting for you!

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"Would you like to work in the logistics sector?" If you ask this question to people around you or to young graduates, you will probably get a slightly embarrassed pout, a lack of enthusiasm or a quizzical look, with an answer like: "Logistics, which means? Do you work in a warehouse or drive a truck?

Clichés are hard to come by. Even though the health crisis has revealed the key role of logistics in our daily lives, the range of possible jobs and careers is still little known and does not attract many people.

Yet the logistics sector is full of exciting opportunities and challenges. Its growth and constant transformation require the continuous acquisition of new talent in a tight labour market.

So how can we promote our professions and attract the talents of tomorrow?

First, by gaining visibility. We must seize every opportunity to publicise our activities, our challenges and our career opportunities. The speeches made by the leaders of our companies in the general press and the general public highlight our expertise and our contribution to society. Maintaining close relationships with schools is an excellent way to create vocations among engineering and business school students. Engaging in a certification process and entering recognised HR rankings enhance the quality of our candidate and employee experience. All of these steps strengthen our reputation and highlight our employer promise.

Secondly, by explaining in an educational way that logistics is a strategic sector, driven by innovation. The health crisis has shown that we are an essential part of the economy, ensuring the delivery of essential products. We also have a key role to play in the face of the climate challenge to accelerate decarbonisation and make more responsible consumption possible for all. This gives meaning to the activities we carry out on a daily basis.

We have all the cards in hand to offer an exciting working environment. So let's not be shy: let's go and find the talent and offer them progressive and rewarding careers! This starts with a careful candidate process, from recruitment to integration. It also means flexible and collaborative working methods adapted to today's expectations, particularly in terms of teleworking. Finally, it means opportunities for professional development, with training and personalised support.

It is by developing this type of win-win relationship between the company and the people who make it happen that we will meet the challenges before us, and that the answer to the question "Would you want to work in the logistics industry?" will become, "Of course!"

Initiated in June 2021 by the HR LAB, the idea of creating a LAB for young people, by young people began with the ISLI (Kedge Business School) Master's integration seminar in September 2021. There are now 11 students on work-study programmes who make up this LAB. Although we come from different schools and backgrounds, we all have one thing in common, an appetite for the supply chain profession. Promoting and making Supply Chain attractive to future generations and finding the right words to attract young people are the objectives that drive us every day.

We started from scratch, as we often hear in business. Being organised was essential to create a serious, ambitious and sustainable lab. We therefore formed three divisions: project, communication and partnerships.

Our first project was to edit a video presenting the Supply Chain, which will be used for future interventions by Lab Jeunes in student fairs and schools. Still in line with the idea of promoting the Supply Chain to future generations, we are in contact with l'Etudiant, which represents a real entry point to our young talents.

Discovering the Supply Chain is good, but in a playful way is better. To do this, we are working on the creation of a game in the form of a climate fresco that will highlight the diversity of supply chain management professions.

In order to create a real community of young Supply Chain people, we are launching an Instagram page to present our different projects.

While we have the chance to discuss current issues on a weekly basis on the Radio Supply Chain channel, we have also decided to create our own podcast: From Aspiration to Inspiration. This project aims to trace the careers of inspiring supply chain professionals, and you will discover how they built their careers, their successes, their mistakes, their lessons. For the first edition we were lucky enough to interview Vincent Giard, professor emeritus of Paris Dauphine, which will be released soon on our Instagram page @lab_jeunes and on the France Supply Chain Youtube channel.

We are also integrated into the various actions carried out by the HR Lab.

"With Appoline, we were delighted to contribute to the beautiful project led by France Supply Chain, Testimonies of Women in the Supply Chain, which will be launched very soon", says Emma.

Some members of the Lab Jeunes wanted to share their feedback with you:

 "It is an enriching adventure that allows us to develop both personally and professionally, combining group work and networking," says Wilfried.

"This project, which requires a lot of investment, is complete and allows us to be in contact with players in the supply chain. My only regret at the moment is that the diversity of our group, with non-aligned schedules, prevents us from meeting physically, which is a hindrance to the development of the Lab" Charly.

We are preparing for the handover in the autumn of 2022 with a lot of plans in mind.

Finally, we would like to thank the France Supply Chain association for their support and trust. We sincerely hope that this Lab will allow the Supply Chain professions to become attractive to the younger generations.

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