We were engaged by a major high-street household products chain to assist with improving sourcing processes and implementing a new collaborative sourcing platform based on product lifecycle management (PLM) software. We implemented a sourcing system which ensured visibility of a clear brief across the supplier, agent and buying teams working to a common critical path. We also devised a system to support supplier selection and supplier management through a quality and ethical evaluation.
Challenge
We were engaged by a major British high-street chain which sells household, garden furnishings, hardware and health & beauty products.
The company currently has over 350 stores across the UK and continues to grow due to its aggressive pricing and established customer base.
With a focus on price and quality while improving margins, they significantly increased the number of products it designs, sourcing directly from suppliers in the Far East and India.
As a result, the company needed an experienced partner to assist with improving sourcing processes and implementing a new collaborative sourcing platform based on Product Lifecycle Management software.
Approach
We led the project from the inception, defining the end-to-end sourcing process as well as the business requirements for the new system.
We developed a phased approach for the implementation with an extended rollout to onboard each category at the beginning of their next buying season.
Our team managed the initial implementations while developing the internal change capability for the client to go on and complete the rollout across all categories and functions.
Outcome
We implemented a sourcing system which ensured visibility of a clear brief across the supplier, agent and buying teams working to a common critical path. We also devised a system to support supplier selection and supplier management through a quality and ethical evaluation.
In order to efficiently roll out this change we developed the client’s in-house change capability to support governance, communication and training.
The result has enabled a significant expansion in the sourcing team, based across the UK and Hong Kong, with increased capability to support the sourcing and quality control for more product areas.
