Suntory, a global beverage company, was facing challenges in managing its supply chain responsibly and sustainably. The company had a mission to create harmony with people and nature, which required sourcing more responsibly. However, the company was struggling with managing both reputational and actualized risks at supplier sites. Suntory was independently managing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) to mitigate supply chain-related risks. However, the company's global operations had different approaches to managing suppliers, with modern slavery legislation varying between the different countries Suntory operates within. Suntory recognized that to make a greater impact and deliver positive change for workers within their global supply chain, they needed to work within a broader framework.

Symrise AG, a global supplier of fragrances, flavours, food, nutrition, and cosmetic ingredients, is committed to operating and sourcing responsibly. With around 10,000 raw materials sourced from over 100 countries, sustainable procurement is a core part of the Symrise strategy. The company recognises the importance of responsible and sustainable operations for today’s business and future success. However, the company also acknowledges a growing interest among corporate investors in promoting social and environmental sustainability. This presented a challenge to integrate sustainability targets with corporate financing, creating shared goals to form one integrated strategy.

Waitrose & Partners, a major British supermarket chain with over 300 locations, was seeking to ensure ethical practices throughout their supply chain. The company believes in maintaining high standards of environmental responsibility and community wellbeing, which they consider integral to good business. However, they faced challenges in ensuring that all sites in their supply chain were carrying out ethical due diligence in line with industry standards. They needed a way to understand more about their suppliers and their ways of working, and to identify any issues that needed to be addressed. They also wanted to ensure that workers in their supply chain had safe and hygienic working conditions, were treated fairly, and were paid correctly.

4flow, a leading global provider of supply chain consulting, software and fourth party logistics (4PL) services, was facing a significant challenge. The company was dealing with rapidly increasing deviations from previously planned transport processes. Early detection of these deviations was crucial to avoid additional costs and maintain efficiency. However, without real-time data, achieving absolute supply chain visibility was a daunting task. As a neutral 4PL that is not fleet-based, 4flow did not have access to real-time transportation data. The lack of visibility resulted in inefficiencies and increased costs from deviations and exceptions, such as late penalties and dispute management costs. In the worst cases, it led to extended supply chain disruptions. Late identified delays meant the time needed to take preventative measures was lost, potentially leading to late fees and penalties. Manual communication between carriers, customers and transport planners was also required if shipping status data was not automatically exchanged between supply chain partners.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC), a FTSE 100 company, operates in 28 markets across three continents, generating revenues of over €7 billion annually from more than 2 billion unit cases of product. As the third largest strategic bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola HBC’s geographical reach is vast, stretching from the west coast of Ireland to the east coast of Russia, and from the Baltics to Nigeria. However, the scale, diversity of countries, and complexity of Coca-Cola HBC’s operation creates a large administrative effort to coordinate with transport carriers. This complexity made handling exceptions time-consuming and impacted the potential to improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The lack of visibility of deliveries for recipients and customers further complicated the situation, with administrative teams frequently occupied with non-value adding tasks.

Eckes-Granini, a leading European producer of fruit juice, was facing a significant challenge in its distribution process. The company's strict slot management rules imposed by retail clients were resulting in high penalties each year. Additionally, the company was making a large number of empty runs for return journeys, which not only increased costs but also contributed to CO2 emissions. The company was looking for a solution that could streamline its operations, increase carrier efficiency, reduce loading times, and lower its carbon footprint.

Ewals Cargo Care, a full-service logistics player, was facing challenges in maintaining real-time visibility of their shipments. The company, which handles approximately 2,750 shipments each day from 30 offices across 14 countries, was struggling with delays, port congestion, and the impact of the pandemic. Despite having equipped their own fleet of trucks with GPS, the company was unable to maintain a centralized platform to aggregate all road visibility data due to the use of different onboard telematics systems by their subcontractors. This lack of a central platform led to visibility gaps and inaccurate information on loading, delivery, delays, and dwell times. The company recognized the need for real-time shipment tracking capabilities to meet increasing competitive pressures and changing customer service level expectations.

Faurecia Seating, the global leader in automotive seating components and complete seat design and assembly, faced significant challenges in managing its highly complex supply chain. The company, which operates across 74 production sites in 23 countries, was grappling with unexpected carrier costs due to waiting times or extra distances travelled by carriers. Additionally, the disruption in the supply of components led to costly production line halts. The company also incurred high penalties for unanticipated late deliveries. These challenges not only affected the company's profitability but also its customer satisfaction levels, as its customers demanded reliable and consistent deliveries of seat parts to sustain their Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing processes.

Fressnapf Group, Europe’s largest pet supplies retailer, faced a significant challenge in managing its vast and complex supply chain that spans from China to North America and throughout Europe. The company had no visibility of its container shipments until they arrived in Germany, which severely impacted the execution of promotions and customer satisfaction. The lack of real-time tracking information was a major issue, especially considering the company's reliance on multiple modes of transportation, including deep sea and road, for its 10,000 containers and over 25,000 truck deliveries annually. The situation was further exacerbated by fluctuations in delivery performance during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for precise knowledge on the movement of shipments to and from distribution centers.

Krone, one of Europe's largest trailer manufacturers, was facing a growing demand for trailers with built-in Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) prediction capabilities. This was driven by the evolving digital requirements of shippers who were increasingly expecting more smart features to be integrated into their products. The company, which generates €1.9 billion in sales annually and employs over 5,300 workers, wanted to add more world-class connected services to their portfolio. This strategy was aimed at better serving the needs of their customers in 15 key markets throughout Europe and achieving their mission to offer the most complete connected trailer service within the Logistics 4.0 world.

Magnus Logistics, a leading logistics service provider in the Baltics, was facing a significant challenge in their operations. With customer expectations constantly evolving in the supply chain and logistics world, Magnus recognized an opportunity to further digitalize operations to improve the level of service offered. A visibility gap existed across their transport operations, for own fleet as well as sub-contracted services. This made it difficult to anticipate delays and impossible to warn customers in advance. Without this information, customer satisfaction could be jeopardized and financial penalties incurred. Furthermore, many large scale customers required shipment tracking of some kind within RFPs, creating an opportunity cost associated with lack of visibility.

Nexans, a global player in energy transition, faced significant challenges in managing its intricate and far-reaching value chain. The company's vast operations, which include dozens of factories across the world and thousands of deliveries at any given time, were prone to disruptions. These disruptions were often due to a lack of visibility into incoming deliveries, leading to high inventory buffers and supply chain bottlenecks. The company's customers were unable to understand where goods were or who was responsible for them, which negatively impacted Nexans's relationships with them. Nexans wanted to improve the quality of service offered to key clients, increase margin, and build strong, long-lasting customer relationships. However, simply increasing inventory buffers was not a viable solution, as the company wanted to keep working capital to a minimum. Nexans also faced bottlenecks throughout the chain, including delays in unloading deliveries when they arrived at customer sites unexpectedly. The company sought to streamline their transportation activities, improve visibility, and enhance their supply chain reliability.

Prysmian Group, a world leader in cable manufacturing, energy solutions, and telecom cables and systems, operates in a highly competitive market where product offerings are similar amongst market players. This makes service a key focus for differentiation. However, Prysmian’s customer service was suboptimal due to a lack of transparency across shipments and deliveries. Without readily available data on the status of shipments, staff spent considerable time contacting their logistics department to confirm whether goods were on their way to customers. Additionally, Prysmian found it challenging to accurately forecast customer orders, which is critical for ensuring a reliable supply of product. The company relied on its customers to provide these forecasts, which varied greatly in terms of accuracy and reliability, leading to poor visibility of customer stock levels and sell-through rates. This made it difficult to predict or rapidly respond to changes in demand, making it hard to replenish inventory levels efficiently.

Rubix, Europe's largest supplier of industrial maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) products and services, faced a significant challenge in improving customer satisfaction and reducing operational costs. The company, with 650 locations across 23 European countries, employs over 8,500 employees and serves more than 220,000 customers. However, the company's annual customer net promoter score (CNPS) survey revealed that customers desired better visibility of their order statuses, including access to shipping URLs, event information, and delivery confirmation. This lack of visibility impacted a significant portion of Rubix's 3,000 customer service staff across Europe, who had to handle delivery inquiries over the phone, requiring further inquiries with carriers and drivers. Furthermore, many of Rubix's customers operate large-scale assembly lines, relying on on-time delivery of critical components daily to ensure efficient operations and high standards of quality.

In conflict-affected and high-risk areas (CAHRA), the extraction and trade of minerals such as tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold can contribute to conflicts and human rights abuses. These raw materials are used in a wide range of products, including everyday electronic devices. The challenge lies in promoting responsible mineral trade, which requires transparency and traceability in the supply chain. The lack of a reliable system to track and trace these minerals from their source to their final destination makes it difficult to ensure ethical practices in their extraction and trade. The ITSCI Programme was established to address this issue, focusing on the supply chains in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.

MSD Animal Health, a globally operating pharmaceutical company, faced a significant challenge in managing the order intake from thousands of veterinarians using their products. The company needed a system that could accurately predict the quantity of medicine each veterinarian would require each month. The lack of such a system led to inefficiencies and waste, as it was difficult to anticipate demand and manage inventory effectively. The challenge was to develop a software solution that could automate the prediction process, streamline order intake, and improve overall efficiency.

NEXT, a UK-based retailer with over 500 stores in the UK and Ireland and around 200 franchised stores in over 30 countries overseas, is committed to the responsible sourcing of timber and timber-containing products. The company's vision is to work with supply chains to deliver timber products that come from responsible or certified sources such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). NEXT aims to achieve a target of sourcing 100% of its timber from responsible and certified sources by 2025. However, the challenge lies in meeting the due diligence requirements as stated by the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which was designed to reduce illegal logging by ensuring that illegal timber and timber products can't be sold on the EU market.

The Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) is an international initiative that was established in 2006 with the aim of promoting responsible soy production. The organization is committed to ensuring the growth of responsible soy production through the commitment of the main stakeholders in the soy value chain and through a global standard for responsible production. The RTRS standard for responsible soy production includes requirements to halt conversion of areas with high conservation value, to promote best management practices, to ensure fair working conditions, and to respect land tenure claims. However, implementing a certification scheme for production and one for Chain of Custody posed a significant challenge.

The safety of meat, dairy, and eggs begins at the farm level, with animal feed playing a significant role. The supply chain of compound feed involves suppliers of raw material, producers, and farmers. SecureFeed was established to ensure the safety and quality of compound feed. However, the compound feed sector has a complex structure with many different stakeholders, making it challenging to manage and collect data. This complexity is also seen in other industries such as pork, beef, fruit, vegetable, and horticulture. The challenge was to connect these supply chains and ensure transparency throughout the sector while responding rapidly to any issues.

The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a certification system designed for woody biomass used in industrial, large-scale energy production. The program aims to provide assurance that woody biomass is sourced from legal and sustainable sources, allowing companies in the biomass sector to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. SBP’s Data Transfer System (DTS) holds a wealth of information on biomass supplied with an SBP claim. The DTS facilitates the collection and carriage of energy data throughout the biomass supply chain, enabling the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions and the identification of any carbon savings achieved by burning biomass in place of fossil fuel sources. Initially, SBP used a combination of questionnaires and checklists based on Microsoft Word and their CRM system to record information on certifications and audits. However, this system was not efficient and did not provide the level of data quality and insight required.

The Rainforest Alliance, an international non-profit organization, is committed to conserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices, and consumer behavior. Operating in 74 nations, the organization collaborates with various stakeholders in the supply chain, including producers, suppliers, brand owners, and retailers, to improve sustainability and livelihoods, and preserve wildlife and forests. However, managing such a vast and complex supply chain, especially for commodities like cocoa, coffee, and bananas, presents significant challenges. The organization needed a way to collect and analyze data from the start of the supply chain to the finished labeled goods, to manage processes more efficiently and maintain the credibility of the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal.

Tony’s Chocolonely, a chocolate company founded in 2005 by Dutch journalist Teun van der Keuken, was established with the aim of transforming the cocoa industry and eradicating child slavery. The founder was appalled to discover the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry and decided to create a chocolate brand dedicated to achieving a 100% slave-free chocolate industry. However, the challenge lay in ensuring transparency and traceability in the supply chain. The company chose to work directly with farming cooperatives in Ghana and Ivory Coast, but needed a way to monitor and ensure that the cocoa beans were sourced ethically, without the involvement of child labour. The company also aimed to improve the livelihood of farmers and train them in better agricultural practices.

The Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) is a non-profit association that promotes ethical sourcing, ensuring that companies and their suppliers source natural ingredients in a manner that respects biodiversity and human rights. UEBT provides advisory, training, and capacity development services related to ethical sourcing, particularly in Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), a key aspect of the UEBT standard. However, managing and verifying compliance with ABS rules and best practices across multiple stakeholders, including UEBT members, their suppliers, and certification bodies, posed a significant challenge. The organization needed a robust system to streamline and optimize its audit management process, facilitate supplier onboarding and risk assessment, manage certificate information, and generate comprehensive reports.

Verso Corporation, a leading producer of graphic, specialty, and packaging paper and market pulp, was facing significant challenges with its manual tracking practices. With two manufacturing locations, two distribution centers, and 30 local warehouses, the company was losing hundreds of hours per month due to inefficient and time-consuming manual tracking. This lack of visibility into the transit process often led to customer service representatives interrupting the logistics team to ascertain the status of customer loads. Additionally, high carrier turnover rates complicated the process of uploading EDI data from carriers into a portal for customers to track their orders. Late shipments were particularly costly due to customers' tight press deadlines, with press downtime translating to thousands of dollars in lost revenue—a cost typically covered by Verso.

The global pharmaceutical company, established in 1977, faced significant challenges in its freight invoice verification process. With hundreds of shipments every month, the company operated on a global long-term price agreement with its freight forwarders. However, errors in the invoice verification process were affecting the productivity and efficiency of its logistics and accounts teams. The logistics team had to manually check every invoice and forward it to the account and finance department for approval. This labor-intensive process involved a large team and kept them from focusing on more critical tasks. Over 4% of the invoices received were duplicates, and the entirely manual verification process made seeking approvals, processing payments, and following up with vendors for the correct invoices extremely difficult and time-consuming. The process was prone to errors, leading to overpayments due to unchecked invoices that did not match the initial quotation. There was also a lack of standardisation and transparency in the invoice reconciliation process. The auditing process was inefficient and complex due to the lack of a consolidated repository to document the invoices and their status.

A leading tyre manufacturing company based in Mumbai, India, with production facilities across the globe, faced a significant challenge due to the Suez Canal blockade in March 2021. The blockade, caused by a skyscraper-sized container ship named Evergreen, left about 200 ships stranded at either end of the canal, severely impacting global trade. The financial implications were massive, with the blockade amounting to a loss of nearly £7 billion of goods a day, or approximately £290 million an hour. The tyre manufacturer's westbound and eastbound shipments were halted, impacting cargo worth $18.5 million. This resulted in delays in the delivery of finished goods, affecting eight customers across Europe and the US. Furthermore, the supply of raw materials to production facilities in India was severely disrupted, causing significant interruptions in the production cycle.

HaulMatch, a leading online automobile shipping broker, was facing significant challenges due to a lack of visibility over shipments. The company's shipments, which often took 20-30 days of transit time, were difficult to track, leading to numerous queries from shippers about the status of their shipments. This required HaulMatch’s internal team to invest several hours in fetching the latest update on their customer’s shipment location. The team had to visit third-party websites for updates on shipment location and then share the details with their customers, a process that was time-consuming, tedious, and prone to errors. Furthermore, their customers could not leverage crucial insights such as visibility on the carriers offering them the best service, trade routes that ensure cost optimisation and speedy deliveries. The inefficiencies in tracking updates led to numerous queries regarding the status of the shipment, leading to customer dissatisfaction.

The company, a leading chemical distributor with a presence in over 11 countries, faced significant challenges due to the pandemic-driven port congestion that affected global trade. With over 200 international shipments per month, ensuring timely delivery was a top priority. However, the port congestion disrupted over 51% of the company’s shipments. The prolonged port delays impacted the production cycles of the company’s suppliers, especially in the far East, North America, and Europe, compromising delivery schedules across regions. The company also struggled with a capacity crunch as vessels queued outside ports and turnaround times increased. Securing cargo space became challenging due to lack of visibility over space availability and changes in lead times. Additionally, communication gaps arose as keeping stakeholders informed about changes in arrival timings, delays in transshipments, etc., became increasingly difficult due to a lack of reliable information on port delays and inefficiencies in tracking updates.

The company, a global leader in specialty generic pharmaceuticals, was facing significant challenges in managing its logistics operations. With over 100 monthly shipments via ocean and air, tracking the progress of all freight and assessing the performance of Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) was a daunting task. The communication process was inefficient, with updates on task completion being shared via emails, leading to multiple email trails for each shipment. This made it difficult to map and audit the progress of every shipment. The inability to track shipment status and assign follow-up tasks to stakeholders resulted in hefty penalties like demurrage and detention charges. Furthermore, the negligence of the LSPs could not be identified until the fine was levied. The documentation process was also unorganized, with all shipment documents being shared via email. The lack of a common repository for these documents led to process inefficiencies and difficulty in tracking missing documents.

Mega WeCare, a global pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products manufacturer, was facing several challenges in its logistics operations. The company had a limited vendor pool, which restricted the number of negotiations for each shipment, leading to higher shipping costs. The traditional method of negotiating deals via calls and emails was hampering the productivity and overall efficiency of its logistics team. Many of the company's shipments were contract-based, preventing them from leveraging competitive rates throughout the year. Additionally, the annual contract prices included buffers and contingent costs, resulting in additional expenses for the company. The manual creation of reports led to inefficient data analysis and unclear insights, further complicating the situation.