As part of its three-year strategic development plan, “2025 One Way“, Somfy has made the reliability of its Supply Chain one of the key priorities for improving service quality and customer satisfaction.
Somfy has a global supply chain covering sixty countries, with as many warehouses and eleven factories, to deliver to its customers (over 45,000 worldwide) within short lead times. With a diversity of distribution channels to suit different types of customer (professionals and individuals). «We needed a global vision of our supply chain, to make it more reliable and digital. Previously, it had been relatively fragmented by country and brand, as a result of the Group’s growth.“says Emmanuelle Boisseau, Director of Supply Chain Excellence at Somfy.
Support that creates value
To achieve this objective, Somfy has chosen the SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning) solution. After an initial wave of deployment in distribution subsidiaries, Somfy launched an optimization project with the support of Teamwork teams. The project began in February 2023 and is scheduled to last a year. The first step is to optimize the solution in the face of multiple functional and technical challenges. The second phase involves implementing the Core Model on industrial sites.
«We have chosen to strengthen our resources around the IBP solution, with the help of Teamwork, in particular to better respond to business needs, identify possible improvements and new sources of value creation.“The value of the integrator lies both in its knowledge of the IBP solution and in the business expertise of its consultants, which is essential for formalizing requirements. “Over and above the functional and technical gains in planning, the new functionalities implemented will also make it possible to ensure the reliability of delivery dates announced to customers,” adds the Supply Chain Excellence Director. There are also plans to enhance dashboards for users.
Managing change: a major challenge
Change management remains an unavoidable issue. «We have moved from local solutions, with little support and few internal benchmarking possibilities, to a standard, robust solution. This is a real transformation for users: it is therefore essential to reinforce their skills and support them in their new ways of working and their new roles, as the implementation of such a solution impacts job content and user responsibilities. “says Emmanuelle Boisseau. Somfy has developed business communities and strengthened its training programs.
In addition to the key point of change management, the Supply Chain Excellence Director highlights two other areas for attention. On the one hand, to ensure data quality: “Their reliability is critical, as is their completeness and ease of access. It’s a real challenge that doesn’t just involve migration and upgrades, but also organization and business processes.. ” Somfy has strengthened its Data Excellence team. On the other hand, get support: “It’s a good idea to call on the expertise of an integrator, so that you can master the solution, focus on priority issues, and help your in-house teams build their skills,” recommends Emmanuelle Boisseau.
