Supply Chain Strategy for Consumer Goods and Services Companies

Traditionally, consumer packaged goods companies have looked at the supply chain primarily as a means to cost-effectively push their product into the marketplace without developing real insight into retail behavior and an understanding of customer and consumer values by segment.

Recently, consumer packaged goods companies have made efforts to understand these complex elements, yet the primary focus generally remains on cost and cost reduction. Consequently, companies’ supply chain strategies are often disconnected from the business strategy and objectives.

Accenture’s industry experience combined with our proprietary High Performance Business research indicate that consumer packaged goods companies must look at the supply chain from the shopper’s perspective and not solely from a manufacturing perspective. Although this would represent a major change and require a realignment of the supply chain strategy to that of the business strategy for many companies, our research shows it is imperative.

Accenture’s research and expertise in building world-class supply chain organizations have helped many global companies develop the physical, technological and managerial ability to cope with rapid and unpredictable change. We have extensive experience in developing superior supply chain strategies and assisting with efficient execution to help clients on their path to achieving high performance in consumer goods. 

Accenture’s teams of supply chain, business process and industry specialists help companies segment their end-to-end value chain for markets, products, channels and demand and then align replenishment processes and capabilities to fulfill these different requirements. Our solution equips companies with the following capabilities that underpin sustainable supply chain performance:

• Alignment of the supply chain strategy with the business strategy, whether it focuses on product innovation, customer intimacy or low-cost operations.
  
  
• Development of multiple supply chains to meet the needs of a segmented customer base, factoring in service levels, costs and the demand levels for their products.
  
  
• Establishing differentiated replenishment strategies to balance low-cost country-sourcing/manufacturing, demand variability, logistics costs, sustainability and availability targets.
  
  
• Understanding and implementation of the right “push versus pull” boundary for each of the supply chain designs.
  
  
• End-to-end process integration across companies, systems and people by ensuring a clear view back through the supplier’s and the supplier’s supplier’s operations is transparent.

The success of leveraging these capabilities is determined by an organization’s ability to understand the cost to serve and the delivery of differentiated service propositions that exceed customer expectations.

Contact us to discuss how Accenture can help your consumer packaged goods company develop and execute a supply chain strategy that makes the most of the opportunities in today’s global economy.