CÉMOI GROUP

The Challenge:

SETTING UP A COMPLEX SUPPLY CHAIN BASED ON EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT AND AGILE PLANNING

How can we best optimize how the supply chain works when information systems and related processes are heterogeneous and disparate? What is the best way to address the intense and increasingly competitive pressure coming from the market? These are good questions. There are obvious answers and they come from innovation, whether it is in applied research, combination of flavors, combination of textures or product quality. This is necessary, but it may not be enough. We need to rethink the tools that the supply chain uses. We have to standardize, centralize, secure and share data to establish effective, efficient and agile planning.

“In the past, our customer service level was 89% and our inventory level covered 50 days,” explains Bernard Lasry, CÉMOI Group Supply Chain and Customer Relations Director. “Our business is complex because we aim for a great number of targets (consumers or industrial), with many products (bars, chocolate confectionery, assortments, distributor brand chocolate, hollow molds, powdered chocolate, chocolate pastes and ingredients, etc.), and many seasonal or permanent production sites. Two seasons, Easter and Christmas, combined with our sales forecasts, have an essential and direct impact on our procurement, our stock and our sales success. We generate between 25 and 30% of our overall turnover during these periods, so we know that before the hour, we must be right on time because anything later is too late!”

The Solution:

PLANNING MEANS ANTICIPATING AND ANTICIPATING MEANS OPTIMIZING…

To address their supply chain needs, CÉMOI selected QAD DSCP . It’s a long-standing partnership that is now being strengthened.

“We wanted to start by implementing a solution for planning and optimizing our production on seasonal sites,” explains Lasry.  “It’s a good way to move from theory to practice, quickly and safely,” adds Lasry.

Following the implementation of QAD Production Planning, Demand Planning was deployed to adjust and improve sales forecasts accuracy, distribution planning for inventory optimization throughout the supply network and finally Procurement Planning to optimize supply plans. All the supply chain activities are covered by QAD’s end-to-end solutions, gradually reaching out to all the sites. “The backing of the service and support teams has been unfailing from the very beginning, whether for functional, technological or organizational issues. We have grown together,” states Lasry.

Once information systems were standardized, ensuring data centralization for better collaboration and agility was the next step.

“Several years ago, our plant in Barcelona, Spain, burned down. In just 48 hours, production for this country, a great enthusiast for CÉMOI chocolates, was wiped out. To cover the needs of the Spanish market overnight, we had to resize the other sites, reorganize inventory allocations and production, without causing any penalization or degradation in the other markets. It was quite a feat, made possible by the strength and flexibility of QAD DSCP, among other things, and by the commitment of our employees,” explains Lasry.

The Benefits:

CÉMOI CUTS STOCK BY 50% AND ACHIEVES A 99% CUSTOMER SERVICE LEVEL WITH QAD DSCP

CÉMOI experienced several benefits from the implementation of QAD DSCP:

• The different types of sales forecasts (on demand, permanent, seasonal, on-order, per contract, etc.) are modeled, centralized and shared for better responsiveness
• The Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is optimized by allowing for industrial feasibility, stocks, deliveries, versus sales objectives to make just-in-time production possible
• Flow and organization modeling provides a real-time view of how the network is developing and of how much it costs

The CÉMOI Group is on the move, whether through internal or external growth, pushing back the boundaries, or constantly challenging its own organization. Also, production models can change every two years. Research and innovation are part of the corporate culture, as is social and environmental respect. Technology must adapt to the life of the company, not the other way around. With QAD DSCP, the CÉMOI Group has the experience, the support of QAD and its established knowledge of the food and beverage industry.

“Our logisticians, planners and forecasters have changed considerably, now part of the Y or X generation, born with technology. They need the right tools. The market has also changed, with the advent of on-line sales platforms, immediacy has become part of our daily lives, or almost. And despite this, or perhaps thanks to it, we have managed to increase our customer service level, now standing at above 99%. We are not far from fulfilling the absolute requirement. We are working to ensure our deliveries to within a half hour and our inventory level has been halved,” says Lasry.

Everything is ready for the supply chain project team to take a new step forward with QAD and its end-to-end demand and supply chain planning.

“Together, with our experience and expertise, we will capitalize on these two key strengths to develop our supply chain,” says Lasry.

Indeed, CÉMOI continues to develop its S&OP approach, which will give it the opportunity to improve collaboration between departments. Including sales and marketing as early as possible in the forecasting and planning process enables CÉMOI to reach the right decisions. Agility and security are essential for multi-level and inter-site planning.


*QAD Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP) was formerly known as QAD DynaSys