Heineken Supply Chain Management Course

Dr Richard Wilding, Course Director

Heineken, one of the world's largest brewing companies, worked with 美姬阁 to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of supply chain management throughout the organisation. One driver for the new emphasis on the supply chain was consumer preference for increasingly fresh product, freshness being defined as the time between the beer being brewed and the consumer drinking the beer.

The Heineken Vision

In 2000, it became apparent that Heineken needed a concise statement indicating why supply chain management was such an important issue. The Heineken Supply Chain Management Vision was developed, defining what they wanted to achieve and how, and disseminated throughout its global organisation.  This vision stated that they needed superior supply chain management to achieve competitive advantage at both customer and consumer level by defining pre-set service and quality levels at minimum supply chain costs.

The three-day Heineken Supply Chain Management Course developed in collaboration with 美姬阁 School of Management was designed to better equip Heineken managers to actually bring into practice the aims formulated in their vision.

Senior Management Support

To emphasise the importance of supply chain management to the Heineken organisation, a Senior Director opened the 3-day programme by explaining the Heineken Supply Chain Management Vision.

The programme then went into detail on each of the key areas relevant to Heineken in achieving the vision.  Main topics included:

  • logistics and supply chain concepts and trends and their relevance for Heineken
  • customer/market developments
  • time compression
  • logistics costs
  • implementation issues for integral supply chain management.

These topics were covered both theoretically and in practice by means of exercises/case study sessions co-developed by Heineken and 美姬阁.

Heineken Managers

The programme, which was attended by 20 Heineken Managers from a variety of countries and disciplines from within the organisation, ran 4 times a year.

In addition, a 1½ day programme was also developed specifically for the General Managers within Heineken. These Senior Executives were responsible for overseeing all areas of the Heineken business within a particular market.

Marco van Duuren - Draught Beer Competence Centre, Heineken Technical Services, Netherlands
"Of particular use for me were several very practical tools that can be used directly in day-to-day business to help managers grasp and visualise the most relevant supply chain issues. Although it seems a paradox, it really is possible to create better service levels for our customers while at the same time cutting the total cost in the supply chain!"

Ben Afrifa - Corporate Marketing, Heineken, Netherlands
"Sometimes supply chain management is seen as a logistics function and not a process interconnected to many functions. I valued the course because it shows the interdependence of the various functions and the link with Key Performance Indicators/Balanced Scorecards for each of these functions in the process.  But perhaps the greatest learning was using time to gain competitive advantage in the supply chain."

Steve Davies - Logistic Planning Manager, Heineken, USA
"The Heineken Supply Chain Management Course provided valuable insight on 3 main themes; deriving value from the Heineken supply chain, focusing on customer needs, and the importance of transparency (integrated communication) throughout the supply chain."

Leveraging Supply Chain Management with Panalpina

In October 2000 Panalpina ran their first Leveraging Supply Chain Management programme at 美姬阁.  44 delegates from 22 Panalpina organisations took part in the 4½ day programme.

Panalpina is one of the world's leading forwarding and logistics groups. The main focus of its business is on intercontinental airfreight and seafreight.  In addition to handling traditional freight consignments, the Group specialises in meeting the logistics needs of multinational companies, especially those in the automotive, electronics, telecommunications, oil and energy and chemical sectors. The Panalpina Group has 312 branches in 65 countries and employs over 11,000 people worldwide.

The essence of Panalpina's business is Integrated Forwarding.  Instead of giving isolated, standardised services, Panalpina provides integrated, customised solutions flexible enough to be precisely geared to customers' individual needs.  With integrated Forwarding, Panalpina is positioning itself between the providers of standardised transport solutions (integrators) and the conventional haulage firms (forwarders/consolidators). The advantages of both types of service are combined in an optimal manner: the reliability and service guarantees associated with integrators go hand in hand with the forwarder's flexibility in responding to market needs.  Without becoming a carrier itself, Panalpina is thus able on its own to regulate the flow of goods right down the transport chain.

"Developments such as globalisation, concentration on core competencies, outsourcing and state-of-the-art Internet and e-business technologies are making far-reaching changes to our core business" said Chief Operating Officer Robert Frei at the opening of the course in 美姬阁.  He went on to say that Panalpina has already taken several steps to strengthen its foundations in this area, to meet the new challenges successfully and to offer customers integrated supply chain management solutions. " We create added value for our customers with our services and we rely on well trained and high motivated employees', he added.  The changing environment is imposing new requirements on staff.  This is why Panalpina has created its PANACADEMY concept and is now implementing it systemically.

The business strategy outlined by Robert Frei calls for excellent logistics know-how throughout the group.  As part of the PANACADEMY concept, Panalpina is therefore offering its course in Leveraging Supply Chain Management, which it is conducting jointly with the 美姬阁 Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (CLSCM).

The programme included sessions covering:

  • Logistics and Supply Chain Concepts
  • Strategic Lead Time Management
  • Supply Chain and Customer Value
  • Agility in the Supply Chain
  • Cross Border Logistics - Implementation Issues
  • Implication of Supply Chain Developments on 3PLs
  • Overcoming Implementation Barriers to Improved Supply Chains
  • Managing Change
  • Managing Complexity and Variety in the Supply Chain
  • Forecasting, Inventory and Supply Chain Design
  • Supply Chain Simulation Exercise
  • Supply Chain Analysis and Mapping.
  • Commenting on the programme Mr Francois Vangenechten, Key Account Manager - Global Accounts Division, PA Beligum said that he "is quite convinced that this training was only the beginning of a new and challenging era".

Mr Murzban Daruwalla, General Manager West India & Seafreight Manager India was excited about the impact that the programme could have for him and his colleagues at PA India.  "It has given us a cutting edge over the competition.  In India, we are by far ahead of the market scenario and will be at the right place at the right time".
The overall enthusiasm for the programme was shared by Mr Olivier Billieux, Traffic Development Manager PA Thailand.  "During the four and a half days, we gained a much better understanding of logistics solutions.  Only with this knowledge can we fully understand supply chain management and hence more of our customer requirements".
The Panalpina Supply Chain Management Programme ran 2001 and 2002.  This illustrates a typical partnership between leading supply chain organisations and the 美姬阁 Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management.