Translated interview from Bloovi (in Dutch)

Maarten Arnouts (OMP) and Tom Van Herzele (EY Belgium) (©Emilie Bonjé)

OMP’s supply chain planning software is part of a massive transformation within organizations

Supply chain organizations have faced numerous disruptions, from the Suez Canal incident to COVID-19, leading companies to reevaluate their processes. To answer these disruptions, organizations need to leverage technology, causing them to transform the organization and redefine people’s careers in the supply chain sector.

It’s key to see this transformation as a journey, where the company’s backbone is well-positioned before supply chain technology is deployed, says Tom Van Herzele, Partner at EY Belgium and head of supply chain services.“This way companies can avoid the risk of simply replacing processes and people with software, without contributing anything to efficiency, cost reduction, and so on.”

Putting the people at the core

It’s clear that supply chains have become overly complex and data sets are too large, so the organization has to ensure that planning can be done through a platform that brings people together, since it can no longer be managed by a single planner. Bringing stakeholders together, deploying technology, etc., undoubtedly also requires a reorganization of the organization's working methods. “Indeed, you have to deploy people differently if you want to manage your supply chain planning optimally,” Tom Van Herzele agrees.  

"After all, people remain the foundation, as they have experience-based insight into how the organization works."

This transformation has exposed the importance of people processes at the organization’s core, shifting supply chain planners from a linear and transactional role to becoming value chain planners.

Building bridges

Such a reorganization comes down to the creation of more centralized hubs within the company, building bridges between the different domains within the supply chain - demand planning, supply planning, operations planning, sales, etc. This enables processes to begin to align so people can start working end-to-end. The only way to build those bridges is by gradually deploying the right technology. And that’s where OMP comes into the picture.

“We unite all stakeholders within supply chain business on a single cloud-based platform,” says Maarten Arnouts, Global Alliance Lead at OMP. This means that instead of working in silos as organizations frequently did before, everyone is looking at the same datasets and planning constraints, so that a single central decision-making unit can be formed."

"This builds strong bridges throughout the entire supply chain, reconnecting value chain planners, and adding value to the organization by bringing people together."

Contact Maarten for more info.