- Case Study -
FloretteFlorette
Florette Salads have become a household quality brand across Europe.
Part of the Agrial Group, they have put down roots in nine European countries: France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, UK and Ireland. Their home in the UK is Lichfield, where they have been since 1999.
Year Founded
Overview
Strategically Incorporating Planning & Forecasting into the business
For Florette, becoming the most innovative and efficient business in the leafy prepared salad and vegetables sector by supplying fresh, healthy and practical food to as many people as possible, means ensuring that planning and forecasting is effective all the way along their supply chain.
The UK supply chain team embarked on a programme of courses to develop their understanding of best supply chain practice around key Supply Chain functions including:
- Effective Communication in the Supply Chain, using the Insights Discovery© model
- The Fundamentals of Supply Chain (to fill any gaps in knowledge)
- Sales & Operational Planning
- Demand Planning
- Effective Forecasting
Supply Chain Academy experts, together with members of the Florette supply chain team, delivered the courses using real-life examples, so that the courses were highly practical and relevant to the company.
The training has enabled the team to explore their own practice, so they could visualise improvements and then deliver action plans, to deliver an improved, cost-effective service to their customers.
Supply Chain Academy used the Insights Discovery© Personality profiling model that uses a simple visual methodology that supports effective communication. The model adds an easily understandable engaging communication tool, that delegates began to use immediately and effectively when they left the training room.
The fundamentals of Supply Chain course gave an overview of the key Supply Chain functions, including the basic terminology used as a common language and the key processes that drive supply chain performance. The various team members’ job roles were discussed so colleagues could understand their strategy and how they operate.
To understand performance the team looked at S&OP which is at the heart of balancing supply and demand and aims at aligning the company around a common financial, demand and supply chain. The team gained a better understanding of how to manage the relationships between sales and marketing groups on the demand side and the growers and other operational departments on the supply side.
The team looked into demand planning and forecasting in the context of the traditional planning loop (plan, do, act), looking at how they could plan for demand to meet clear objectives. It also incorporated measuring performance and taking action to get back on plan to meet those objectives in times of uncertainty.
Feedback
Richard Brooksbank, BUUK Supply Chain Director at Florette confirmed that the improvements in team performance are already noticeable with real bottom line impact.
He says “The team have made real positive changes since the roll-out of the Supply Chain Academy programme; they have increasing confidence in our forecasts and understand the process and risk behind the forecast data ; they feel empowered to make decisions and have a better understanding of various supply chain functions and the importance of sharing information for greater supply chain visibility. This has been a great opportunity for the UK team to come together to share their knowledge and learn new skills, whilst at the same time create action plans to be more efficient and ensure we keep moving forward as an organisation.”
Paul Stone, Director at Supply Chain Academy says: ‘It is always hard to quantify a return on investment from any form of training but the fact is, to survive, any business must continue to educate its staff in order to remain ahead of the game. We invested a lot of our time in understanding how Florette does business, so we could provide a cost effective solution to upskill a team to bring about innovation in their roles. The results have clearly demonstrated a return on investment for Florette’
Other members of the team have also endorsed the programme;
“During our time spent with the Supply Chain Academy we have had the chance to explore in depth the many functions of our Florette SC team. By spending time mapping out our process we have not only expanded our knowledge base of how and why operational decisions are made but also had the opportunity to work together, finding ways to become more integrated and efficient in our daily activities.
I have really enjoyed transferring the theories learned to a practical workplace and how each part of the Supply Chain team is reliant on one-another to keep operations running”.
Liz Andow – Supply Chain Co-ordinator
“Supply Chain Academy provided a wonderful opportunity to bring the whole team together, to really understand each other’s roles and to develop as a team”
Laura Shaw – BUUK Supply Manager
Our Creative Team
Paul Stone
Managing Director
Paul is an experienced Human Resources and Managing Director with a history of working in Blue Chip multinationals, professional services, the public sector and more recently in the education management industry.
Neil Roll
CP Training Gen Manager
Neil has been working in senior positions within supply chain education for the past five years, following over 25 years of practical logistics experience in a Blue Chip mulitnational company.