LESSON #4: Proactive investments in supply chain planning and analysis yield long-term returns.
Investing in measures to help with supply chain planning, proactivity, and optimization builds long-term supply chain resilience, shared Protiviti and Deloitte – even if the initial investment of time, money, and resources seems considerable.
Protiviti said process intelligence is useful for both quick insights and longer-term, more complex use cases. But the team added that users should plan for significant startup time and effort to make it worthwhile. Quick insights and simpler initial Celonis implementations (focusing on a single factory, for example), aided by extensive planning, can then pave the way for larger, lasting organizational change. All 18 master data fields from Protiviti’s first Celonis proof of concept still live in SAP, and are still used to further review other processes. Meanwhile, the management consulting firm has expanded its process optimization practice with new Celonis use cases in procurement, inventory management, logistics, and more.
Proactivity has been a long-time goal for Deloitte. Otherwise, said the Deloitte team, companies spend too much time firefighting. Though there can be obstacles to implementing software like Celonis — such as cost, internal resistance, or complex tech stacks — the returns in efficiency, clarity, and foresight make it worthwhile for most organizations. Celonis has helped with better forecasting, smarter lead time planning, earlier alerts for issues, and better communication with suppliers, all of which save Deloitte’s clients time and money while giving a decisive competitive advantage.
Supply chains can be brought under control – the question is how exactly you’ll do it. Process intelligence may well just be a great place to start.