Integrated supply chain management drives superior business outcomes

When experts in logistics operations and supply chain planning come together in partnership, they can deliver business outcomes that might otherwise be unattainable.

In our first article, we introduced the partnership between Capgemini and Kuehne+Nagel, which provides integrated solutions in supply chain management and logistics to deliver end-to-end supply chain orchestration. We also outlined ways in which the two partners complement one another.

In this article, we’ll be looking a little more closely at typical challenges, how to approach them, at the kind of business outcomes that client organizations can expect from leveraging this unique partnership.

The challenges of integrating supply chain management

Supply chain management isn’t monolithic. Within it is a range of operational areas that managers need to maintain control. These include planning, customer order fulfilment, purchasing and supplier management, logistics management, accounts receivable and accounts payable. Base-level functions on which these operations sit include supply chain analytics and reporting, and supply chain master data management, governance, and data quality.

It’s not enough for each of these functional areas to operate efficiently on its own terms: it’s the interplay between them that makes everything work.

But all too often supply chain managers find they face disconnected, siloed, and inefficient functions that make a negative impact on customer experience and satisfaction. They’ve told us that:

• Planning and logistics don’t speak the same language
• Their operations are becoming increasingly fragmented, with geographically differing processes
• They can’t see what’s happening in real time across supply and logistics
• They have too many providers managing different parts of the supply chain, with no single source of truth
• And that they feel ill-prepared for whatever the future holds.

End-to-end, future-ready supply chain orchestration

What’s needed is a seamless, end-to-end service that brings together all these elements and that runs from supply planning all the way to logistics execution.

Capgemini and Kuehne+Nagel’s combined approach reimagines individual operations not as siloes, but as modules within an integrated framework. Our two organizations work together to unify planning, procurement, order fulfilment and billing, with direct links to and from both manufacturing and analytics and reporting.

Data management is addressed in logical thematic areas – for instance, a customer master, items/products/materials, and a planning master – and the entire model feeds data to an analytics function for supply chain KPIs and metrics reporting, for performance management, and for the generation of other data-derived insights.

The entire framework delivers output to a digital self-service front end that can be tailored in line with the needs of the organization or indeed of individual users and their areas of responsibility.

Capgemini and Kuehne+Nagel’s combined strengths that enable success are:

• Integration and collaboration – we coordinate as a single team on end-to-end integrated supply chain planning; on order management, transport planning and exception management; and on synchronizing supply chain operations
• Process and automation design and management – we provide built-in continuous improvement streams, touchless workflows, and upgraded operations flows featuring value-delivering technology, as well as easy application integration with existing ERP, CRM, and TMS systems
• Technology and data – we work together to deliver holistic data governance and management, an intuitive supply chain collaboration platform (ControLOG), and improved reliability when scaling with cloud technology
• People and ecosystems – we offer over 20 years supply chain operations expertise, over 4,000 supply chain management and logistic experts; and an established network of over 50 technology and over 600 logistics partners.

Delivering superior business outcomes

Everything you’ve just read constitutes the theory. But what’s written on paper is no substitute for what happens in practice. The question that needs answering is simply this: does it work?

Real-world business outcomes are persuasive. Working together on major supply chain and logistics projects, we’ve seen:

• 20–40% reduction in costs
• 2–5% increase in topline revenue
• 10–20% reduction in working capital
• 10–30% reduction in carbon footprint
• And significant enhanced customer experience, indicated by improvements in net promoter score (NPS) of over 20%.

Everyone involved in this initiative is proud of these numbers. They are testament to the argument we outlined in the first article: when experts come together, they can reach destinations that might otherwise be simply unattainable.

And it seems that industry agrees – our joint creativity and passion for driving innovation recently won the 2024 BIG Innovation Award for End-to-end Supply Chain Orchestration.

To learn how Capgemini and Kuehne+Nagel’s partnership can transform your operations to drive next-generation supply chain performance, contact: joerg.junghanns@capgemini.com or john.hancock@kuehne-nagel.com

The blog was co-authored by John Hancock, SVP, Head of Logistics Development for Integrated Logistics at Kuehne+Nagel. John is responsible for delivering innovative and distinctive extended value chain services – a pivotal component of K+N’s Integrated Logistics 2026 strategy and 2030 vision.