Leading Multinational Telecoms Company operating across Africa

Overview 

A prominent telecommunications company operating throughout Africa was encountering significant operational and logistical challenges in its network rollout efforts, impeding its goal to enhance mobile network coverage. To address these issues, a redesign of the operating model was necessary, prompting the client to undertake a digital transformation journey aimed at improving visibility and control across the supply chain.

Introduction 

In 2019, Transnova was appointed as lead Supply Chain Business Partner with the objective of building a Logistics Control Tower to oversee the inbound and outbound management of all Network Equipment in South Africa as well as assisting with markets in Africa. 

A critical challenge was the lack of visibility into equipment movement throughout the supply chain, which led to low equipment availability. Additionally, demand planning was suboptimal, resulting in substantial excess inventory and aging stock. The use of DDP Incoterms further limited visibility into the full costs associated with inbound logistics.

Visibility for data-driven decision-making 

One of the initial supply chain optimization initiatives involved the development of a data lake to establish a single source of truth. This was complemented by the creation of data dashboards to enhance visibility of goods movement across the end-to-end supply chain, thereby improving operational and executive decision-making.

The Demand Planning strategy underwent a comprehensive review, leading to the development, implementation, and change management of a custom-designed DDMRP across the organization. Additionally, a business case was developed to quantify the logistics costs for equipment entering South Africa, comparing DDP and FOB Incoterms and identifying potential savings.

Inventory optimisation operating model

A focus on inventory strategy within the network equipment business revealed an excess inventory holding of 50%. To address this, a best-in-class inventory management software solution was implemented, resulting in a 52% reduction in inventory holding and R600 million in working capital savings for the company. This was achieved without disrupting network rollout and while improving inventory availability by 29%.

Logistics Control Tower

With a focus on inbound and outbound optimisation, a logistics strategy review was undertaken with the recommendation to increase the carrier base from one to five transporters and implement a Transport Management System (TMS). The centralised Logistics Control Tower provided visibility and control resulting in transport savings of 25%. 

Through our ongoing supply chain business partner relationship with this leading Telecoms company, we have come to appreciate the complexity of the business and aligned our team with the company’s focus on customer, simplicity and growth. Working closely with the client’s logistics team, we have jointly delivered numerous continuous improvement initiatives that have had a lasting positive impact for shareholders.

Highlights

• Supply chain business partner relationship for 6 years and still winning together. 
• Designed, implemented and continue to support the global inbound Control Tower. 
• Implemented a TMS and Logistics Control Tower achieving 25% transport savings. 
• Reduced inventory holding levels by 50% with inventory management software and strategy. 
• Delivered working capital savings of R600 million through supply & demand planning operating model re-design & implementation. 
• Achieved 29% equipment availability upliftment improvement. 
• Improved data driven decision-making through digitization and visibility with 47 new data dashboards.