OUR PROJCT EXAMPLES
"Don't tell me, show me" ... please find below a selection of project examples:
(including personal references of selected DSI family members)
MANUFACTURING: Smart restructuring of balance sheet and development of digital offering
Situation
Decrease of revenue of a manufacturing company and lack of downscaling options led to potential liquidity shortage and chapter-11 risk. Lack of long-term competitiveness because of outdated offering portfolio.
Approach
- Hybrid approach of doing both restructuring and digitalization
- Rigorous management of cash and debts positions
- Management of key stakeholders like financing banks
Results
- Enhancement of (perspective) creditor quota to more than 60 percent
- Improvement of cost position and Ebitda by more than 15 percent
- Introduction of a digital offering for top-line growth of above 30 percent
AUTOMOTIVE: Re-thinking the utility portfolio at 35 sites to become more energy-efficient and greener
Situation
Automotive OEM was performing a cost-cutting program with "Utilities" being one work stream. 35 sites in scope of work with diverse utility supply portfolio.
Approach
- Eight weeks assessment
- Lever identification, high-level business case and feasibility
- Covering demand and supply side
Results
- Cost savings of >100 m€ Ebitda identified
- Feasibility of 70 percent of levers validated
- Starting point for "100-percent green operations" set
CHEMICALS: Working capital optimization and warehouse consolidation
Situation
Chemicals player with traditionally strong product and innovation focus, but limited capabilities in supply chain management and logistics. Strong M&A ambition created need to mobilize working capital reserves.
Approach
- Benchmarking of payables, receivables and inventories
- Identification of focus areas or pain points in line with 80:20 rule
- Introduction of new supply chain management tools
Results
- Free up of more than 200 mil. Euro cash reserves, in total
- Every fifth warehouse closed due to consolidation
- Implementation of new processes and tools to sustain cash position
OEM: Smart pricing for stopping margin erosion and leveraging on willingness to pay
Situation
OEM for manufacturing equipment with limited margin transparency, strong margin erosion over past years and revenue driven sales approach. Missing tools and capabilities to develop and execute proper pricing strategy.
Approach
- Baselining of as-is profitability on a product level
- Analysis of current costing system including cost drivers and processes associated
- Analysis of willingness to pay of distinctive customer segments
- Development of a new pricing strategy including tool support
Results
- Pricing scheme re-defined with Ebitda upside of >80 m€
- Pricing tools introduced leveraging on AI and machine learning
- Sales representatives mobilised and MBO adjustments performed
- Cost drivers in SAP adjusted
MANUFACTURING: Re-engineering of the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)
Situation
Silo-ed S&OP process driven by operations showed significant upside in terms of cross-site alignment and forecast accuracy. Demand planning performed in volumes, no -finance-integration.
Approach
- Cross-functional sprints (Sales, Logistics, Operations, Finance ...) for pragmatic baselining and future design
- Inter-disciplinary team to cover business as well as technology issues
Results
- Increase of forecast accuracy of relevant SKU to >90 percent
- Planning cycle times reduced by 60 percent
- Enhanced resource allocation by 32 percent
- Implementation of S&OP in SAP IBP
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS: Transformation management office, business case building and digital roadmap
Situation
A specialty chemicals business was targeting to get digitalised, but struggled to roadmap the way forward and to ensure pay-back in line with CFO expectations.
Approach
- Set up of a TMO (Transformation Management Office) and development of a digital roadmap
- Special focus on monetarization and business case building
- Introduction of an agile working mode
Results
- Clear team structure and governance on digital topics set up
- Draft business case with a focus on quick wins or low hanging fruits of more than 50 mil Euro
- Long list of more than 200 use cases, and prioritised short list based on it
LIFE SCIENCE: S/4 Hana Review and value driven deployment
Situation
An ongoing S/4 Hana program at a global Life Science company was not sufficiently progressing and did not meeting business expectations. Missing business case and overall value perspective. Risk of sunk investment in S4 Hana.
Approach
- Pre-project to stock-take and re-design program set up
- Introduction of a value driven approach to S4 Hana as business transformation
- Identification of speed boats and roadmapping, accordingly
Results
- Adjusted program set up as business transformation with business in the driver seat
- Business case of more than 100 mil. Euro addressed
- Value driven deployment roadmap introduced
OEM: Development of a digital supply chain network
Situation
Global manufactruring player with limited network complexity in the past, but increasing need for network balancing due to China investments. Additionally, lots of opportunities to fix the basics in supply chain.
Approach
- Baselining of current supply chain network and simulations
- Segmentation of the supply chain and introduction of consistent supply chain models including DDMRP on selected sites
- Global re-design of based on network scenarios
Results
- Release of working capital of more than 100 mil Euro, decrease of delivery cost by 6 percent
- Scalable supply chain network, enhanced resilience and consistent operating rules for make-to-order
AEROSPACE: Designing the factory of the future
Situation
New-build project in the US provided the opportunity to re-define operations processes from scratch.
Approach
- Review of current factory planning
- Identification of future design elements
- Roadmap for factory-of-the-future development
Results
- Outline of future factory with more than 50 key design elements
- Investment plan and implementation roadmap
- Buy-in of key stakeholders
BASE CHEMICALS: Asset optimization and OEE increase through digitalization
Situation
Production assets of a Chemicals company seek for the next level of productivity. How to make use of digitalization while sensoring is nothing new to continuous production in Process Industries?
Approach
- Site visits and brainstorming sessions to identify and prioritise use cases (e.g. integrated planning)
- Simultaneous building of reference architecture and architecture cuts for prioritised use cases
- Agile implementation
Results
- Use case library drafted and launched for roll-out at further sites
- OEE enhancements of more than 2.5 percent at selected sites
- Avoidance of sunk cost due to inconsistent architecture