This is our story of leveraging a Center of Excellence (CoE) model, underpinned by process re-engineering and automation, to streamline and integrate inventory accounting and product costing for a leading food manufacturer.
As we know…
The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry is characterized by seasonal trends, demand fluctuation, inventory risk and changing customer behaviors. The pandemic has exacerbated the situation, causing an unprecedented variability in demand and massive supply chain disruptions. Amid this, enterprises have been under constant pressure to ensure product availability, maintain quality and operate efficiently.
An optimized inventory planning and product costing strategy is key to improving cash flow, maximizing sales, accelerating order fulfillment, reducing storage cost and boosting profit margins.
The challenge for the food manufacturer was…
To streamline its inventory accounting and product costing processes spread across multiple countries – reducing manual intervention and a high exception rate, and driving end-to-end visibility and control. There was an urgent need to transform the processes by leveraging automation, industry best practices and continuous improvement programs.
Here’s what we co-created as a solution…
WNS combined its domain expertise, capabilities in digital and automation, and robust process and governance frameworks to deploy an inventory accounting and product costing CoE model. Notably, this model was implemented during the pandemic through remote transition, driven by tri-partite governance and robust work-from-home protocols.
WNS’ future-ready solution to consolidate global operations involved process re-engineering, automation, and the adoption of industry best practices and continuous improvement initiatives.
The solution entailed:
Process maturity mapping to understand as-is operations across multiple geographies and identify potential transformation opportunities
End-to-end visualization of process performance
Consolidation and standardization of in-scope processes across the globe
Process re-engineering to reduce batch-level discrepancies in inventory management, drive timely completion of order settlements and accelerate cost reconciliation
Automation use case identification and deployment
Workflow implementation to register and track requests, and improve control across operations
Operations re-engineering and transformation…
Led by WNS’ CoE model helped the food manufacturer achieve greater standardization, reduce costs, improve inventory visibility and drive profitability. Our process improvement initiatives and automation use cases helped de-risk key operations, bolster control, and deliver agility and resilience. Other significant outcomes include:
~30 percent reduction in transaction processing time
~6 percent improvement in inventory accuracy
~100 percent elimination of aged open items in inventory reconciliation
Timely completion of annual budgeting exercise with 100 percent accuracy
Faster and improved order fulfillment rate
Importantly, our solution enabled the client to expedite decision-making vis-a-vis determining selling price, finalizing cost reduction projects and continuing / discontinuing products.
The success of the CoE model has paved the way for extensive collaboration between WNS and the manufacturer. The next phase of transformation, underpinned by advanced inventory analytics, is underway.