Imagine managing a vast, complex global supply chain network while juggling massive transportation data, fluctuating exchange rates, and unpredictable disruptions. Even for a global technology leader like NCR Corporation, this presented significant operational challenges. To maintain its competitive edge, NCR embarked on a comprehensive "health check" of its supply chain operations—discovering that end-to-end landed cost visibility held the key to improving profitability and operational efficiency.
NCR's Supply Chain Transformation: From Challenge to Opportunity
Under the leadership of its Chief Procurement Officer, NCR made reducing cost of goods sold (COGS) and inventory levels a strategic priority. However, achieving these goals required overcoming substantial obstacles. The company needed a system capable of delivering accurate data, supporting analysis and optimization, minimizing exceptions, and effectively managing inventory positioning. This meant breaking down information silos and establishing interconnectivity across all supply chain data points to gain comprehensive control over total landed costs.
Key Drivers for the Initiative
NCR's decision to implement landed cost visibility stemmed from several critical factors:
- Global operational complexity: With operations spanning multiple countries and regions, NCR's supply chain involved numerous suppliers, carriers, customs regulations, and trade policies that compounded operational challenges.
- Transparency gaps: Traditional supply chain management methods lacked real-time visibility, making it difficult to track shipments, accurately calculate landed costs, or promptly identify potential risks and issues.
- Cost control pressures: Intense market competition demanded continuous cost reduction and efficiency improvements. The project aimed to optimize supply chain processes and eliminate unnecessary expenses.
- Inventory optimization needs: Excessive inventory tied up capital and increased storage costs and obsolescence risks. NCR sought more precise inventory management to reduce stock levels and improve capital turnover.
Three-Phase Implementation Strategy
NCR adopted a phased approach to ensure successful implementation:
- Data integration and standardization: The initial phase focused on consolidating and standardizing supply chain data from disparate systems, including purchase orders, shipping information, customs documents, and invoices. This created a unified data foundation for subsequent analysis.
- Visualization tool deployment: The second phase implemented landed cost visualization tools that transformed integrated data into intuitive dashboards, charts, and reports. These enabled real-time monitoring of supply chain performance, shipment tracking, cost fluctuation analysis, and exception identification.
- Optimization and continuous improvement: The final phase leveraged data insights to refine supply chain processes—optimizing shipping routes, selecting better carriers, improving inventory strategies, and strengthening supplier relationships to achieve sustained cost reductions and efficiency gains.
Tangible Business Outcomes
The landed cost visibility initiative delivered measurable benefits:
- Cost reductions: Optimized transportation routes, competitive carrier selection, and reduced inventory excess lowered total landed costs.
- Operational efficiency: Real-time shipment tracking and issue resolution improved supply chain responsiveness.
- Risk mitigation: Continuous monitoring of risk indicators enabled proactive threat management.
- Enhanced decision-making: Data-driven insights supported more informed strategic choices.
- Inventory optimization: Precision inventory management reduced stock levels and improved working capital efficiency.
NCR's experience demonstrates that landed cost visibility represents a powerful approach for global enterprises to optimize complex supply chains. By integrating data, implementing visualization tools, and pursuing continuous improvement, organizations can achieve comprehensive control over total delivered costs—resulting in measurable cost savings, efficiency improvements, risk reduction, and decision-making enhancements. For multinational corporations managing intricate supply networks, NCR's transformation offers valuable strategic insights.