For the eleventh outing of the ”Supply Chain Standard” European Supply Chain Excellence Awards we were again delighted to have as our partner PRTM and we are very grateful to PRTM and their partners and consultants across Europe for their input this year. Nor should we forget our sponsors: Kuehne + Nagel, The Awareness Group, The Logistics Network, Kewill, George Henderson and Partners, Toyota Material Handling, Vocollect, and Odgers Ray & Berndtson.
The format of the Awards is broadly the same as in recent years, although we have done a little tweaking to the category definitions. Entries are grouped by industrial sector, and sector winners are then considered for the Overall Winner title. In addition, we have Awards for operational categories – logistics & fulfilment, sourcing & procurement, environmental, innovation, and teamwork. These reflect both areas of supply chain activity that we believe need promotion, and also the fact that many entrants may demonstrate ”excellence” in their operations but do not operate a complete end-to-end supply chain: the operation or organisation may be purely fulfilment, with no control over sourcing – or indeed the converse.
As in previous years, the entry process started with applicants filling in a fairly detailed on-line questionnaire, structured but allowing a lot of free form response. Aided in some cases by follow-ups to clarify matters, this allowed PRTM to construct a short-list (quite a long one this year!) who were then further assessed by a combination of site visits, presentations, conference calls and so on as appropriate. The various stages contribute to a ”score card” but obviously, discriminating between such different organisations and supply chains cannot be an entirely quantitative process, and qualitative judgements can swing things.
In broad terms, we have been looking at the scope of the operation (and as explained, while this tends to favour complete end-to-end supply chains, we have specialist Awards that recognise that), we’ve asked in effect ”what have you done in the last 12-18 months” (we don’t want to choose supply chains which, however good they may be, are merely resting on their laurels), and we look at what PRTM calls ”supply chain maturity”, itself based on how far the entrants are advanced in the five ”core disciplines”: viewing the supply chain as a strategic asset; developing end-to-end processes that interface with the rest of the organisation; designing the organisation for performance (which includes human aspects like skills and training provision); building the appropriate collaborative model (everyone has to collaborate with someone, be it internal or external); using the right types of metrics to define and build business success.
Overlaying this, somewhat quantitative, approach, the assessors are also looking at the quality of the presentation/visit; the enthusiasm and passion they encounter; evidence for commitment by senior management; the scope of the change or achievement in question; and of course hard evidence of results (that can trip up a few entrants).
Taking all these lines of evidence, the people on the ground at PRTM come up with a ranked list of recommendations for each sector, which then go before the final adjudicators. As it happens, this year in most sectors there was fairly clear water between the winner and runners-up, although in previous years matters have become somewhat fraught. In addition, at this stage we are looking for ”possibles” for the functional and other Awards described above, and that certainly is a challenge – having to compare and contrast quite different manifestations of ”excellence” from widely varied supply chains.
The Overall Winner can, by definition, only come from the pool of industrial sector winners. As last year, we also have an Individual Award, but this is decided purely by votes from readers of ”Supply Chain Standard” – no dodgy television phone-in practices here!
So that’s the process – now here are the results.
Winners of The European Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2007
Closing the gap
The gap between sectors is discernibly closing, but there is a lack of any real emphasis being placed on using an environmental focus as a supply chain differentiator. By Gordon Colburn
Hi-Tech & Electronics Winner: Infineon technologies
FMCG/CPG Winner: Novozymes
Telecoms Winner: Thomson Telecom
Public Sector, Services, Utilities Winner: TNK-BP
Aerospace, defence & industrial Winner: Trelleborg Sealing Solutions
Healtcare Winner: Johnson & Johnson
Team Award Winner: TNK-BP
Outstanding contribution Winner: John Allan
Sourcing & Procurement Winner: Vodafone Group Services
Logistics & Fulfilment Winner: Vodafone Logistics with Unipart
Environmental Improvement Winner: Meadowhall Centre
Hi-Tech & Electronics Winner: Infineon technologies
Retail & Distribution Winner: Tesco direct
