Global brands Heinz, Kimberly Clark and Kraft Foods along with third party logistics giant Wincanton, have become the latest companies to sign up to The Fresh Connection, the UK’s first supply chain competition.
Launched by leading supply chain consultancy, SCALA, The Fresh Connection is an internet-based, role-playing simulation built around a virtual fruit juice producer. The challenge is to save the ailing company from closure and develop it into a successful organisation.
The competition starts on 12 April, and will see teams of four work together from crisis management through various developing business changes, with the aim of being named ‘Supply Chain Champion.’
Joining Kimberly Clark, Heinz, Kraft and Wincanton is a diverse range of organisations including, Bernard Matthews and Cadbury.
Keith Newton, customer logistics director for Cadbury’s plc GB & Ireland, said: “The Fresh Connection provides us with an excellent opportunity to enable some of our talented people from across our supply chain teams to practice working and learning together in an integrated and collaborative way and in a competitive environment with other peer businesses.”
The competition lasts seven weeks with each of the seven rounds lasting a couple of hours. Each team will manage and make tactical and strategic decisions on procurement, operations, sales and the supply chain. Each decision has an impact on the business and shows the importance of different disciplines working together to create an efficient supply chain.
The competition will culminate in a live final and a conference at the stunning location of Wroxall Abbey in July. The winning team will receive four ‘Platinum’ tickets to The British Grand Prix at Silverstone and players will have the opportunity to see how their team measures up against the rest of the competition with a detailed performance evaluation report once the competition is over.
John Perry, Managing Director of SCALA, said: “We are delighted to welcome Kraft, Heinz and Kimberly Clark to the competition. The race for the title of Supply Chain Champion of the Year is certainly hotting up, but companies do still have time to sign up if they visit the website.
“The Fresh Connection is not only competitive, but becomes a fantastic training and development tool, at a time when creating efficiencies in the supply chain could not be more relevant.”
Logistics Manager and Supply Chain Standard are sponsoring the competition along with AEB International, BiS Henderson and The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
Full details of the competition can be found at: www.thefreshconnection.co.uk
