In this article for MHD, Prological talks about its partnership with Deloitte Access Economics to deliver tailored supply chain solutions, combining industry insights and economic expertise for better outcomes and informed decision-making.
More and more, businesses are facing complex challenges in their supply chain, where the answers aren’t obvious to anyone right away. In supply chain management, the intricacies of logistics, economic analysis, and industry know-how have to seamlessly integrate to arrive at the right solution. Whether designing a new distribution centre, generating greater efficiency from an existing facility, modelling complex network options, optimising route and load planning or designing processes and systems to support achieving carbon emission targets, organisations increasingly need a diverse set of skills and expertise to get the job done.
As clients become more knowledgeable and their expectations rise, supply chain consultants are under pressure to provide more specific, higher-quality, tailored services that address the unique nuances of each project. Economic analysis and supply chain management are intrinsically linked, which is why partnerships and working relationships between firms are a powerful tool to garner bespoke analysis and tangible outcomes, not otherwise possible.
Large scale organisations often possess deep expertise in specific domains but may lack the industry-specific knowledge to tie together the complex data analysis into practical, real-world applications. This gap can be bridged by collaborating with firms that have the years of understanding of supply chain challenges and opportunities at hand. At the same time, supply chain consulting firms, don’t have a battery of economic and demographic experts with the consummate access to available meta-data.
Prological’s Approach to Collaboration
In response to this need for diverse expertise, Prological, an ANZ supply chain consultancy, and Deloitte Access Economics have been working together. According to Dr. Eamon McGinn, Deloitte often collaborates with Prological when projects require specific supply chain understanding and industry insights. Deloitte have termed this input as “truth grounding”, a powerful concept that turns ideas, assumptions, thoughts, and models into accurate, detailed analysis and outputs that are grounded in real world truths.
“Prological have been really great in helping us make sure that everything we do in our modelling reflects day-to-day reality, market sentiments and points of view,” he notes.
“When you do high level analysis, the modelling can be complicated from an economic point of view. We need to determine whether the numbers are realistic and reflective of what is happening, what is functionally true, and what is needed on the ground level.”
Driving Better Outcomes: A Case Study
The working relationship between Prological and Deloitte Access Economics has formed to solve problems for clients by creating an opportunity to think outside the box. One such example was a Prological project working with THE ICONIC, where Deloitte subcontracted to Prological. The project had several dimensions, one of which was a network study and optioning for alternate and/or additional fulfilment centres.
Initially engaged to discuss future fulfilment strategy and expansion, it become evident that a demographic study was going to support the decisions to be made by THE ICONIC’s leadership team. In short, we needed to know where the ‘arch-typical’ ICONIC customer lives and works now, and where they will live and work in 10 years’ time. This work was completed across two Australian cities. From this work we were able to then design the supply chain requirements to fulfill THE ICONIC’s broad array of service promises. This Prological collaboration with Deloitte Access Economics enabled us to create a strategic future roadmap based on evidence. Prological needed the demographic ‘truth grounding’ regarding the future to get the network model and its execution correct, not just for today, but for the next decade.
Deloitte were able to provide Prological with mapping of where THE ICONIC’s different customers lived and worked now, and where they are likely to be located in the future. This demographic analysis, combined with Prological’s supply chain expertise, enabled the development of a comprehensive network and fulfilment centre strategy for THE ICONIC’s long term needs.
The Importance of Industry Collaboration
Supply chain choices touch almost every part of an organisation, from corporate matters, marketing, legal, HR, to suppliers, real estate, transportation, customer locations and more. The reality is different consultants and firms have different specialisations, regardless of their scope, so industry collaboration can bring the integration of these different areas of capability, capacity, and specialisation.
Large investment decisions don’t come around often for most businesses, and the amount of money on the line makes having the right knowledge at your disposal imperative before making any decisions. The success of the Prological and Deloitte Access Economics partnership serves as an example of the need for a combination of skills and perspectives in order to deliver the right information to our clients.
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