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Innovation is the beating heart of Tarkett, a specialist in flooring solutions. Need proof? In 2015, Desso, Tarkett's carpet brand, was the very first flooring company to win a gold Cradle® to Cradle® certificate. Tarkett wants to embed this level of drive and ambition into every fiber of the group. When they understood they needed to digitize their supply chain processes, Sopra Steria first set up a maturity assessment to identify the opportunities.
Desso has been designing and manufacturing high-quality carpet tiles for offices, stores, schools, hospitals and other commercial buildings for more than 90 years. Since 2014, it has been sharing its experience and expertise with Tarkett, a world-class player in innovative flooring solutions. Like any company, Tarkett invests heavily in process optimization to provide best value flooring solutions for its customers. To achieve that goal, Tarkett is committed to integrating digital transformation into all areas of the business.
How can we optimize our processes?
When Michael Vermeir joined Tarkett in 2019 as project and engineering manager, he noticed that there was a lot of room for optimization and digitalization. A lot of time was still spent on manual tasks, Excel spreadsheets ruled and the entire supply chain was managed in silos.
"The group set quite ambitious efficiency targets, with clear objectives for each plant. In the beginning, we found plenty of opportunities to increase efficiency. Once we picked the 'low-hanging fruit,' it was time to take a critical look at our systems and processes and accelerate digitization."
From questionnaire to roadmap in 4 steps
To convince everyone of this necessity and get all noses in the same direction, Michael called on Sopra Steria's expertise. "Ordina had already successfully assisted us in another IT project," he explains. "When they suggested assessing our supply chain processes objectively, I immediately understood the added value. An outside perspective would help us identify both gaps and opportunities.
Michael managed to enthuse the supply chain manager and the rest of management and got Sopra Steria on board to start the assessment. They identified four key areas to assess (procurement, planning, warehouse and production), as well as several stakeholders per domain, who would share their insights and experiences with Sopra Steria.
The assessment proceeded in four steps:
- Questionnaire: All participants received a questionnaire with questions about existing supply chain processes and Tarkett's vision for the future.
- Assessment: Sopra Steria brought all stakeholders around the table in a series of workshops. Together they discussed the answers to the questionnaire and mapped the existing processes, challenges, strengths and weaknesses.
- Recommendations: Based on the insights, Sopra Steria proposed concrete areas for improvement and solutions, which they discussed and refined with the internal team.
- Roadmap: Tarkett received a "maturity score," which was explained in a comprehensive document outlining the gaps, goals, action items and KPIs for the supply chain journey. For each domain, Sopra Steria provided an opportunity matrix indicating priorities.
"An objective assessment is really helpful for me to clearly present the gaps and opportunities to my colleagues, including management."
Michael Vermeir, Project and Engineering Manager at Tarkett
Objective confirmation
"The report is really useful for me to clearly present the gaps and opportunities to my colleagues, including management," says Michael. "For example, Sopra Steria explained that we do mostly well in terms of people and responsibilities, but lag behind in terms of warehouse management. In the roadmap, they give us concrete tips to optimize our inventory and warehouse. That's a great starting point for us to take action and free up budget. In the meantime, we have put together a team to work on this, and of course this is just one of the action points."
Integrated Supply Chain
Meanwhile, Michael dreams of a fully integrated supply chain : "Right now we are preparing budgets so that we can then refine, digitize and connect our systems and processes. Our end goal is an end-to-end supply chain. By managing our supply chain processes in an integrated way, we can cut costs, work more efficiently and respond quickly to changes. That has become a must for any organization these days."