Through the pandemic, nut lovers had been alarmed to see cabinets of their favourite a part of the grocery store empty–and devoid of the roasted delicacies they craved.

Now, we lastly perceive why.

Along with the same old threats–droughts, wildfires, and climate–California almond growers needed to deal with wild fluctuations in provide and demand whereas transportation assets grew to become restricted, unreliable, and costly.

This was difficult information for Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers, the world’s largest almond processing and advertising cooperative.

The state “offers 80% of the world’s (almond) provide,” Aubrey Bettencourt, President and CEO of the California Almond Alliance, defined to KCBS Radio. “A part of that’s depending on our skill to move it round world. The lack to maneuver that product, that’s bought however can’t be delivered, means a cash-filled disaster, as a result of we receives a commission as soon as the product is delivered.”

Out of their tree

This was compounded by the truth that Blue Diamond’s processes, programs, and paperwork used for managing the cooperative’s $300-million provide chain and logistics capabilities had been restricted by quite a lot of guide processes. With staff depending on a disjointed community, the situations created by the pandemic made all of it however unattainable to persistently fulfill demand.

Whereas prospects apprehensive in regards to the uncertainty of orders being stuffed, customer support representatives had been required to navigate by means of 10 totally different programs and information sources for solutions. At instances, it took days for patrons to obtain a reply.

Throughout this era, lead time for securing freight elevated from three weeks to 5 months, whereas the early stage of planning new promotions stretched from two months to 5.

The chaotic setting additionally hampered the power of the cooperative to create a 12-month demand and provide plan for the fiscal yr. With so many disparate paperwork and programs, consolidating, validating, and analyzing the info and metrics was time consuming, leaving restricted alternatives to run eventualities and simulations.

The circumstances accelerated the necessity for Blue Diamond to maneuver to a very digitized provide chain–and there was little time to lose.

Kernel of hope

Initially based because the California Almond Grower’s Change in 1910, Blue Diamond now represents roughly 3,000 growers and ships to almost 75 international locations. The group’s efforts are largely chargeable for California’s almond crop being the state’s largest meals export.

“Almonds are all we do,” the cooperative boasts.

Certainly, the group’s catalog consists of the whole lot from wasabi and soy sauce almonds to low-sodium treats to almond milk.

But, to maximise returns for every grower, Blue Diamond should repeatedly develop new merchandise whereas working with effectivity, eventualities the previous provide chain system didn’t significantly improve.

Since 2014, although, Blue Diamond had been working with enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) software program chief SAP. Now, the cooperative turned to the German multinational to make the most of its transportation administration, logistics, enterprise planning, analytics cloud, and different capabilities to construct a world-class provide chain resolution.

Planting the seed

Deployment occurred in phases over 2021 and 2022, constructing off the SAP and ERP ecosystem foundations.

The improved provide chain visibility and planning instruments helped get rid of shortages as a consequence of provide and freight points, whereas the group now had a single supply for responding to buyer inquiries.

The brand new system permits planners and help representatives to comprehensively plan forward to fulfill demand, relieve provide gaps, and establish transportation gridlock.

Certainly, provide planning, which used to happen as soon as a month, might be carried out weekly and even each day.

In the meantime, the variety of associated programs supported by the IT group declined from 5 to at least one.

Slightly than being assigned low-level Excel duties, planning workers have been endowed with new duties, redefining themselves as product managers and consultants.

With a extra complete administration view throughout the enterprise, Blue Diamond has been capable of meet the trade customary of retaining two months of stock available at a selected time. This can be a 20% discount from the prior methodology of stocking 75 days of product.

One other noticeable change: situation planning might be concluded in 20 minutes, down from the earlier six hours.

An unbelievable $1 million has been saved in logistics prices, and order fill charges elevated to 99%–10% greater than the trade common. Forecast accuracy has improved by nearly 10%, as properly.

“We have now created a strong basis for an clever, data-driven cooperative that gives the perfect worth for our growers,” noticed Steve Birgfeld, the cooperative’s Vice President of Data Expertise and Companies.

The event of a state-of-art provide chain earned Blue Diamond Growers the excellence as a finalist on the 2023 SAP Innovation Awards, a yearly ceremony honoring organizations utilizing SAP merchandise to craft significant change.

The answer offers a roadmap to enhance manufacturing planning, scheduling, plant upkeep, sustainability, and different important areas as a part of an total motion of “resilience disruption.” You may learn how Blue Diamond completed this of their Innovation Awards pitch deck.