How did Nestlé improve the efficiency of its operational teams?

Testimony

"An innovative product and company, with a dedicated and flexible team that allows for quick execution."

Jorg Neubel
Nestlé

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Client

Nestlé's supply center in Avanca works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and supplies about 90% of Nestlé's logistics operations across the Iberian Peninsula. This center manages more than 1000 references of different food products.

• 500M€ in 2018;
• Exports 66%;
• 2066 Employees (PT).

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Challenge

Before the implementation of proGrow, the information was decentralized between spread sheets and 5 different information systems. With more than 5 million records per year, with all the movements of the center, the analyzes were extremely time-consuming, providing a low sharing of information and the corresponding lack of capacity to react and improve. The Nestlé Group has a constant commitment to operational excellence promoted by a very mature global program NCE - Nestlé Continuous Excellence. However, the initiatives are managed on paper and visual boards, making the process difficult to feed and disseminate throughout the organization.

This project began in 2018, with a duration of 3 months, and had three main objectives:

• Increase the performance of the middle management by reducing tasks with no added value;
• Increase operational performance by KPI real-time monitoring;
• Digitize the Continuous Improvement tools, promoting an increase in sharing of knowledge and lessons learned.

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Solution

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Data Analysis

proGrow was integrated with 5 information systems and, thanks to its ability to correlate data from different sources in real-time, it gave crucial visibility to the center's operations. Analyzes such as overall productivity, usage time, number of movements, or deviations in planning have become constantly available and updated. The transparency provided allowed the teams and schedules to be restructured, reinforce the work in continuous improvement based on real data, and also contribute to the Nestlé paperless process.

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Digital Meetings suport

There have been designed 12 automatic reports that provide 44 KPIs and are now the support for all performance evaluation meetings, from a daily operational meeting to a monthly management meeting.

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Continuous Improvement Digitalization

Finally, the strategic planning and A3 project management methodology were also digitized. This enhanced collaboration and centralization of information providing simple views now supported by tools for easy sharing of knowledge.

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Results

The return on investment of the project was achieved only with the reduction of administrative work, however, the biggest gains came with the reduction of time without added value for the operational teams. proGrow has enabled Nestlé Portugal to continue to improve efficiency and financial results.

• 34,5 % - Potential reduction of time without added value

• 760 k€/year - Potential gains with the increase of performance

• 66 - Continuous improvement iniciatives per year