Bayer: Modernising its End-to-End Global Logistics Operation
As is the case with countless large multinationals, Bayer Crop Science has, over the past few years, witnessed increasing volatility on both the supply side and demand side of its business.
Extreme weather, material shortages and transportation issues are just some of the factors to have impacted operations, hindering plans for continued growth, while the seasonal nature of agriculture also hampered its efforts.
However, Bayer had little option but to ensure its products were delivered when and where they needed to be – regardless of the seriousness of disruptions.
It’s why the organisation called on Blue Yonder, a world leader in digital supply chain and omni-channel commerce fulfilment, to improve the holy trinity of operational efficiency, asset utilisation and customer service.
The importance of supply chain strategy
Bayer’s initial focus was on optimising its transportation and logistics operations across 50 facilities in more than 70 countries, which had been relying on different tools, outdated legacy systems, and manual processes to manage a highly-complex logistics network.
Blue Yonder is assisting Bayer in ensuring all its employees follow uniform transportation practices and business rules, while effectively supporting the company's expansion.
“No matter where they are based and what markets they are serving, our employees need to share consistent practices and the same set of analytical tools and fact-based decision-making processes,” explains Johnny Ivanyi, Global Head of Logistics Operational Excellence at Bayer Crop Science.
“Our supply chain strategy empowers our employees around the world to act with speed and agility in making logistics and transportation decisions, while also guaranteeing that everyone is acting in the best financial interests of our company, based on a shared set of values and priorities.”
How Blue Yonder boosted Bayer
By utilising Blue Yonder's digital platform, Bayer has been able to modernise its end-to-end logistics operations, including route consolidation, load optimisation, transportation analytics and procurement automation.
What’s more, Bayer has streamlined routine carrier bidding events, reduced the time required for bid analysis and enabled complex scenario modelling to ensure the most cost-effective strategies are chosen for all new contracts.
The result? A 4% reduction in logistics costs and a 3% improvement in on-time delivery and carrier performance tracking metrics.
Elsewhere, the modernisation allowed Bayer’s planners to take advantage of Blue Yonder’s advanced technologies in mobility, data tracking and geo-mapping, significantly boosting their ability to make real-time decisions that enhance responsiveness.
Perhaps the most notable benefit has been the impact on customer service.
By integrating with track-and-trace platforms, Bayer now provides real-time delivery information, meaning customer service teams can answer questions quickly and efficiently – or even proactively address issues if unexpected delivery changes occur.
Global supply and logistics visibility
Blue Yonder recently completed its acquisition of One Network Enterprises, significantly enhancing its ability to facilitate real-time collaboration and data-sharing across the entire supply chain.
One Network Enterprises’ Control Tower is set to provide Bayer with global supply and logistics visibility, monitoring, predicted shipment ETAs and issue detection, not to mention issue resolution across a complex mix of suppliers, LSPs and Bayer factories linked by a global multi-modal logistics network.
Ultimately, the goal is to unlock value for Bayer’s ecosystem of trading partners and carriers to achieve mutual market objectives.
As supply chain volatility shows little sign of easing, Bayer intends to increase its investments in logistics digitalisation, including robotic process automation (RPA), to redefine non-touch logistics planning. It also intends to move from decentralised planning to a centralised approach spanning global operations.
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