Ardo culture
Think global, act local: How Ardo's Supply Chain team navigates the complex pathways of a food company
20 November 2023
At Ardo, sustainability has always been part of our DNA, and we see this reflected across all our processes and departments. As a team, we are committed to deliver high-quality products and services to our customers with respect for our food processing chain and environmental footprint.
Through ongoing assessment of our current state of processes, technologies, and bottle necks, we further improve our service levels and operational efficiency and aim to limit the carbon footprint of our activities. This is how Supply Chain contributes to Ardo’s sustainability achievements.
During challenging times, companies must prioritize supply chain resilience and product availability. Ardo is actively working to build a sustainable food system in the face of climate change. Read here below how Ardo’s Supply Chain team navigates towards a better future.
Read here below how Ardo’s Supply Chain team navigates towards a better future.
Building supply Chain resilience
Because we handle our products from field to fork, our supply chain is directly affected by climate change. From the flood in Belgium last year to the droughts in the south of Europe, we are organising ourselves differently to cope with these challenges.
This led to a focus on our supply chain resilience by reevaluating our supply chain strategies, diversifying our sourcing strategy, and enhancing our inventory and forecast management.
We learned to react faster to the external complexities of our business by designing new ways of working, investing in technology and systems, and above all in our people. This helps us to cope better with future disruptions.
“We continuously transform and invest in our supply chain organization by creating dedicated teams and upskilling our professionals, in combination with attracting new talent, who bring additional expertise on board.”
Increasing our Supply Chain visibility
Maintaining visibility across our entire supply chain, from suppliers to end customers, remains challenging. In the past, we could predict future demands based on last year's forecasts. Nowadays, this is no longer possible. The need arose for accurate demand forecasting and - planning to limit over- or understock.
It encourages us to collaborate closely internally and invest heavily in the visibility of stock throughout our network. Luckily, our scale size with international presence is a huge benefit to limit our stock shortages.
We are dedicated to increasing our mid- and long-term demand planning capability. To further strengthen our team, I am onboarding my first demand data scientist who will cover data collection, storage, and analysis. A newly created role to fuel our data-driven decision making.
Supply Chain optimisation by digitalisation
Think Global, Act Local was the start of our supply chain digital roadmap, in addition to our global implementation of SAP4Hana. We are adopting and integrating advanced technologies, and data analytics to optimise and transform various aspects of our food supply chain. We have even taken our first steps towards working in an AI landscape.
We are transitioning from an asset-driven supply chain towards a data-driven decision-making organization. We centralised our supply chain model, albeit staying close to our local teams. We are confident that moving away from silo work to an integrated approach lived by our total international supply chain team will bring us to new heights.
Sustainability at the heart of our business
As a team, we are committed to deliver high-quality products and services to our customers with respect for our food processing chain and environmental footprint.
Through ongoing assessment of our current state of processes, technologies, and bottle necks, we further improve our service levels and operational efficiency. This is how Supply Chain contributes to Ardo’s company results.
If you share our commitment and embrace the ever-evolving landscape of the food industry, get in touch!
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Ardo culture