Turning Supply Chain into a Competitiveness Lever

Faced with accelerating crises and increasing regulatory complexity, industrial companies must reinvent their supply chain. But how can a historically operational function be transformed into a strategic driver of performance? A structured methodology is essential. Industrial supply chains today face a dual challenge: gaining agility in response to growing market instability and undergoing deep transformation to integrate new regulatory, digital, and environmental standards. The E2E Supply Chain Ecosystem Transformation study conducted by EFESO at the end of 2024 reveals that 79% of decision-makers identify strategic alignment as the main success factor for supply chain transformations.

Additionally, 50% of companies consider European regulations as a central trigger for these initiatives. This context requires a complete overhaul of existing models, which are often built on segmentation, silos, and local optimization.

Redefining an End-to-End (E2E) Supply Chain: 3 Steps for Sustainable Transformation.

To shift from a defensive logic to a proactive industrial strategy, a structured approach in three successive phases is necessary, involving operational, technological, and human dimensions.

1. Conduct a 360° Maturity Assessment

The process begins with a systemic evaluation of the supply chain across five axes: strategy, organization, processes (plan–source–make–deliver–return), technologies, and performance management. This assessment, carried out using a benchmarked reference framework, objectively identifies gaps with best industrial practices and structural imbalances. Recurring critical points include: low end-to-end (E2E) visibility, fragmented governance, dependence on unmonitored suppliers, and lack of oversight.

2. Co-construct a Target Operating Model

This step involves building a target supply chain model, designed as an integrated architecture aligned with the company’s strategic objectives. It is not merely a mapping exercise, but a deep design process, co-constructed with teams to ensure ownership of future transformations.

This target operating model is structured around four key pillars:

• Coherent integration of plan–source–make–deliver–return processes, to streamline information and material flows across the value chain.
• Organizational redesign that redefines roles, responsibilities, and governance mechanisms for cross-functional and responsive management.
• Rationalization of digital tools, often fragmented, in favor of interconnected systems capable of providing end-to-end visibility.
• Proactive integration of environmental and regulatory requirements—such as traceability, emission reduction, or compliance with new obligations like CSRD.

“The human dimension is at the heart of the process: upskilling, evolving roles, adopting new digital practices.”

— Lionel Bousquet, Principal at EFESO Management Consultants

3. Implement Transformation Deployment

Implementing the target operating model relies on a gradual rollout through pilot projects, selected for their value potential: inventory reduction, service level improvement, supply security, reduction of working capital requirements, etc. Each project is linked to operational, financial, and environmental KPIs.

The human dimension is central: upskilling, role evolution, and adoption of new digital practices. The goal is to ensure lasting adoption of new models without operational disruption.

4. Tangible, Visible, and Lasting Benefits

This transformation approach is not just about optimization. It is a lever that produces concrete effects through better synchronization of flows.

• Operational performance: Improved forecasting, service levels, productivity, reduced shortages and lead times, for greater agility.
• Economic performance: Reduced costs, working capital, and CAPEX.

In a context of commercial tension, these elements become differentiators. Streamlining processes and inventory, optimizing transport costs, and better resource allocation help lower the total cost of operations. Furthermore, appropriate governance allows for better trade-offs between cost, lead time, and quality, according to strategic priorities.

5. A Transformation that Fosters Environmental Progress

Current complexity is not an anomaly, but a permanent state. The goal for industrial companies should no longer be to “resist” shocks, but to build an agile supply chain, capable of leveraging crises to strengthen flexibility, anticipate disruptions, and integrate new business models. This new competitiveness also has the virtue of integrating new regulatory requirements (ESG, traceability, decarbonization) and building a value proposition aligned with market environmental expectations and investor demands for eco-committed companies.

“The goal for industrial companies should no longer be to ‘resist’ shocks, but to build an agile supply chain, capable of leveraging crises to strengthen flexibility, anticipate disruptions, and integrate new business models.”