Last edited 21 Dec 2020

Supply chain assessment tool

In November 2017, Bryden Wood, the integrated design and operations consultancy, launched an assessment tool to help clients optimise their supply chain. https://www.brydenwood.co.uk/news/bryden-wood-creates-supply-chain-assessment-tool/bp84/

The tool includes mapping across both the UK and globally, divided into countries and counties. Each region is assessed and benchmarked based on its performance on a variety of critical factors. Value drivers such as cost, capability, capacity, quality, unemployment, population, corruption, labour skills and product reach are all included.

This gives users a greater understanding of the supply chain, leading to better informed decision making. It can also be used to assess supplier suitability, weighing up all the requirements of the client, such as volumes, dimensions, lead times, availability and so on.

Vasileios Erinakis, Bryden Wood Lead Analyst, Modelling and Analytics commenting said:

“We are bringing together multiple sources of data to form a data-rich map, which we think is unique. It features multi-layered information to enable clients to build up a detailed picture of an area, to help them find the most suitable sites for buildings, facilities and infrastructure. Providing this level of information will make finding the right locations much more efficient for clients, giving them a competitive advantage.

"For a manufacturing client of ours, we are assessing all countries based on the value drivers of the business case - where to operate (considering factors such a Corruption Index, skills and product reach) and of the design of the building (based on environmental factors such as temperature, wind speed, earthquakes). We will be able to make a conclusion and therefore a recommendation on a country that will meet all their requirements.

"On another project, the same model maps out all the suppliers under consideration, visually differentiating them based on their product offering and indicates the shortest route for them to site, enabling logistics optimisation. It assesses UK counties in order to find the most appropriate location for manufacturing hubs, where the different suppliers will send their components in order to be assembled off site using low skilled labour. Here the focus is on more socially-oriented value drivers, like unemployment, population and skills.”