Wolseley hires Hitachi Consulting for supply chain transformation project

24 April 2018 Consultancy.uk

Wolseley and Hitachi Consulting have announced a new chapter of the firms’ year long relationship. The project will see Wolseley transform its supply chain using cloud software.

Hitachi Consulting and Wolseley first began working together in March 2017, jointly delivering a successful proof of concept by June 2017, before beginning work on process design and implementation in August. During the proof stage, Wolseley evaluated the functional capabilities of Oracle Cloud solution, established collaborative ways of working with Hitachi and assessed Hitachi as their partner of choice and SI for this Oracle programme.

Following this fruitful initial period of collaboration, Hitachi Consulting has announced it has been contracted to assist Wolseley UK with the transformation of its supply chain. Wolseley is the UK’s largest plumbing, heating and cooling trade specialist, as well as being a member of the world’s largest distributive network of plumbing and heating products, Ferguson.

In order to adapt its operational structures to fully exploit the potential of emerging technologies, Wolseley has hired digital transformation specialist Hitachi Consulting to help transform its supply chain using Oracle Cloud SaaS, PaaS and IaaS software, including its stock forecasting, distribution centre management, procurement and inventory management operations. The project forms part of Wolseley’s wider transformation agenda, which the group initially announced in September 2016, and when complete, will provide Wolseley’s UK team with a single view of stock in addition to centralised planning and stock management functions.

Wolseley hires Hitachi Consulting for supply chain transformation project

Following the completion of its new solution for migration to SaaS, PaaS, SAP and legacy coexistence – by managing the integrated Enterprise Cloud for its clientsHitachi Consulting has assisted a growing list of firms with such projects, amid a booming digital transformation consulting market.

Manish Popli, Vice President, Hitachi Consulting said of the Wolseley project, “This initiative will help to improve the visibility and planning of stock across the entire Wolseley supply chain, making it more agile and effective. For example, the team previously had to hold buffer stock at each level of the supply chain so inventory was available to customers. With the new processes and supporting technology, Wolseley will have a much-improved ability to decide what inventory should be held where along with visibility across the network as goods travel to reach its customers - thus delivering better customer service and reduced operational costs.”

Jeremy Maxwell, Wolseley Chief Digital Officer added, “Large organisations like Oracle and Hitachi have their own working cultures, and we needed to be sure that the strengths of both organisations would work effectively with Wolseley in this important project. This project needed flexibility, which we are delighted that Hitachi Consulting was more than able to provide. For example, one of my biggest concerns was going from a preparatory technical briefing to a board-level briefing for the same project, and Hitachi rose to the challenge and provided the right consultants to meet the occasion, helping us to make the project a success.”

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