Case Studies

Procurement Design and Deployment for a Sports Entertainment Company

For a $1b+ sports entertainment concern, Xenon Group led the development of a ‘green field’ opportunity to stand up the Procurement function. For more than 50 years, the client procured goods and services tactically without the benefit of a defined strategy, team, process or policy. ​

In close collaboration with key client stakeholders, the team developed and deployed: ​

  • A detailed spend analysis capturing 98% of the addressable spend​
  • A robust list of high-value quick-win sourcing opportunities​
  • A high-level roadmap to execute three subsequent sourcing waves​
  • An enterprise-wide Procurement policy with detailed guidance on governance, compliance, supplier selection / diversity / performance, bid thresholds, reporting, policy exceptions et al. ​
  • A tailored sourcing operating model (center-led) which best aligned to the requirements of a recent acquisition​
  • An organizational design with documented roles and responsibilities​

This effort transformed the client’s procurement function and provided a foundation and framework for scale and process maturity over time.

Interim Chief Procurement Officer for a Financial Services Firm

For a financial services firm with $100b in assets, Xenon Group placed an interim executive to serve as the CPO to lead the development of a nascent Procurement function. Under this resource’s leadership, the team documented and deployed the procurement policy, defined the long-term vision for the organization’s design, established the framework for business partnering, led the development of Workday requirements, documented the key processes for supplier management – risk management – diversity management, compiled the initial spend analysis and delivered sourcing savings which exceeded expectations.

Supply Chain Planning Optimization for a Life Sciences Company

For a ~$125b Life-Sciences concern, Xenon Group led the holistic transformation of the client’s supply chain planning function. In close collaboration with key client stakeholders, the team: ​

  • Gathered, organized and compiled detailed functional requirements as an input into a software selection process​
  • Led an RFP and software supplier selection process for a best of breed planning application​
  • Documented the future-state business process architecture​
  • Designed and documented the charter for the future-state Planning Center of Excellence​
  • Designed and developed the operating metrics dashboard​
  • Documented a detailed list of planning design recommendations​
  • Led the implementation of the newly selected best of breed planning application​

Outcomes​

  1. Increased forecast accuracy by 47%​
  2. Decreased on-hand inventory by 14%​
  3. Increased inventory turns by 34% over baseline​
  4. Decreased customer order cancellations due to out-of-stock supply by 20%

End-to-End Inventory Planning Transformation

For a $1b+ biotech concern, Xenon Group led the design, development and deployment of a holistic inventory planning and management solution that:​

  • Increased the on-hand availability for critical vaccine production raw materials from 70% to 98%​
  • Ensured the timely availability of both GMP and Non-GMP materials nearly eliminating all stockouts​
  • Increased the inventory accuracy of the virus and cell banks from 50% to 98%​
  • Revised and deployed SOPs and work instructions resulting in 100% GMP compliance​
  • Leveraged the teams’ collective SAP S4Hana expertise to deploy a sustainable inventory strategy and approach to include planning cycle management, MRP execution, purchase requisition (PR) execution and stock transfer order (STO) generation​
  • Extended inventory planning support to the QC Analytical team resulting in an increase of the list of materials by 71%​
  • Led cross-functional initiatives to re-engineer operational plants within SAP to include the auto-generation of PRs and STOs to ensure uninterrupted customer service​

Turnaround for a Global Diversified Manufacturer

For a privately-held, multi-billion dollar, diversified manufacturer, Xenon Group led the turnaround of a poor-performing, outsourced manufacturer based in China. For a series of months during the Covid crisis, the outsourced partner sustained dramatic drops in not only forecast accuracy but also order production. ​

In close collaboration with key client stakeholders, the team: ​

  • Conducted interviews with key stakeholders across the client and outsourced partner teams​
  • Documented and subsequently executed a detailed solution plan focusing on five critical components: demand-driven line design, strategic inventory management, manufacturing capacity management, SIOP optimization and performance metrics​
  • Designed, developed and delivered a proprietary line design and capacity calculation model with schematics, resource calculations by workstation, sequencing rules and guidelines for the operations of key machines​
  • Defined the future-state operations dashboard​
  • Defined the future-state weekly capacity planning process​
  • Documented recommendations for contractual incentives and KPIs​

Consumer Packaged Goods Supply Chain Transformation

In a turnaround situation of a $400M private equity-backed concern, Xenon Group closely collaborated with the COO and his operational teams over 18 months to drive board-level improvement initiatives across the business.

Highlights include:

  1. Crisis response – rapid assessment and onboarding of outsourced suppliers to close an existential manufacturing capacity gap
  2. Manufacturing plant consolidation to include documentation of a 200 line-item plant re-location plan and approach
  3. ERP software selection and implementation to include management of the RFP process
  4. Business process redesign to include the transformation of the Order to Cash function
  5. Participation in the interviewing and selection of new hire, full-time employees

Supply Chain Planning for a Fortune 50 Corporation

For a Fortune 50 concern, Xenon Group led the creation and development of the client’s Supply Chain Planning function to include: developing and deploying the business process architecture, insourcing the Planning function from an outsourced provider, documenting the business case for the deployment of a best-in-class software application, conducting due diligence and software selection, negotiating commercial terms with the selected provider (JDA), leading the implementation of the tool via an Agile process, fulfilling operational roles and leading the implementation of a suite of dashboard metrics to manage the overall program.

As a result of this effort, the client was positioned to achieve business case benefits in excess of $50M over a three-year period via increased sales and reduced working capital tied to nonperforming inventory.

Electric Power Utility Supply Chain Value Assessment

For a $3B public utility, Xenon Group was tasked to assess six key operational functions: distribution management, analytics/reporting, strategic sourcing, supplier performance, organizational performance and procure to pay processes.

Over the course of 12 weeks, the team conducted nearly 40 interviews with analysts, managers and senior leaders while concurrently compiling, blending, and evaluating large data-sets from disparate IT applications.

This exhaustive assessment:

  1. Documented the strategy, implementation plan, and business case for transforming the supply chain and procurement functions
  2. Identified gaps between existing and best-in-class business processes
  3. Quantified and prioritized category management opportunities.

The resulting deliverable was a comprehensive, 73-page document, which identified a variety of qualitative benefits as well as nearly $45M in savings across 25 spend categories.

Rebate Tracking Solution for a Building Materials Firm

For a $2B private-equity backed building materials concern, Xenon Group led the design, development and deployment of a rebate tracking tool to manage a myriad of intricate rebate programs across a complex network of hundreds of suppliers and dozens of internal operating companies.

Leveraging Agile methodology and employing best practices in database and user interface design, Xenon Group, working in partnership with the client’s Procurement Category Management team, delivered a custom solution in 12 weeks with solution components to include: a back-end database with data sourced via the ERP system, a rules engine, a graphical user interface, a supplier data gathering template, a variety of key reports, as well as application documentation and training.

Prior to this effort, the client struggled to accurately forecast and track rebate dollars, which negatively impacted the firm’s ability to recognize revenue and forecast earnings. Successfully deploying this tool eliminated a key challenge in the client’s journey to becoming a publicly traded entity.