Supply Chain Management Consulting and Strategy

Operations

BCG helps organizations focus on building resilience and sustainability into their supply chains to mitigate disruptions and trade instability. We also help maximize the return on these critical investments.

In today’s business climate, customer expectations are increasingly diverse, complex, and volatile. Potential markets and optimum manufacturing locations are continually shifting. With increased interdependencies at every level, supply chain networks have become more vulnerable to costly natural and economic disruptions.

Smart companies respond to these pressures by making their supply chains agile, adaptive, and sustainable. They ensure that their supply chain strategy mirrors their overall business strategy. They know that the most effective supply management responds quickly to even small changes in demand—and relies on smart deployment and planned resilience. And they understand that sustainable operations and more efficient, greener supply chains deliver benefits for both business and the environment alike.

What Does Supply Chain Strategy Look Like in Uncertain Times?

Though the current circumstances are unprecedented, BCG is able to successfully apply best practices and lessons from previous crises. Above all, companies must make supply chain decisions that are fast, decisive, and accurate. Companies must then implement those decisions rapidly and transparently.

For example, some companies set up control towers that provide end-to-end visibility into their supply chains and other critical assets. When disruptions emerge—or reemerge—they can act swiftly to stabilize their operations.

Our Capabilities in End-to-End Supply Chain Optimization

We help companies reach peak supply chain performance by improving the metrics critical to success:

Cost, such as operational expenditures
Speed, such as order fulfilment lead time
Delivery, such as forecast accuracy

Our supply chain optimization services span several dimensions.

How BCG supply chain works with clients across several dimensions infographic

Our Process

We begin each supply chain engagement by evaluating a company’s site and market. We assess the performance of the current chain and identify essential areas for improvement.

Then we conduct a comprehensive diagnostic analysis that covers everything from a company’s strategy, network, and processes to its organization, systems, and people. We deliver a detailed implementation plan that we can also help execute.

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Profit from the Source: BCG’s New Book

To succeed in challenging times, CEOs must do the seemingly impossible: capture cost savings while achieving additional competitive advantages, including innovation, sustainability, and resilience. CEOs can do all of this by taking what may seem like a surprising step: empowering their procurement function to liberate new value from their top supplier relationships.

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Our Supply Chain Management Work with Clients

BCG redesigned the supply chain for a specialty chemicals manufacturer, reducing the lead time for orders from eight weeks to four—and for inventory by 30%.

We assessed the supply chain strategy for a commodity chemicals manufacturer, then aligned its segmentation with market needs. As a result, the company achieved a 2% lift in revenue and a 15% drop in inventory.

Our Supply Chain Tools and Solutions

SNOW AI

Powered by cutting-edge machine learning and optimization models, BCG X's proprietary advanced analytics solution solves end-to-end supply chain optimization problems easier, faster, and more cost-effectively

MFG AI

MFG AI’s integrated offering for AI-powered manufacturing transformations brings together BCG’s operations know-how and advanced analytics capabilities to unlock value at scale on the shop floor, enabling a 10% to 25% productivity improvement.

Supply Chain AI

Our AI-powered solution helps design, plan, and optimize supply chains for efficiency, agility, and resilience.

Compass Performance Benchmarking by BCG

Our proprietary database solution enables companies to understand how they compare against best-in-class leaders and unlock competitive advantage in supply chain management and manufacturing.

Digital Supply Chain Solutions

Our solutions enable digital supply chains in many ways: applying AI to forecasting and scenario planning, deploying control towers for quick diagnoses and response, and using digital twin simulations to pinpoint areas of volatility, and where optimization is possible.

Our Centers of Excellence for Supply Chain Management

Innovation Center for Operations

Our Innovation Center for Operations (ICOs) is a network of capabilities and offerings that features 11 model factories in China, France, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, and the United States. At each of these locations, our experts conduct workshops, followed by assessments, that enable business leaders to learn about and experiment with every aspect of supply chain management. The curriculum covers everything from supply chain risk management to blockchain supply chain management. The centers feature iLAB, BCG’s proprietary method for demonstrating the tangible value of supply chain optimization.

Supply Chain Academy

Through our unique supply chain enablement offering, the Supply Chain Academy, we cultivate critical skills and deliver conceptual insights and real-life applications. And we deliver on-the-job training to your key employees at your own sites. Learning opportunities and instructional programs are essential to building world-class capabilities in supply chain management. Our Supply Chain Academy lets you and your employees delve into blockchain supply chain use cases, for example, and gives you access to our experts in supply chain management. As with our model factories, the academy’s coursework combines classroom interactions with real-world scenarios and case studies.

Our Latest Insights on Supply Chain Management

Harnessing the Tectonic Shifts in Global Manufacturing

Trade disruptions have prompted many global companies to shift where they produce and source goods. But getting the desired results requires a difficult balancing act.

Building the Supply Chain of the Future

Companies that transform their supply chain for digitization, resilience, and sustainability while optimizing costs will create a powerful source of innovation and competitive advantage.

How to Fix Broken Supply Chains

In the face of disruptions, from natural disasters to pandemics, how do we make sure supply chains can keep up? Dustin Burke, BCG managing director and partner, offers a combination of solutions to help create a more resilient, efficient tomorrow.