Thursday, September 22, the Alps saw the birth of a new actor within the local industrial fabric: the Alpes Supply Chain association, designed as a platform for exchange around societal and environmental issues in the supply chain. An initiative supported by BEVOLTA. Meeting with Jean-Baptiste Fleck, its co-founder.
“CSR issues – corporate social responsibility – usually impact the Supply Chain in “top-down” mode, without it being spontaneously associated with these upstream reflections. Yet the Supply Chain is a key lever in the value chain if we want to reduce the environmental footprint of a company. Based on this observation, we want to initiate a "bottom-up" approach in collaboration with all the players in the local ecosystem, so that our businesses are better recognized as drivers of ecological transition. This is the mission that the Alpes Supply Chain association has set itself.
- Does this initiative meet a strong demand from supply chain players?
The conviction shared by the eight co-founders of the association is that these questions will continue to grow in importance in society and that when it comes to Supply Chain we have a lot to say!
It's an exciting world that is really starting to move, especially since the state has implemented incentive programs to reduce CO2 emissions. This will also be one of the themes of the conference that we are organizing on October 20 in Annecy, where we will involve several public programs.
- As a supply chain consultant, how did you come to these topics?
I have been interested in this for a long time, since I conducted a thesis in the early 2000s on returnable packaging in distribution. I then created the transport function within the SEB group, where I headed the transport activity for ten years. I then discovered that you could put the containers on trains or on barges. It was a big success with 90% modal shift for 10,000 containers a year. I like this example because it speaks, we measure the considerable impact in terms of reducing CO2 emissions when we decide to align competitiveness with environmental issues. This is just one example among many to illustrate the tremendous potential offered by the supply chain.
What I observe today as a consultant, like my colleagues, is that there is a huge appetite in the supply chain ecosystem for these questions, where there is also a lot of talk about 'innovation.
- The BEVOLTA flow optimization solution editor is an official partner of the association. It is the first French publisher to have adopted the Demand Driven methodology. Why was this partnership important to you?
As a consultant, we are always on the lookout for innovations that may interest the companies we support, so when we discover a solution that meets both competitiveness and environmental challenges, we want to share it.
In this respect, the Demand Driven methodology – DDMRP – seemed particularly relevant to us insofar as it allows companies, in a context that is more uncertain than ever, to better plan their flows according to real demand, better anticipate their production and reduce thus their wastage. All while maximizing their service rate. Today this innovation is still little known to supply chain players who mainly use the MRP methodology.
We are very proud of this partnership which perfectly illustrates the impetus we wish to give through the Alpes Supply Chain association. »
Visit the Alpes Supply Chain website to find out more about the association's upcoming highlights. More than twenty events are planned for the year, conferences - in particular "Reducing CO2 emissions" and "HR challenges in the supply chain" - visits to industrial and logistics sites, training on the DDMRP in partnership with BEVOLTA or on stress management, finally collaborative workshops on different themes whose conclusions will be shared with members, …
Haute-Savoie, a rich industrial ecosystem
There are 1,600 industrial companies and 600 transport logistics specialists. Particularly in the Arve Valley where hundreds of bar turning companies are located, as well as players in the watchmaking and sports industry, structured around the Outdoor Sport Valley association. Several emblematic companies are established there, such as Staubli, SNR, Pilot, Botanic, Somfy, SEB group as well as many SMEs and SMIs.