Bart Derde: The end of incrementalism and time for true supply chain transformation

It’s time to revolutionise the supply chain, according to Bart Derde, one of the most influential voices in global supply chain leadership. With a career spent in senior positions at Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, GSK and Haleon, he was absolutely instrumental in globalising the supply chain. He now wants the industry to take the next step: reorganise around the consumer.

We spoke to Bart, one of Newton’s Senior Advisors, off the back of the Food for Thought event he hosted for us, which brought senior supply chain leaders together to talk about unlocking the future of the function.  

Here he reveals why the time for transformation is now and seven interlinked steps to creating a consumer centred, growth generating supply chain.  

Looking back, the simplicity of building a supply chain in 1990 is almost unimaginable. When Bart Derde joined Unilever to create a supply chain for Batchelors Cup a Soup, he aimed to achieve 70% OEE from day one. “It sounds incredible,” he says, “but we did it. We built a great team, learnt from other lines and got to work. It felt like everything was in our control to some extent. The design was carried out locally, the materials sourced from nearby and the equipment was all from Germany.” This sounds like a dream if you fast forward to today, when the business ecosystem has become so complex – global, geopolitically interdependent and reliant on multiple stakeholders operating in different environments.  

But, even in the nineties the reality was far from perfect. Cost structures were higher and products were vulnerable to the quality and data systems of the day. “So, as an industry, we shifted. We globalised the supply chain,” Bart says. His work was instrumental in that globalisation, setting the stage for standout success for the likes of Unilever.

With the economic and social climate moving on so drastically, even over the last few years, has the supply chain adapted?  

“The issue is, we only optimised one part of the ecosystem – manufacturing – moving it to a low cost location with low cost capital,” explains Bart. “We thought everything else would look after itself instead of thinking of the demand-side of the ecosystem and servicing the needs of consumers.” Without that lens, products can fail to meet the diverse expectations of consumers around issues such as speed of delivery or sustainability. The risk is relevance and long-term growth.  

But right now, globalisation continues. Six times as many containers are expected to be shipped this year than in 1990, and that figure still rises consistently (UNCTAD). It’s a huge volume of items, billions of tonnes, being moved around the globe. Without a strategic, consumer-led overview of that movement, products and materials are being moved unnecessarily – products that may not even be the right items for consumers – risking significant profitability. And that’s not to mention the environmental impact. In short, “It doesn’t make sense,” says Bart.  

The problem for branded consumer goods products is that organic growth is failing, and volume is being lost to private label and challenger brands as they catch up with supply-chain effectiveness.  

So, what is the answer to growth?  

Bart urges action: “There are so many benefits to globalisation but the challenge now is to transform again – to use all our rich data to understand the global ecosystem and rewire the supply chain not just for today but the next 20 years using the AI tools and robotics at our finger tips.”  

He does not call for the end of globalisation or even the return to localisation. Instead, he sees the next step as using the tools available to both understand the end-to-end view and take the consumer into account at every moment.  

To create growth, Bart believes the next big differentiator could be personalisation.  

 “What would I do?” he considers, “Easy: create excitement and energy around personalisation and making exactly what is right for each consumer. The only reason we don’t provide individual solutions is because the supply chain isn’t capable of it. Imagine a factory of Tesla robots or 3D printers matched with local capabilities. We need to find a way to do it.” 

Personalisation inspiration   

Nourished 3D-printed vitamin supplements.  

Skin & Me Personalised beauty products and plan.  

M&M World Personalised in-store experiences.   

B&Q Paint colour matching.  

Clothes Could a brand create and next-day-deliver a simple garment sewn by robots to consumer measurements?  

How is it possible to adopt such bold new supply chain strategies? Bart believes it can only happen if leaders move away from incrementalism and truly transform: “If I look at some lines, they are a little bit faster than 30 years ago but haven’t changed significantly. But Ocado? They invented fulfilment centres ten years ago and only a few years later shook up the industry again with their ten incredible robot warehouses. Or look at the success of Invisalign in disrupting the dentistry industry by using 3D-printers to create individual retainers more cheaply. That’s the sort of thinking we need in spades.”  

He sees that there are a set of interlinked considerations to achieving true transformation.  

1. Look to the top – Transformation can happen faster than seems possible, if there is a common purpose to rally around and a culture that is enterprise-first rather than individualistic.
2. Adopt a new team mindset – Supply chain is often seen as a cost engine and there’s nothing wrong with that. But how can supply chain also be the growth engine, delivering innovation at pace and enabling complex innovation?
3. Set up a lighthouse – Take risks. Pilot in a place where it will have the greatest impact, creating momentum, learnings and excitement that can be used to expand ideas successfully. Accept that it is an experiment and there could be no return. 
4. Create a coalition – Find good people and make everyone feel like they have a stake. Work cross functionally so that solutions are genuinely consumer relevant. 
5. Look to SMEs – Learn from small businesses, in the way that they start with the consumer and the product but also how they can often move faster and with agility. 
6. Start small – Bart gives an example of working in a US factory recently where 15 lines were performing badly: “I advised putting all their effort into getting one line running at 70 OEE. That sets an aspirational goal to work towards for everyone.” 
7. Innovate for a local consumer and scale – Vanish is a great example. Reckitt launched it in Korea and within six months it was in most markets. “What was pivotal to that growth was a super creative supply chain,” reveals Bart. 

To create more consumer‑responsive supply chains, there are an increasing number of practical tools available, such as regional digital twins, AI-driven network optimisation and modular automation cells – all of which have the added benefits of increasing speed and resilience.  

The landscape may have changed but Bart believes that what remains true about the supply chain is the human nature of it. “It is our role,” he concludes, “to bring the top level leadership strategy into what works for the operator, to make connections across complex ecosystems, to connect the dots, spot what matters and build a coalition of people working towards a meaningful common purpose. With all the advancements we have, our humanity is how we can really make a difference today.” 

Technological advancements are unlocking a real step change in supply chains with new found end-to-end visibility being a significant driver of growth. However, to truly see the return on investment, the cultural change throughout the organisation, horizontally and vertically, is critical for the right data driven decisions to be made for consumer focussed organic growth and sustainable profitability. 

Newton drives the cross-function innovation required to support organisations in achieving their supply chain strategies, including personalisation. To achieve end-to-end benefits in these programmes, we match supply chain data with AI tools to model scenarios and identify a winning operational approach, making personalisation a reality in the most cost effective way. Then we achieve it – ensuring change happens at every layer of the organisation, making a clear benefits case and driving transformation by testing, iterating and proving progress is possible and engaging people’s hearts and minds in the process.