SAB Miller Plc is a company that has over 200 brands with operations in 6 continents. Some of this company’s brands include Grolsch, Miller Genuine Draft and Peroni Nastro Azzurro. This company is among the largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products across the world. SAB Miller runs 139 breweries as well as 35 plants for beer bottling. This company is listed on the London and Johannesburg markets for stock exchanges. Currently, SAB Miller has a market value of £17.2 billion. In this paper, an effective supply chain strategy is recommended for SAB Miller, which has opened operations in Kenya for the first time in the rest past. The guiding concerns for this paper include the place to have the company’s production processes. Moreover, other ways through which the supply chain can be improved are also suggested.
Analysis
Since SAB Miller Plc opened the sale of its brands in Kenya, just in the recent past, it has had various challenges with its supply chain. These challenges call for renovation of the supply chain of the company. Major issues that have been raised include the slow movement of raw materials as well as goods. The need for a revamped supply chain management for this company in Kenya has been brought about by common cases of customers running out of stocks of the famous SAB Miller products in the course of the peak seasons for a very long time. This has been adversely affecting the bottom line of the company. For business success in the new market of Kenya, SAB Miller has to revamp its supply chain system.
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Alternatives
There are various solutions, which SAB Miller Plc can use to improve its supply chain. Firstly, the company may simply improve the speed of importing raw materials from its headquarters. This speed improvement has to target the delivery of these imported raw materials and products reach the clients in the market quite fast (Christopher, 2016). Secondly, the company may choose to set up its plants in Kenya so that its brands become locally made. Finally, the company may choose to use an advanced supply chain management system. Of particular focus should be the SABMiller's SAP enterprise resource management system, which integrates them with forecasts on sales forecasts from the field. Feedback is then made to the manufacturing resource planning as well as the financial systems in order to make schedules for production and the orders to materials.
Evaluation
The alternative of simply improving the speed of importing raw materials and finished products from the headquarters of this company may not yield significant results. The manufacturing brands have to be put in Kenya for faster delivery of products ordered. The importance of this system is that it gets information from the modules of SAB Millers SAP enterprise resource management system. It then integrates them with the sales forecasts from the field (Stadtler, 2015).
Recommendation
The best option is using an advanced demand forecasting system. By using this advanced supply chain system, SAB Miller will be able to make any products that it sales at the most cost-effective location. It has to be understood that the putting up of local plants is also very effective and this is the only way to avoid the delays in delivery of products to clients during the high season.
Implementation
The implementation of an advanced supply chain will involve spending some funds. It will involve setting up local plants to improve the speed of delivery of services. The communication flow must be improved for this solution to work well (Walker, 2015).
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper was to suggest and implement the best alternative of improving the supply chain of SAB Miller Company. Among the three alternatives suggested, the use of an advanced supply chain management system has been selected. It has been noticed that by using this advanced supply chain management, the delays in delivery of goods to doorsteps of the customers will end significantly.
References
Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management . New York, NY: Pearson Higher Education.
Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Walker, H. (2015). Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Practical Ideas for Moving Towards Best Practice, B. Cetinkaya, R. Cuthbertson, G. Ewer, T. Klaas-Wissing, W. Piotrowicz, C. Tyssen, 2011, 301 pages, Springer, London, 52.95€, ISBN: 978-3-642-12023-7.
