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During the last three years Kuwait Petroleum in North West Europe (KPNWE) has been implementing a project to come to a more centralised approach to the North West European business. This included the closure of local offices and centralisation of businesses and functions at the center in Antwerp. As a consequence of this, the logistics department absorbed new countries into the existing organisation in Antwerp.

Unilever initiated a project to ensure its return on investments in advertising and promotion activities were optimised, using a single effective IT tool to manage and control the efficient market roll-out of its brands and innovations. This involved:
- Further harmonisation and standardisation of promotion-related business processes - Increased optimisation of the S&OP processes.

The title “set-up for success” has a double meaning. On the one hand it refers to how OCI Nitrogen was able to merge 2 different business units with diverse characteristics into one company. On the other hand it refers to the role that Voorne Partners played in helping OCI management set up its integration project.

Akzo Nobel Base Chemicals works in highly competitive markets with constant pressure on prices. Base Chemicals is selling chlor-alkaline products and water treatment chemicals to third parties. Its success depends on meeting and exceeding customers' expectations of value-for-money products while responding to societies' expectations with safe and sustainable ways of operating.

AkzoNobel Performance Additives (ANPA) was under pressure to improve its cash flow and therefore looked for ways to manage its business with less inventory. However, before reducing its inventory ANPA wanted to understand if current inventory levels were appropriate compared to other companies and if they made sense from a business and supply chain strategy’s point of view.

This client reference story is drawn from a thesis presented for the European Master Logistician education programme.

Company profile: Kwintet KLM Kleding

Simplifying complex processes

NXP identified an opportunity for simplification in its Global Invoicing Processes. Current ways of working were complex and time consuming to manage, reducing the time devoted to customers by local sales managers and country managers. NXP approached Voorne Partners to help them define the simplified solution and to establish a Global Project to implement it.

Stahl is one of the world's leading suppliers of leather processing products, active in selected niche markets for leather processing and flexible material coatings. It stays ahead of competition in these dynamic markets through innovation, a focus on customer needs and a broad range of high value-added formulated products and services.

At its Alblasserdam plant FNsteel had a need to gain a deeper understanding of its plant logistics, in order to keep customer service at high levels under different scenarios. FNsteel would like to know if their manufacturing plant;

could meet a 60% increase in production volume in terms of machine capacity and factory logistics,
which machines would become bottlenecks depending on the product mix of the increase
and which bottleneck would need to be worked on with priority.

As part of an Operational Excellence initiative one of our clients requested Voorne Partners to revise their existing way of operating through a variety of legal entities and develop a new business model.

Our customer decided to restructure its business operations and merge the activities of two of its business units as one of the outcomes of a strategic review. The main reason for the merger was the considerable overlap in the market approach and their duplicated client and client-related activities.

Strategically located at the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, EMO (Europees Massagoed-Overslagbedrijf B.V.) fulfils a pivotal role in international dry bulk shipments.

Gasunie grows rapidly. Into new markets and into new services. As a consequence closure processes have become more complex and required more visibility and control. As a result processes and tools needed to be changed. Both Statutory and Corporate Management information needed to be reported in a smooth way.

The Goal

Arizona’s IT Strategy was to implement a single SAP installation for all its sites worldwide. In parallel it was decided to implement a Single Business Entity (SBE) model in Europe, in which its Dutch Headquarters would be designated as the SBE.

Implementing the changes needed to keep ahead of competition in today’s markets is a challenge for any business. So when a specialty chemicals company decided to implement a Single Business Entity for one of their European businesses as well as introducing a new global process and a new IT model, they called on Voorne Partners for help.

akzonobel When Akzo Nobel Base Chemicals approached Voorne Partners it was because management was determined to implement change to improve competitiveness. That meant greater focus on the essentials: meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations of value for money products, a reputation for reliable deliveries and safe, sustainable ways of operating. All this in a highly competitive market with constant pressure on prices. The conclusion? They needed to enhance core activities by shedding those that didn’t make maximum use of their specific expertise.

Uniqema launched in 2004 a project to reshape it’s Supply Chain. The objective of the project was to increase the customer service levels to best in class, by making the supply chain both more simple and more effective. It was also seen as crucially important to create a more disciplined approach and focus in the supply chain organisation.

A company operating in the European foods market wanted to implement a new trading structure and at the same time to reorganise its interface between the production and sales arms of its organisation. The objective was to create more transparency, improve the control of working capital and above all, to achieve greater simplicity in its mode of operating.

One of the major players in the European furniture market decided to restructure after identifying a huge untapped potential for synergy. It was operating as a holding company with subsidiaries working independently. Inter-company and consolidation process costs were high while a lack of data integration affected the quality of information available.

Our client, formerly part of a car manufacturer, and with limited external customers, had become an independent supplier of automotive services and needed a more market-oriented commercial approach. At the same time, it had to become more project-driven, undertake process integration and develop more effective, integrated business information.

A large European industrial concern, presented in many European countries, found that its trading costs were too high and was determined to simplify and harmonise its operations.

Our client, an energy producer present in a number of European countries, was one of the first companies to set up a European energy trading activity (gas and electricity). This is a complex market comprising many competitors and partners (producers, traders, marketers, distributors, grid owners and controllers, energy exchanges and brokers) and it was about to become fully liberalised.

A subsidiary of a global pharmaceuticals company had to implement an ERP system as part of a global rollout. The result of implementation was that vital primary processes like product delivery and invoicing were interrupted.

A client in the electronics industry (a business unit of a larger corporation) wanted to change its local, country-focused organisation to reflect the fact that the business currently operated on a European scale. The client produces components and delivers support and maintenance after installation.

A global foods company recognized that it had a sub-optimal European structure that was basically unchanged from 15 - 20 years back. Its production and sales entities varied from very small to large and IT systems were not harmonised. Change was needed. The company also planned to implement wall-to-wall SAP.

The chemical industry faces fierce competitive pressures in international markets. One result of this is that mergers and acquisitions, investments and divestments are as familiar to chemical companies as combining and splitting molecules is to their chemists. The story of Huntsman Advanced Materials shows how this can affect a business equation.