Supply Chain Academy - extracting the real value from training and staff development

Julian Mosquera and Richard Renshaw explain how LCP has applied its SUPPLY CHAIN ACADEMY (SCA) development philosophy with a chemicals manufacturer, to align the wider organisation with the corporate strategy, generating operating cost savings of over one million dollars in the process.

Putting a value on training has been a challenge for HR professionals, even though companies regularly complain about lack of skills and profess that staff are their most valuable asset.

Most multi-national companies also face a communications gap, making it difficult for middle managers to see how actions they and their teams take, contribute directly to achieving strategic goals.

In many cases the senior team feels they lack the resources to implement their strategies, and that a skills and knowledge gap exists. Overall they find it difficult to guide and direct geographically dispersed teams to meet the same corporate goals.

Our philosophy

At LCP we believe that training and people development should be structured to generate tangible value focused on specific business issues. To achieve this, clear objectives need to be set, with a programme designed to meet the objectives. Training effectiveness should be measured and a mechanism to deliver real value back to the business established.

Our philosophy is to deliver practical training, with evidence, exercises and case studies drawn from the business. With a strong emphasis on post module projects, we can unlock business improvements and enable all levels of management to act in line with the corporate strategy.

For training to be effective, skills gaps need to be identified and “owners” appointed to oversee each of the skills area. This drives the core areas of focus for the SCA syllabus.

The resulting Supply Chain Academy course design and delivery is based on LCP’s philosophy and approach, but highly tailored to a bespoke solution.  Combined with the value adding mechanisms, the Supply Chain Academy is exceptionally effective in actively guiding a wide base of employees to contribute to the business strategy. 

Supply Chain Academy (SCA)

LCP applies an 8 point framework to guide programme development:

1.       STRATEGY CASCADE – the business strategy is clearly and consistently cascaded down to local business units; translation of global requirements to local actions and key operational focus areas identified, to which training themes are aligned. As strategy evolves so should the SCA

2.       TARGETED SYLLABUS – topics selection and structure addresses the skills gaps; bundled to form coherent cost effective modules capable of repeated global delivery

3.       COURSE DESIGN – enables the most effective learning by using appropriate delivery mechanisms: briefing packs; computer based (CBT) and e-learning; highly interactive trainer led courses that reference the corporate strategy and leverage company specific case studies

4.       DELEGATE SELECTION – optimises the opportunities from the talent pool, getting the right people selected, helping employee development, contribution and retention

5.       VALUE GENERATING MECHANISM – the training contributes to strategic objectives and adds shareholder value. The SCA approach incorporates value adding projects, building on specific elements of the syllabus as each module is delivered, which are assessed by the SCA governance team

6.       TRAINING MEASUREMENT AND FEEDBACK – feeds back and assesses module delivery and quality; course alignment with delegate capability and experience; quality of delegate project and applied learning assessed over a longer timescale in the work place, measured in terms of business benefit release

7.       TRANSPARENT GOVERNANCE – SCA programme ownership and structure is assured so that the SCA is delivered consistently across all business units, remains relevant and that value is being added

8.       SUPPLY SELECTION – the SCA often requires multiple sources of training delivery including – internal resources, external training specialists, literature selection, e-learning portals etc., the careful selection of which will be critical to achieving overall programme success.

SCA Case Study

A recent SCA case study with Huntsman Chemicals indicates how the client perceived value generation.

Renaud Bein from Huntsman Global Human Resources said:

“Our customers’ expectations continue to rise and our competition never sleeps. We want to grow our business; we want to unlock ideas and suggestions from every level of the organisation. The SCTP (Supply Chain Training Programme) enables us to do this effectively”

The ‘Governance’ team was set up with every member of the global supply chain leadership team insisting they were on it. This was a great message reinforcing the importance for the delegates, but also ensuring strategic gaps were addressed and that there was discipline around value generation.
The modules were tailored to the governance team’s requirements with a broad syllabus covering Customer Service, Supply Chain Management and Planning, and Lean Operations.

LCP helped develop the overall SCTP governance structure and delivered the modules, focused on improving supply chain management knowledge and skills globally.

‘80 delegates trained in Europe, North America and Asia’

A “project based” training ethos has been applied with each delegate completing a small value generating project, as well as completing the course, to secure their Huntsman/LCP module certificates.