Reflection – Visualization

Challenge & Selection

The Supply Chain Management is a task that demands to take into account different  elements, inputs and variables for optimizing resources and finding solutions that meet the  expected customer service. Logistics is a key activity for the SCM, the main growth and  savings of the whole business normally come from designing an efficient logistics network,  but ¿what happens when an actual network needs to be improved due to external and  unexpected factors that are affecting the industry in which the business operates? Sketching  the network with the visualization tool has been the best choice to stay in the question of  “how to keep efficiency in a landscape of uncertainty imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic?”  The logistics team of a chemical company I actually work for used this approach of the  visualization tool to draw and sketch the different elements, scopes and opportunities our  actual logistics network has, with the purpose of improving it and, therefore, achieve the  expected savings.

Application

The process started by drawing on a map the regions where each of the warehouses and  distribution terminals operate in order to recognize the top clients of each region, this top  was defined not only by the revenues these clients mean but by the amount of material they  consumed in the last year; this is a much relevant indicator while selling a lot of profitable  products is not the same as moving big quantities in terms of logistics costs and expenses.

Once the team was able to visualize the top clients and the respective distribution centers  they are supplied from, the routes were clear for everyone in the team; as long as they had  the notion of the lead times and location of the different DCs and customer’s plants, this map  helped them to sensitize about the problems they face in the diary planning of their deliveries  and operations. But, certainly, the solution had not been found until the team took the task  of finding every possible and accurate indicator that could helped to increase the efficiency  of the logistics operations, whether the data was available or not.

So, by means of sticky notes around the map containing the different insights of internal and  external stakeholders, the KPI’s were not the only solution, but many ideas about relocating  operations, reducing the transport fleet and changing current routes were born and ready to  get tested in the next stage as small and cheap projects.

Insight & approach

This example may not demonstrate a perfect use of the visualization tool in terms of Design  Thinking, but as an actual intern, I could relate the importance of graphic elements with a  real situation and how these tools managed to solve not-seen problems with future small  projects which, surely, will be implemented in a small scale but with iterative trials.

It also gave me an approach to the mindset needed in DT, which demands engagement,  questioning and testing ideas, accepting uncertainty and experiencing customer’s needs.

