A few references :

• Renault spare parts
• Exide Technologies – Automotive
• BIC Europe
• Dixon’s Store Group UK
• Goodman Fielder Australia
• Manugistics / JDA
• PwC Consulting Australia

Bruno Danré, IS Project Director for Renault

In 2009 Renault launched the implementation of a global planning solution for its spare parts. The first go-live happened mid-2010 with a full deployment by mid-2011.

Thierry, who was involved on the vendor side during the tool selection process (during the demos, the Proof of Concept and the project approach definition and workload estimate), intervened on the project itself in 2009-2010 as a forecasting and tool expert. He reviewed the design and supported the implementation, including the custom requirements, on which he illustrated his capacity to solve issues. Thierry made himself available during key moments and thus allowed for smooth transitions to test then production environments.

His teaching skills were especially appreciated regarding the forecasting parameters optimisation, which allowed for a gain of 1 point of MADE. Overall his involvement allowed the project to achieve its milestones and quality objectives.

Christian Thillaye, Project Manager for Exide Technologies Europe

Over 2006-2007 Exide Technology has deployed a planning solution (based on JDA / Manugistics) over Europe for its automotive division. Over that period, we selected a tool and rolled it out to a first group of countries, then we deployed it to our remaining European markets.

Thierry was involved in the pre-sales on the JDA side, including on the project approach, workload estimates on the JDA and Exide sides, and the project costing.

During the implementation itself I was in charge of the project on the Exide side, while Thierry managed the project for JDA, from the process review to the first go-live, including the design of the solution for demand planning, distribution planning and production planning.

Despite some “battles” to secure resources and some technical challenges, the project was delivered on time (6 months for the demand planning solution and 9 months for the supply), and within budget. The key to success was good teamwork between the consultants and their Exide counterparts. This project brought an improvement in forecast accuracy of 25 points, allowed for a decrease in inventory of 14 days and an increase in service level of 8 points, it fostered more internal collaboration and a harmonisation of the ways of working across markets.

In 2005-2006 BIC launched the replacement of its forecasting solution for Europe (23 countries). The aim was to improve the forecast performance by implementing a unique system, while taking into account the specificities of the markets and incorporating the available market intelligence from major clients.

Thierry, who managed the project for Manugistics and intervened as tool expert, brought his experience of Demand Planning as well as his creativity to satisfy the very specific requirements, for instance on the erratic demand of some export dealers. One specificity of this project was the automated integration of the market intelligence contained in the CRM tool (Siebel), in order to avoid extra data entering work for sales people.

Following the go-live of the first wave of markets, the solution was deployed to the remaining countries internally over 2006-2008. The measured performance showed an ever increasing forecast accuracy of 20 points at a detailed level of packaged Item / Market, while adding the notions of client and promotion.

In 2004-2006 Dixon’s Store Group engaged in a major Supply Chain Planning project, encompassing store forecasting & replenishment, DC replenishment as well as sales budgeting and events margin simulation. The scope included the Dixon’s retail chain, and has been deployed to the Currys and PC World chains within the UK.

Thierry was involved in the store forecasting and sales budgeting aspects of the project in 2004-2005. He provided forecasting expertise as well as Manugistics expertise to design the solution and showed creativity and problem solving skills on the sales budgeting aspects where the requirements were quite complex (price and volume induced margin variations, VAT…).

This project brought major benefits to the business. There were several benefits that resulted from the project, in the main an understanding around the reasons for forecast error, a reduction in inventory and better promotion planning resulting in reduced clearance stock 

“I had the privilege of working with Thierry in 2002-2003. Thierry's expertise in Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Demand Planning in particular, was vitally important in helping my team deliver a new Demand Planning solution for an FMCG company. As a practitioner in the SCM field, Thierry was also effective in bringing clarity to ambiguous concepts that business key users found challenging. Thierry's combination of structured training, and creative solution design proved key in the successful delivery of the solution. I would recommend Thierry for similar consulting engagements based on his practical expertise, excellent communication skills, his drive for quality and strong sense of teamwork.” April 3, 2008

Arnaud Delporte, former consulting Director for South Europe at Manugistics. Director of South Europe services at QAD

Thierry is one the rare people on whom you can always rely, one of these versatile consultants we would all like to have in our teams. 

I was lucky enough to be trained by Thierry in 1997, then after a few years later to hire him in 2004 (without hesitation) in my team, after his australian adventure.

Thierry is someone you can always rely on, both professionnaly and personnaly

“During my time at PwC Consulting I worked with Thierry as a colleague in the SCM group and as a a project manager on select projects that Thierry worked on as a subject matter expert. Thierry was recognised for his global expertise in Demand and Supply Chain Planning and especially for his expertise with APS implementation with Manugistics and i2 applications. I recommend Thierry for his expertise in working with clients to optimise their use of these solutions.” March 30, 2008