Congratulations to CULSM Alumni #9, Mr. Phawit Kubtanarodje (Supply Chain Manager, Boston Scientific, Thailand), for receiving the 2021 Boston Scientific Asean Award – Top Function.
How does Phawit receive an award?1. Situation / Significant Challenges Faced
-There are significant gaps in the inventory management process (including consignment management) in Thailand in past years, resulting in poor inventory charges (2.2% of sales in FY2020) and also leading to customer dissatisfaction.
-The gap in inventory management is highlighted during the Global Internal Audit, where 1055 units of expired products were left in consignment accounts unattended, and USD 77k of UUB (used but unbilled items) was aged for more than 3 years and remained unreconciled.
-As the BSC SAP system in TH is not able to meet the requirement to manage local business requirements (legal and compliance), the process is not sustainable and requires significant resources and manual intervention to run the business.
-Phawit lead the review of end-to-end business processes in Thailand through a series of workshops and derive an action plan to close the gaps.ss matters.
2. What achieved / Description of Key Contributions
-Phawit lead the review of end-to-end business processes in Thailand through a series of workshops and derive an action plan to close the gaps.
-Change consignment count strategy to ensure 100% of consignment accounts are covered within the count plan.
-Negotiated a business model change from 3PL to 4PL, addressed gaps such as dual ERP system, local invoicing requirement, and operational efficiency.
-Proactively participate in business discussions and create transparency on business processes with support from 3PL.
3. Benefits/Impact to the Business or the organization
-Improvement in inventory charges: 1.0% in FY 2021, > 50% improvement against FY 2020 (equivalent to $460k product standard cost)
-The model change generates a VIP saving of approx. $ 500k and this new model will be able to sustain TH operations in the long run. The model also addressed issues of sales coverage in accounts where BSC presence is limited (through participation in tender and UUB management).
-Phawit has become the preferred business partner among the TH team, leading to improvement in overall service level and customer satisfaction.
-Phawit has become the preferred business partner among TH team, leading to improvement in overall service level and customer satisfaction.
We are extremely proud of all the alumni’s success.