Company

IBB Amsterdam is an international company in the watches and jewellery industry. The company owns, designs and builds strong brands such as Ti Sento Milano, Charming by Ti Sento, Blush, Tirisi and Tirisi Moda. IBB is also a distributor of Frédérique Constant, GUESS Watches, GC Watches, GUESS Jewellery, Marc Ecko, Nautica and Fope.

Situation

IBB’s Board of Directors has asked Gwynt to support the professionalisation of the supply chain management and sales-supporting goods processes on the basis of the Operational Excellence philosophy.

Activities

One of the most important activities was the mapping of processes. Brown paper sessions were held to visualise the flow of activities and improvement opportunities. By breaking down the processes into individual tasks, insight into the improvement potential was obtained. Only at task-level proper decisions can be made about simplification, combination, automation or elimination.

The team created a clear, realistic and practical step-by-step plan based on a maturity scan and the findings of the brown paper sessions. IBB’s Supply Chain Manager confirms the importance of this approach: “It is important to translate the necessary improvement opportunities into realistic and manageable targets that everyone can understand. Gwynt helped us to formulate a clear strategy and a practical step-by-step plan to achieve the planned growth and change.”

During the implementation stage, the team used the ‘SCRUM’ methodology (Speed, Commitment, Results, Urgency, Morale). SCRUM is a project management methodology and is designed to monitor and manage the progress of the implementation in a structured manner. It is easy to use and effective at delivering products on time and on budget. This methodology emphasizes communication and collaboration, and inspires people to act.

Result

The approach created smart solutions for supply chain management and efficient sales supporting goods processes that resulted in significant cost savings, enhanced productivity and improved throughput.

IBB’s Customer Service Manager reflects on the change process: “Thanks to a hands-on approach, we were able to make big steps forward in our business operations. As all processes have become very transparent, it is much easier to look at the issues and improvement opportunities. The assistance of an experienced external change consultant has been instrumental in successfully managing and facilitating the change process. What seemed a challenge was actually much easier and faster to implement.”