Supporting New Zealand Farmers Through Data-Driven Supply Chain Management with SAP Analytics Cloud

⇨ Digital Transformation: Ballance implemented SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform Integration to address inefficient manual processes and optimize supply chain management.

⇨ Operational Impact: Post-implementation, Ballance achieved a 99.8% stock service level, 60% increase in automated stock replenishment, and introduced a data-driven 'MyStore' platform, improving inventory management.

⇨ Recognition & Future Plans: Ballance won the "Best Run SAP Data and Analytics" award in 2023 and plans ongoing collaborations with SAP for further business transformation.

Register for Mastering SAP this November, to hear firsthand insights from Jonny Reay (National Distribution Manager, Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd), and dive deep into Ballance’s Data-Driven Supply Chain Management. Secure your spot now and align yourself with the best in your field!

Overview

Ballance is a New Zealand farmer-owned co-operative founded in the 1940s which is committed to farming more productively, profitably and sustainably. Originally, our core business was in fertiliser manufacturing, supply, sales and advice, but as the agricultural industry evolves, we have embraced advances in agri-science and technology to lead the way in creating the best soil and food on earth. Ballance offers a full range of science-based nutrient products and services designed to deliver the productivity and results farmers need both on and off-farm, while minimising their environmental footprint. We also supply products to a range of industrial businesses, provide online farm systems software so that farmers can make more informed management decisions and maintain service centres located throughout New Zealand to provide our customers with one-on-one specialist advice.

Ballance’s supply chain is made up of numerous service centres along with a network of rural merchant supply partners, consignment stores, manufacturing sites and our own agricultural aviation services. Our supply planning team and service centre managers were dependent upon inefficient manual processes and disparate data to schedule daily operations, undertake inventory planning and ensure that the right products are available for our customers when required. In order to optimise our supply chain management and operational capability, and to more effectively serve New Zealand’s farmers and agricultural industry, the Balance team undertook a digital transformation project named Programme Advance centred around the implementation of SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI).

Challenge

Prior to the implementation of SAC and SAP CPI, our service centre managers were reliant on visual stock inspections and manual processes for inventory management and scheduling of daily operations. With 40 Ballance service centres located across New Zealand, this significantly increased the risk of human error and threatened data veracity, which in turn affected product availability. The reliable provision of agricultural technology and nutrients is vital for farmers, and our inability to ensure the right products would be available at the right location and time negatively impacted our customers.

Lacking the technological capability to consolidate different views and processes central to business operations meant that visibility across the inventory available in any service centre was severely lacking, preventing our service centre managers from being able to track specific products, accurately gauge inventory or foresee potential stock issues before they arose. Although we did have multiple systems to track and forecast this information including SAP S/4HANA, SAP BTP and SAP APO, Ballance needed a central dashboard to provide a holistic view of this information to serve both our service centre managers and supply planning team.

Solution

We were already utilising SAP Services for S/4PCE Implementation, the Customer Success Partner for S/4 PCE, SAP CX for advisory support, SAP S/4HANA, SAP APO and SAP BTP in our existing system landscape. Our familiarity with the capability and scalability of SAP technology made the decision to continue leveraging SAP solutions over market competitors an easy one.

Accenture New Zealand was our initial implementation partner for SAC and SAP CPI, using their expertise to assist with dashboard creation and integration with our logistics platform. Like any large business, we are challenged by delivering value at pace and the ongoing support provided by SAP has also been invaluable. SAP made the effort to understand our business problems with regular meetings, providing ongoing development of the solution with build prototypes as proof-of-concept within our environment, connecting us to experts around the world and helping to grow skillsets within our organisation.

Ballance will continue to partner with SAP for our upcoming Maturity Assessment workshop, where business transformation experts will review our current business capabilities and provide a recommended training plan based on our business strategy and goals.

Impact

The implementation of SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform Integration has significantly improved data veracity and given our service centre managers and supply planning team the ability to schedule daily operations with data insights rather than visual inspections and time-consuming manual processes. Data is now available in real time, with alerts from multiple systems on one central dashboard.

With the help of Accenture and SAP, we have created a centralised ‘MyStore’ platform using SAC that consolidates relevant data for each of our service centres. The central dashboard provides detailed insight into our operations, including Sales (today vs yesterday), Products in Form (bulk, bagged and mixing activities), Sales vs Forecast and Inventory Product Tracking against our demand/supply plan. Our service centres no longer have to conduct visual bin inspections to check inventory levels or manually create stock transfer requests, with autoreplenishment and alerts in place for when our top ten products begin to fall below 10% of maximum stock. These near-time alerts are tracked to provide a trend which allows us to foresee supply issues across our entire network. Additionally, our supply planning team are now performing annual reviews of our inventory policy and making mid-season adjustments to better support our customers. By integrating SAP CPI with our logistics partner, we are also able to send STOs and receive confirmation of loads before delivery along with cartage costs. Using this data, we recently updated our STO Freight Conditions to include cartage costs into inventory for cost of goods sold, bringing additional efficiency and cost savings to our supply chain management process.

The visibility across our organisation provided by SAC and SAP CPI has increased employee and stakeholder trust in our business data and enabled Ballance to move forward with a new service promise to our customers: The right product, at the right place, at the right time with the right spread rate. This promise may sound simple, but as we are a bulk business dependent on weather factors for product availability, it means something to the New Zealand farmers who depend on the products that we supply.

• Stock service level of 99.8% against target of 99%
• 400 min / week savings across all service centers reducing admin burden
• 60% increase in automated stock replenishment, avoiding critical stock alerts

Testimonials

“MyStore has delivered significant value to both our organisation and customers. By providing transparency and enabling our teams to make informed replenishment decisions, it has enabled them to take pride in their work. This has created a positive culture and working
environment where team members feel empowered and confident in their roles. By enabling us to uphold our founding purpose of reliable nutrient supply” – Shane Dufaur, GM Operations & Supply Chain

“Since its introduction the benefits to our team and customers has been significant. Our team has gained a better understanding of inventory levels, improved stock distribution, reduced stockouts through consistent stock management practices and enabled our Service Centre teams to focus on customer conversations instead of administrative tasks. MyStore has instilled confidence in store managers and operators, empowering less experienced staff to make replenishment decisions and providing early alerts for proactive action minimizing the risk of critical stock levels. With a greater understanding of our network capabilities and ease of decision making the collaboration and trust among team members have increased, leading to a positive culture and working environment. MyStore has helped to evolve our supply chain, as we continue to leverage its and SAP capabilities, we anticipate even greater improvements in our supply chain performance and customer satisfaction.” – Jonny Reay, National Distribution Manager

Partner Information

Accenture and SAP were Ballance’s implementation partners.

Want to explore the award-winning story that clinched the ‘Best Run SAP Data and Analytics’ at the 2023 SAP Best Run Awards? Register for Mastering SAP this November, to hear firsthand insights from Jonny Reay, and dive deep into Ballance’s transformative implementation. Secure your spot now and align yourself with the best in your field!

The full SAP Best Run 2023 entry can be found here.