Steady supply

RESILIENCE

Many supply chains have buckled under the crises of recent years. So, what’s the secret at Endress+Hauser? How does the company ensure fast, reliable delivery when virtually every instrument is unique and order volumes are increasing?

Our supply chain is remarkably efficient and robust despite its complexity and growing external pressures. A lot of that comes down to Endress+Hauser being a family-owned business. As such, our commitment to sustainable, long-term growth drives us to invest the bulk of our profits back into the business – and that includes our integrated supply chain. Thus we have expanded and optimized our supply chain infrastructure and IT over the course of many years, digitalizing and standardizing processes, making them transparent. Then there are our values, driving us to pursue long-term partnerships with our suppliers and service providers based on mutual trust and respect. All of this adds up to a solid foundation for our resilience – our ability to withstand disruptions and cushion their impact.

What does this resilience look like?

Through the crises of recent years, we were generally always able to deliver. Even in 2021, when the global shortage of raw materials was at its worst, we got over 90 percent of all deliveries to our customers on time. We always had air freight capacity. We held sufficient inventory to ride out materials shortages. And, thanks to our global transportation and logistics network, we always had sufficient last-mile capacity to balance out any production delays. Today, on almost all continents where we have a production footprint, our products are distributed regionally via logistics hubs. This is where we initially ship our dispatch-ready goods. From those hubs, we use algorithms to manage final shipment and find the right transport provider for each delivery. The time-critical ones are assigned the highest service level automatically, every time.

How do you reconcile the twin demands of efficiency and resilience in your supply chain?

By putting our customers’ needs at the center of everything we do. Our customers want short delivery times and a reliable, local service. They also want total transparency about the status of their orders. For continuous improvement on both counts, we track global key performance indicators, gather findings from across the worldwide Endress+Hauser network and request customer feedback after each delivery. From there we use agile methods to have all these insights actioned immediately in our supply chain. This is our approach to improving its efficiency, continuity and sustainability. It also gives us the flexibility to respond to unforeseen situations.