Analysis of Henkel's Global Supply Chain Hub in Singapore Initiative

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Henkel's global supply chain hub in Singapore, focusing on its strategic importance and operational initiatives. It delves into the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) within Henkel, highlighting the company's efforts to simplify its organization, drive operational excellence, and build scalable business models. The report discusses key concepts such as driving operational excellence, building scalable business models, the role of global hubs, and the importance of sustainability. It also explores the impact of push and pull factors on supply chain success, referencing the Hanjin bankruptcy as a case study. The report concludes that Henkel's global supply chain hub provides a strong foundation for developing Singapore into a global center of excellence through the implementation of best practices in SCM, talent management, digitalization, and sustainability.

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply Chain Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

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Table of Contents
Part A: “Henkel opens global supply chain hub in Singapore: Steering the biggest transformation
initiative in Henkel”.........................................................................................................................3
Question 1: Concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Henkel.......................................3
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM).......................................................................3
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................5
References................................................................................................................................6
Question 2: Discussion of four concepts of SCM.......................................................................7
Introduction..............................................................................................................................7
Four underline concepts from the perspective of Supply Chain Management........................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................17
References..............................................................................................................................18
Part B: “Hanjin Bankruptcy Poses New Challenges for Global Supply Chain Managers”..........21
Question 1: Push and pull view in Supply Chain Management................................................21
Introduction............................................................................................................................21
Push and pull view in SCM...................................................................................................21
Failure of Hanjin in business due to push and pull factors....................................................24
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................24
References..............................................................................................................................25

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Question 2: “Sharing of risk is crucial in the pipeline of Supply Chain”..................................26
Introduction............................................................................................................................26
Sharing risk is very crucial in the pipeline of Supply Chain.................................................26
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................29
References..............................................................................................................................30
Part C:............................................................................................................................................31
Question: “Success of Supply Chain business is contributed by push and pull factors”..........31
Introduction............................................................................................................................31
Impact of push and pull factors on the success of supply chain business.............................31
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................34
References..............................................................................................................................35

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Part A: “Henkel opens global supply chain hub in Singapore: Steering the
biggest transformation initiative in Henkel”
Question 1: Concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Henkel
Introduction
Henkel opens a global supply chain hub within Singapore. The goal of supply chain hub
is simplification of organization, secure competiveness of the company based on efficiency,
speed as well as agility. The hub manages its purchasing, production and logistics processes
based on three business units such as: “Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care and Laundry &
Home Care” (Henkel.com). This global hub will steer biggest transformation of the organization.
The global supply chain plays a key role into foster corporate culture of the company.
Concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Stadtler (2015) stated that SCM is management of supply chain for maximizing the
customer value as well as achieving of sustainable competitive advantages. Mangan, Lalwani
and Lalwani (2016) argued that SCM is administration the flow of materials and providing
higher degree of purchaser satisfaction at lower cost. The supply chain hub of Henkel is single
supply chain which simplifies them to compel an operational excellence along with assemble
scalable business models. The key initiative of global hub is to become global leader within
brands as well as technologies. The workplace concept of global supply chain hub takes four of
the considerations such as: firstly, the employees are free to take decisions which location is right
for them to achieve their tasks. Secondly, a workplace is provided to support the team and their

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productivity (Wisner, Tan, & Leong, 2014). Thirdly, the supply chain allows flexible as well as
physical movement of daily activities for fostering employee’s vitality. Fourthly, the leaders
should act as models of work culture. Development of global supply chain within Henkel’s
global centre of excellence, the organization looks for the employees into global mindset along
with stronger leadership skills. The goal of the organization is to build a leadership culture where
there are managers at each level of organization.
Figure 1: Supply chain management
(Source: Stadtler, 2015, pp-19)
Based on the sustainability, Singapore global supply chain hub are partnering with the
suppliers as well as partners to improve its impact on sustainability across the value chain.
Sustainability is where the organization started by means of IoT into the supply chain. It involves

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with real time availability of data as well as accessibility. Up-to-date transfer of data to people is
required to make decisions rapidly (Mangan, Lalwani, & Lalwani, 2016). Time delay is one of
the challenges into supply chain. With increase into globalization, greater connectivity along
with volatile environment, there are higher requirement of managers, leaders across the
organization, those possess adapt, manage in addition to complex relationships. Wisner, Tan and
Leong (2014) discussed that those challenges are removed by a sustainable SCM.
Conclusion
It is concluded that the global supply chain hub of Henkel provides stronger foundation to
develop Singapore into global excellence throughout implementation of best practices into SCM,
talent management, digitalization along with sustainability. The global supply chain hub
provides a strategic business along with technical services for adhesive, beauty car businesses of
Southeast Asia. The key capability of Henkel is to enable a sustainable supply chain into their
business process to provide a sustainable business environment to the employees.

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References
Henkel.com. (2016). Responsible Sourcing. Henkel.com. Retrieved 5 March 2018, from
https://www.henkel.com/sustainability/positions/responsible-sourcing#Tab-805448_2
Mangan, J., Lalwani, C., & Lalwani, C. L. (2016). Global logistics and supply chain
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and
advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Wisner, J. D., Tan, K. C., & Leong, G. K. (2014). Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. Cengage Learning.

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Question 2: Discussion of four concepts of SCM
Introduction
This paper will discuss the four concepts of supply chain for Henkel. The organization
simplifies to drive the operational excellence along with their supply chain business models with
increases competiveness of Henkel based on speed, agility furthermore efficiency. The supply
chain of Henkel has global hub in Singapore. The main function of SCM is to harmonize their
data and process across their business functions (Sunil & Peter, 2010). Into their global hub, the
purchasing, supply chain, operation, IT employees are integrated as team to implement a better
supply chain.
Four underline concepts from the perspective of Supply Chain Management
1) Drive operational excellence and build scalable business model:
The supply chain business model of Henkel increases their competiveness into the
Singapore market based on its speed, agility and productivity (Jajja et al., 2016). Rise into
expectations of customer, expand into the Singapore market, digitalization is key drivers of
changes into business model. This drive can increase need of operational excellence for the end-
to-end transformation of business, agile in addition to flexible solutions. David, Philip and Edith
(2009) mentioned that digitalization is key component of global supply chain hub, which enables
both standardization as well as harmonization of data along with processes across the business
functions. In order to drive an operational excellence and build of scalable business model,
Henkel should develop their supply chain strategy by understanding their business supply chain
as follows:

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Understand the business strategy: 140 years old Germany based company, Henkel deals
with the customers along with industrial goods and it is mostly popular due to Persil brand of the
laundry detergent (Hald & Thrane, 2016). The aim of the company is to consolidate its supply
chain into single global supply chain. At first the management of Henkel understands how their
business should choose to compete. It forces their supply chain operations to observe if the
customers are satisfied with their services (Donald, 2010). The business strategy of Henkel is
lower cost provider; therefore supply chain strategy should support their organization. The global
supply chain initiatives are key driver for realization of vision of company to the global leader
into brands in addition to technologies.
Assess extended supply chain: Henkel should conduct a realistic assessment of abilities
which exist into the organization. Disparate system means there is higher rate of operational
overhead along with pricey process incompetence as well as redundancies. Schragenheim,
Dettmer and Patterson (2009) stated that the supply chain assessment assists proper
understanding of operational strengths as well as opportunities to improve the business functions
of Henkel. After completion of supply chain assessment, the team can review the supply chain
model and validate their opportunities in Singapore.
Development of implementation plan: The supply chain implementation plan is
developed which consists of responsibilities, timeline as well as performance metrics. The sub-
team can establish an execution and provide of project management responsibilities to solve the
supply chain issues and then track the status (Morita et al., 2015). Henkel is planned to develop
their digital platforms so that they can expand into use of the digital media.

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Collaborate with the partners: The supply chain global hub is huge transformation
project of Henkel which collaborates with thousands of people worldwide (Jeremy, 2001). By
locating of staffs into one central location along with up gradation of both IT systems as well as
processes with software, the global hub is intended to harmonize with the headquarter of the
company for coordinating with operations of company on equally sides of global. Henkel aims to
collaborate with the business partners, customers along with suppliers so that digitally driven
sales are doubled to 4 billion Euros by the year 2020. Jacobs, Chase and Lummus (2014)
discussed that harmonization in the company leads to high process of standardization,
improvement over the service level of customer in addition to greater sustainability. The
development process should include of supply chain partners. Henkel seeks out of mutual goals
to execute the process.
Outsourcing: The supply chains strategies consist of evaluate the opportunities for
outsourcing areas which are not within the core competency of the organization. Outsourcing is
done to drive down the cost and it is focused on resources on core competencies of the
organization (Wu et al., 2014). Outsourcing is done to supply the products as well as services on
time. It leads to huge amount of the data on the customers, raw materials along with logistics. It
improves reliability among the service of customers moreover enables managers to notify the
decisions speedily as well as effect into quality processes across the market.

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Figure 2: Supply Chain Strategy
(Source: Wu et al., 2014, pp-227)
2) Global hubs:
The top most priority of Henkel is its global supply chain hub within Singapore. This
global hub plays a key role into fostering the corporate culture of the company. Consisting of
international team of 14 nationalities, the company places a great value into its diversity along
with inclusion. Apart from it, the company is based on speed, culture of its leadership which
empowers their employees towards innovates, management of changes along with taking
decisions (Cudney & Kestle, 2010). The global supply chain hub is complex and it needs of new
collaborative approaches with the employees among cross-functional, cross-divisional teams.

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The Singapore global hub is implemented of open office with proper seating arrangements for
encouraging greater communication into various departments. The global hub consisted of three
video conference rooms, two of the focus rooms, two of phone booths and two of shared offices.
There are also three informal collaboration areas (Roh, Hong & Min, 2014). In the entire office,
all the things are promoted to proper posture. The staffs within Henkel are adopted to clean up
their desk, room at the time of leaving. The rooms are available to others when it is not in use.
Henkel is operating globally with the leading brands plus technologies into three of the
business areas such as “laundry and home care, beauty care in addition to adhesive
technologies”. The core values along with priority of Henkel for Singapore hub is its
sustainability along with staffs are being certified with the sustainability ambassadors (Hald &
Thrane, 2016). Therefore, sustainability is core values of the company with setting up of the
office to work together with the suppliers for standardization of processes. The Singapore hub
began their operations into the year 2015, where the company servers global centre of
operational excellence into SCM, digitalization, talent management as well as sustainability
(Wang et al., 2016). The company seeks to equip into Singapore workforces with capabilities to
seize the logistics industry like create to facilitate of sustainable supply chain of Henkel. The
global hub of Singapore serves of strategic as well as services for technologies, beauty care
products within Southeast Asia. Henkel is worked with the global supply chain within
Amsterdam (Cudney & Kestle, 2010). The launching of supply chain base into city state is
chosen for better logistics capabilities.
The company explained that the global hub is partnered with the suppliers, business
partners for improving sustainability impact across the value chain. The supply chain hub helps
Henkel to enhance their business processes, increase into productivity of labor and save the price