Panalpina centralizes and expands Global Supply Chain Solutions offering

As part of its growth strategy, third-party logistics provider Panalpina has centralized its Supply Chain Solutions offering with plans to expand the existing team of experts and further invest in technology and infrastructure. Panalpina’s customers from across multiple industries will benefit from solutions that manage their supply chains from end-to-end and offer greater flexibility, customization, and visibility.

The end-to-end management and optimization of supply chains is a business segment where Panalpina sees important growth opportunities. To bolster its offering in this area, Panalpina has united the company’s supply chain experts under one centrally organized entity called Supply Chain Solutions and will expand the global and regional teams in the coming months. The new entity is led by Hans Elmegaard in his role as global head of Supply Chain Solutions, reporting to Karl Weyeneth, chief commercial officer, who is a member of the executive board.

“Our ambition is to become a top global player in supply chain management. The new organizational structure allows us to be even more customer-centric and better seize the many untapped opportunities that lie in the provision of end-to-end solutions across key industries,” says Weyeneth.

Elmegaard explains: “There are two fundamental ways companies look at their supply chains: Some companies regard them as a pure cost factor, other companies think of them as a strategic enabler for their business. Our end-to-end solutions are geared towards the second. Not only do we strive to build more efficient and cost-effective supply chains for our customers, but supply chains that actually support their business models. It’s about turning supply chains into a competitive advantage.”

Panalpina’s Supply Chain Solutions experts are represented on the global and regional level in their capacity as solution developers, supply chain analysts and as solution designers and engineers. The solutions they offer go beyond transportation services to additionally cover all supply chain services at origin and destination. They are customized, offer a high visibility (on SKU level) and often include one or more of the following services: cargo consolidation and de-consolidation, vendor and carrier management, inventory and purchase order management as well as the optimization of freight forwarding services and logistics set-ups. “We are dedicating significant additional resources to this offering and investing in people, IT and infrastructure,” says Weyeneth.

The overall goal of any supply chain solution for a customer is to have the right inventory at the right place at the right time and, most importantly, at the right levels. Too much inventory ties up working capital and raises the risk of obsolescence. Too little inventory leads to stock-outs, missed sales and disappointed end consumers.

“The mode of transport to get the job done is secondary; it should not be the first question to ask. The question is much more: What is our customer’s business objective?” says Elmegaard. “It is about understanding our customers in depth. We need to have value-oriented dialogues that go beyond rates, transit times and volumes and build mutually beneficial partnerships.”