Russam teamed up with its Swiss partner in the WIL Group (www.wilgroup.net) to support innovative technology client, as they transform operations and implement global S&OP.

The Situation

• Over 30 years ago two companies – Swiss supplier to the watch industry Audemars and Italian identification company Datalogic – joined forces to become Datamars. Datamars, based in Switzerland, is now a leading technology player in the identification of animals and textiles.
• Datamars was facing challenges with ongoing restructuring in Operations and without a COO currently in place.
• Russam was introduced to Datamars via the private equity firm Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), who had become the company’s largest shareholder in 2017.
• The task was to identify candidates for the mission with a focus on S&OP, with a high level of seniority and perseverance, as newly acquired companies had to be convinced to take part.
• Travel restrictions due to Covid were still in place around Christmas 2021; UK candidates dropped out for mostly logistical reasons around the lack of flights to Zurich.

The Solution

Russam needed access to the best interim managers operating in the Swiss market. Through its Swiss partner firm (also part of the WIL Group) the highly experienced Zsofia Nagy was presented from the core talent pool.

Zsofia is a strategic supply chain expert with over 19 years in the industry including roles at PA Consulting, Coca-Cola, Unilever, and GSK. She brings solutions that help companies to become sustainable whilst remaining profitable. She has handled many successful transformations like S&OP implementations, supply planning process transfer and centralisation, and manufacturing asset optimisations (without disruptions). Some of her previous achievements have included:

• Saving 32M EUR/annum as part of a global distribution transformation programme (it was attempted 5 times before without success in the company!)

• Developing a new commercial supply chain operating & organisation model (estimated saving in recruitment fees of 500k USD p.a.)

• Implementing a global commercial supply chain integration solution (target saving 3M USD p.a. plus process improvement savings of further 5M USD p.a.)

• Delivering a functional supply chain & change management programme for an ERP/Ariba implementation with annual savings of appx. ~9M USD/year

The Results

• S&OP basic process implemented at Datamars

• Replaced key SC roles in the US and NZ

• Helped with the successful selection of the new COO

• Coaching the Global Head of Supply Chain

• Helped to manage the international teams in different countries and helped to set the right priorities

• Valuable support for the MRP system implementation

• Organisational capability mapping & guidance

The Client

“Zsofia has an inquisitive, flexible, and resourceful style; her lack of ego whilst handling the complexity of the situation made her the perfect interim for this role. She hit the ground running, understood the mandate immediately and provided immense support and coaching for the Global Head of Supply Chain. A true pleasure and perfect interim, we would hire her again, without question.”  Miranda Boon, Global HR Director