Australian steel producer BlueScope Steel was looking for a technology partner to help it achieve end-to-end visibility of its complex supply chain. Deepa, the company's vice president of supply chain and quality, and Harsh Koppula, chief operating officer and co-founder of TADA, tell the story of the multi-year project.

BlueScope is an Australian-based steel manufacturer — performing everything from making to converting and recycling — with $18 billion in revenues. Deepa says the steel industry remains mired in many manual processes that frustrate efforts to optimize the supply chain. Her challenge: “How do we evolve this business so it can last the next 25 years?”

BlueScope was drawn to TADA as a vendor partner in the effort because of the latter’s focus on managing the end-to-end supply chain. Koppula says the client faced an all-too-common problem among companies today: a fragmented organization with various functional silos that needed to be connected. The goal was to transform operations so that everyone was looking at the same information and could make key decisions in real time.

The engagement has been billed as a “five-year journey,” although it could take less time to realize. Phase one focuses on demand, supply and inventory planning. Deepa says the company has long relied on tenured managers, who no longer can keep up in a cohesive manner with the volume of data that’s generated by modern-day supply chains. The ultimate goal, she says is “an improved customer experience — delivery of product at the right lead time and right time.”

Part of the initial effort involves improving the accuracy of data. Koppula says that has been a challenge with “literally every customer we are working with, no matter how invested they are in technology.” To solve the problem, TADA is providing BlueScope with the capability to formulate a digital twin of its operations, covering the entire ecosystem. In addition to helping cleanse the data, it can be used to create multiple “what-if” scenarios in a virtual environment, so that BlueScope can choose the optimal one.

For information on the next Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo, click here.