Nexans: Leveraging Automation and AI for Enhanced Delivery Operations

Nexans is a global player in the energy transition sector, with a vision to 'electrify the future'. The company generated 5.7 billion euros in standard sales in 2020 and employs around 25,000 staff across 38 countries. Nexans is a leader in the design and manufacturing of cable systems and services across four main business areas: Building & Territories, High Voltage & Projects, Industry & Solutions, and Telecom & Data. The company operates dozens of factories worldwide and executes thousands of deliveries at any one time. Nexans's global reach has resulted in an intricate and far-reaching value chain, making collaboration between supply chain actors increasingly complex.

Nexans, a global player in energy transition, faced significant challenges in managing its intricate and far-reaching value chain. The company's vast operations, which include dozens of factories across the world and thousands of deliveries at any given time, were prone to disruptions. These disruptions were often due to a lack of visibility into incoming deliveries, leading to high inventory buffers and supply chain bottlenecks. The company's customers were unable to understand where goods were or who was responsible for them, which negatively impacted Nexans's relationships with them. Nexans wanted to improve the quality of service offered to key clients, increase margin, and build strong, long-lasting customer relationships. However, simply increasing inventory buffers was not a viable solution, as the company wanted to keep working capital to a minimum. Nexans also faced bottlenecks throughout the chain, including delays in unloading deliveries when they arrived at customer sites unexpectedly. The company sought to streamline their transportation activities, improve visibility, and enhance their supply chain reliability.

Nexans partnered with Shippeo to implement an innovative digital service that leverages automation and artificial intelligence to provide end-to-end visibility of its delivery operations from factory to customer. This service, which was implemented at the start of 2021, provides Nexans's customers with real-time insights on transportation operations for increased transparency and traceability. It also enables Nexans to identify improvements across its value chain to increase the resilience of delivery ecosystems for customers. The new digital service uses automation and artificial intelligence to provide instant information, reliability, and sources of efficiency to Nexans's customers. It offers benefits such as real-time delivery tracking, incident management, and estimated time of arrival (ETA) predictions. This solution has been integral to the company’s overall strategy, impacting not only the supply chain and transportation functions, but also its sales, marketing, and customer service departments. The partnership with Shippeo is helping Nexans to create an agile, data-driven supply chain supported by state-of-the-art technology.

• The implementation of the new digital service powered by Shippeo has significantly improved Nexans's operations. The company now has end-to-end visibility of its delivery operations from factory to customer, which has increased operational reliability and efficiency. The real-time delivery tracking capabilities provide instant information to Nexans's customers, enhancing their satisfaction. The service also enables Nexans to identify and implement improvements across its value chain, increasing the resilience of its delivery ecosystems. The new visibility capabilities have been integral to the company’s overall strategy, impacting not only the supply chain and transportation functions, but also its sales, marketing, and customer service departments. The focus on digitalization projects and improved visibility has enabled Nexans to deliver value-added services for customers, such as real-time tracking and accurate ETA predictions.

• Increased delivery transparency and traceability
• Supply chain process improvements
• Increased resilience and agility of delivery ecosystem