Introduction

A global manufacturer of utility-scale solar tracking equipment engaged PraxiChain to assess its logistics and supply chain operations following a period of rapid growth. With project volume climbing quickly, leadership wanted an objective, benchmarked baseline of the organization’s supply chain maturity before deciding where to invest next.

At A Glance

PraxiChain benchmarked the organization’s supply chain against APQC industry standards across five functional areas and identified a 23% improvement opportunity against the industry threshold — with the biggest lever hiding in plain sight: a fully deployed ERP system with substantial untapped capability. The findings led directly to an expanded, multi-phase engagement to capture the opportunity.

Requirements

  • Evaluate current logistics and supply chain processes against a recognized industry framework (APQC)
  • Identify the biggest near-term opportunities to strengthen supply chain performance
  • Deliver a scored, benchmarked assessment and a phased improvement roadmap that leadership could act on immediately

The Challenge

The company had scaled quickly to meet demand for its solar tracking systems – procuring steel, electronics, and mechanical components globally, coordinating multi-site manufacturing, and shipping complex, oversized project loads to construction sites worldwide. Leadership wanted to confirm that its supply chain infrastructure was keeping pace with that growth, and to pinpoint where the best return on further investment would be. 

Going in, the working assumption was that the answer would point toward new systems – that closing the gap would mean investing in additional technology the organization didn’t yet have.

PraxiChain Solution

PraxiChain conducted a structured discovery and scorecard assessment across five functional areas — procurement and supplier management, warehouse and inventory management, outbound fulfillment and project logistics, returns and reverse logistics, and technology, data, and strategic direction — benchmarking each against APQC industry standards. The team ran structured stakeholder interviews across the organization and evaluated existing systems, workflows, and data practices in each domain.

The results uncovered a better opportunity than expected. The company’s ERP system was already fully deployed, with meaningful untapped capability across inventory, planning, and transportation functionality — a capability that could be activated directly, without a new technology purchase. The clearest near-term wins were process-driven: standing up electronic data interchange, a transportation management system, a formal sales & operations planning cadence, and an integrated KPI dashboard, all built on the platform already in place.

From this analysis, PraxiChain built a phased 30/60/90-day improvement roadmap: quick wins to confirm findings and assign ownership in the first 30 days; foundational process work — supplier scorecards, a formal S&OP cadence, reverse logistics workflows, and contract carrier lanes — over the next 60; and technology-enabled transformation, activating the ERP’s supply chain modules and building a live KPI dashboard, over a 90-day-plus horizon.

Results

PraxiChain’s assessment identified a 23% improvement opportunity against the APQC industry standard — a clear, quantified view of the performance available to capture, concentrated most heavily in warehouse and inventory management, outbound logistics, and technology utilization.

The engagement reframed leadership’s view of the opportunity: the fastest path forward wasn’t a new technology investment; it was activating ERP capability already available on the platform — paired with dedicated process ownership and a structured adoption plan.

The credibility of a scored, benchmarked baseline directly led to expanded engagement — the client authorized PraxiChain to extend the work across the broader organization, converting a discovery assessment into a multi-year supply chain transformation program built on technology it had already invested in.

Ready to see what your supply chain is already capable of?

Contact PraxiChain to talk about a Logistics Map & Discovery Assessment for your organization.