TOP SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERS 2023
Kristen Daihes
VP Global Supply Chain Mars
Kristen Daihes has had a love for solving puzzles for as long as she can remember, including marathon sessions at her Grandma’s house when she was a little girl. She was destined to grow up and apply that passion to solving supply chain problems in new and innovative ways. When she’s not trying to figure out how to put new puzzle pieces together at work, she enjoys gardening and trying to convince her kids to eat what they grow.
Message to the Supply Chain Community
I am honored to receive this award. Going after the full value of digitalization requires much more than tech enablement, it requires doing things differently which is all about capability building and developing new ways of working. I appreciate the recognition of what we are doing at Mars, and more importantly, how we are doing it.
It is easy to get distracted and excited by the next big thing in tech. Our success as leaders is linked to our ability to create value by working together – and exploring how to solve problems in new and different ways that do not already exist. It’s not about reapplying what others are doing, it’s about pioneering in discovery to connect in ways we are not accustomed to finding new innovative solutions together for mutual benefit.
CASE STUDY
Supply Chain Transformation Journey
“Stock moves between warehouses is a “Last line of defense” to fulfill customer orders and avoid service loss. While we want to execute with excellence for our customers, every move of product in the network is a loss with a sustainability impact. The key question we wanted to answer was, “How might we improve customer service and reduce waste by digitizing the process and replacing manual logic with balanced cost/benefit optimization?”
