Corporate Innovation || Forecasting

Background

Stena Stål is a steel company that has 15 Sales offices and 12 stocks across Sweden the company has positioned itself as the stockholder and distributor that is the closest to the customer. The company has existed for many years in a very traditional Industry The steel industry value chain consists of three categories producers on the supply side, stockholding and distribution in the middle and end-users on the demand side.

Challenge

The Company is positioned in the middle of the value chain have difficulty creating a competitive advantage because steel is a commodity and has no product differentiation. Stena Stål needed to find a way to Innovate and bring the company from the past by somehow using technology to help their customers.

Solution

After careful consideration, the project team opted to implement the design thinking process, which involved visiting various branches of the company throughout Sweden. we conducted a series of 50+ interviews with both internal and external stakeholders to gather valuable insights. Armed with these newfound perspectives. based on the insights gathered from the interviews and the design thinking process, the project team collectively determined that forecasting customer orders would be the most advantageous approach to pursue

Result

A user-friendly Market Dashboard was created to simplify forecasting future customer demand by providing objective data and insights. It visualizes external market indicators, internal data, and salespeople's input to support accurate decision-making. Additionally, a pilot initiative introduced forecasting meetings to enhance cross-collaboration and improve customer service. This project was unsuccesful as upon leaving the company there was no team or department allocated to continue, using a learning process.