Building the supply chain to enable business alignment: lessons from British American Tobacco (BAT)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on experiences from BAT's major supply chain reconfiguration program; it details practices, lessons learnt and do's and do nots. There is little research that reports on how to manage major supply chain reconfiguration programs, despite the fact that it is widely acknowledged that this can be challenging. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports insights from industry, directly captured from the responsible managers in workshops and through co‐author involvement. Findings – Seven key lessons are shared, including how to use S&OP, measurement and other specific change management tactics and practices. Practical implications – The findings reported in this paper are “straight from the horses mouth” and are very much informed by all the experience developed inside BAT. Coupled with the focus on overall lessons, the findings will be useful for many other supply chain executives engaged in major reconfigurations. Originality/value – This paper provieds an insight into a major supply chain design project in BAT over a six year period. This included access to senior decision makers and those actually running the change program. Case studies of this scale, scope and longitude are a rarity in supply chain strategy.