How Rip Curl Gains Visibility Across Its Global Supply Chain?

When a company works with several hundred suppliers around the world, the real challenge is not placing the orders.

The challenge is knowing their status at any given moment.

Production in progress; potential delays; validated quality control; scheduled shipment; expected receipt: every piece of information counts. When this information is incomplete or arrives too late, the consequences quickly impact logistical planning, stock levels and customer service.

For Rip Curl, an international board sports company, this issue had become strategic.

With six product divisions, over 450 suppliers and nearly 50,000 orders managed each season, the company needed more reliable visibility over its entire supply chain.

Single source of information for all stakeholders

Before even discussing anticipation or performance, the first step is to share common information.

Procurement, logistics and commercial teams, as well as suppliers, need to work from the same data. This avoids information discrepancies and prevents decisions based on outdated information.

At Rip Curl, purchase commitments are initially based on sales forecasts. As commercial orders are confirmed, volumes are refined with suppliers down to the stock-keeping unit (SKU) level. Everyone then has an up-to-date view of the supply chain's progress.

This shared visibility reduces uncertainty throughout the supply cycle. It also improves coordination between the various stakeholders.

Maintaining the most accurate arrival date possible

In an international supply chain, lead times are constantly changing.

Production delays, postponed quality control, or deferred shipments can alter planned receipt dates.

The challenge is not just tracking an order. It is about constantly knowing the most accurate possible arrival date for the goods.

Rip Curl has made this visibility a central part of its organisation. Its logistics and commercial teams are continuously informed about supply chain developments and estimated warehouse receipt dates.

This visibility allows the company to:

• better plan logistics operations;
• allocate resources with greater precision;
• limit last-minute adjustments;
• communicate more reliable information to customers;
• make decisions more quickly when deviations occur.

In an environment where lead times constantly change, having reliable and up-to-date information becomes a significant operational advantage.

Focusing teams on situations requiring action

When a large number of orders are in progress simultaneously, it becomes impossible to check everything manually.

Rather than asking teams to monitor each file, Rip Curl relies on a management-by-exception approach.

A monitoring dashboard automatically identifies potential anomalies. It alerts procurement staff when intervention is needed. Teams can then focus their attention on at-risk orders, rather than spending time monitoring situations that are progressing as expected.

This approach improves responsiveness to contingencies while reducing low-value-added monitoring tasks.

Benefits that go far beyond order tracking

For Rip Curl, the results extend beyond simply achieving better supply chain visibility.

As the director of operations for Europe explains:

“The e-SCM Supplier Portal makes the supply chain more reliable and delivers substantial productivity gains. It provides an increased capacity for planning logistics and distribution activities and the ability to offer better service to our customers. It also contributes to raising the skill level of the procurement team.”

This testimony highlights an often-underestimated aspect of upstream supply chain digitisation projects.

When teams spend less time searching for information, chasing suppliers, or updating tracking files, they can devote more energy to analysis, forecasting, and decision-making.

Visibility then becomes a driver of operational performance. It is also a means of evolving the role of procurement staff towards higher value-added tasks.

Better visibility to regain control of the supply chain

Production issues, delays and unforeseen events will always exist.

However, their impact depends directly on a company's ability to detect them early enough to take action.

Rip Curl's experience shows that better supply chain visibility not only makes operations more reliable but also improves planning, customer service, and team efficiency.

In a global supply chain, knowing what is happening is often the first step to regaining control.

Discover e-SCM's client success stories