With its supply chain consulting, AZentron Solutions helps companies manage their supply chain as a whole – beyond their own departments, together with suppliers, logistics partners and customers, right up to the upstream and downstream tiers over which you have no direct influence. The focus is on resilience, transparency, cyber security and a sustainable value chain.
Most disruptions do not originate where they become visible. A bottleneck at your supplier's supplier, a cyber attack on a logistics service provider or a blocked transport corridor reaches your warehouse only weeks later – but then with full force. If you only optimise your own areas, you react. If you know the entire chain, you can steer.
Phone +43 676 48 40 772 · [email protected]
✓ Eight years as Director Supply Chain Management in international retail (HOFER, 2017–2025)
✓ Over €500 million investment volume from network planning for five countries
✓ More than ten years in international matrix organisations spanning all business functions of a major international group
✓ Statutory managing director for warehousing with responsibility for risk and liability
Every department optimises according to its own KPIs – and that is exactly what creates trade-offs that only become visible as a whole:
✓ Reducing inventory frees up capital, but can jeopardise security of supply if a critical supplier fails.
✓ The cheapest supplier saves money in purchasing, but may increase dependency, transport distances and CO₂ emissions.
✓ Full trucks reduce transport costs, but lengthen delivery intervals and put pressure on freshness and service level.
✓ More digital connectivity creates transparency – and at the same time new attack surfaces via interfaces to partners.
✓ Returns are often considered separately, although they directly affect inventory, warehouse capacity and costs in the forward chain.
These trade-offs cannot be resolved within a single department. They require a shared view of costs, delivery capability, risk and sustainability – and clear rules on who decides when goals conflict.
For end-to-end control, I distinguish three spheres of influence. Each raises a different question: what can we shape, what can we agree on, and what do we need to be prepared for?
Purchasing, production, warehousing, transport and sales. Here you shape processes, inventory, KPIs and responsibilities yourself – and define how the functions plan and decide together.
With direct partners, you steer through contracts, service levels, joint planning and data exchange. This also includes return flows such as returns, load carriers and empties.
Tier-2 and tier-3 sub-suppliers, raw material and energy markets, ports and transport corridors, regulation and geopolitical events. You cannot control these factors – but you can make them visible, assess them and prepare your response. This is exactly where the disruptions that hit companies hardest originate.
Resilience does not mean building buffers everywhere. It means knowing where a disruption would jeopardise your ability to deliver – in order to take targeted precautions there.
✓ Making dependencies visible: single- and sole-source suppliers, shared sub-suppliers of several suppliers, critical sites and transport routes.
✓ Assessing supplier risk: probability and impact, the supplier's time to recover and your own ability to bridge the gap.
✓ Preparing alternatives: assessing alternative suppliers, external production capacity and logistics partners by capacity, lead time, cost and risk.
✓ Placing buffers selectively: safety stock where the risk justifies it – not across the entire range.
✓ Scenarios and contingency plans: who decides what if a supplier, a site or a system fails?
The supply chain is digital: orders via EDI, delivery notifications in the customer portal, service provider access to WMS and transport management. An attack on a partner can bring your infrastructure to a standstill, even if your own IT is well protected.
With the NIS2 Directive, transposed in Austria by the NISG 2026, supply chain security becomes mandatory for the companies concerned. They pass the requirements on to their suppliers and service providers, even if the suppliers themselves do not fall under the law.
In doing so, I connect operational logistics with IT security:
✓ identifying and assessing critical interfaces and data flows to partners
✓ embedding security requirements in supplier selection, contracts and purchasing terms
✓ planning emergency operations: how do you keep delivering if a system or a partner fails?
✓ coordination with your IT, your information security officer and external specialists
When purchasing, warehousing and transport work with different figures, the basis for fast decisions is missing. End-to-end control needs a shared, up-to-date view of the chain.
Shipment tracking, temperature data in the cold chain, fill levels and status updates from partners make visible what is often only noticed on delivery today. What matters is not the volume of data, but that the right data triggers the right decisions.
A supply chain control tower brings together data from all tiers, flags deviations early and defines who responds and how. It is first a question of organisation – KPIs, responsibilities, escalation rules – and only then a question of software. I recommend starting with a few critical flows of goods and expanding the control tower step by step.
Returns, reusable load carriers, empties, take-backs and disposal are not a side issue. They tie up warehouse space and staff, cause transport and determine how quickly goods become available again. I plan return flows together with the forward chain – with clear processes, KPIs and costs.
For many retail and industrial companies, most emissions do not arise at their own sites but in the upstream and downstream supply chain (Scope 3). At the same time, customers and banks are increasingly requesting data – even from companies that are not themselves subject to reporting requirements.
Transport, warehouse energy, refrigeration, packaging and load carriers are captured with reliable data – including from suppliers and logistics partners.
Network and site structure, capacity utilisation, transport modes, energy use in chilled and frozen warehouses, and reusable packaging loops. Many of these measures reduce costs and emissions at the same time.
CO₂ becomes a control metric on a par with cost, service level and risk – and feeds into supplier selection and investment decisions.
We map flows of goods, partners, sites and return flows – down to the critical sub-suppliers. You receive a map of your supply chain showing the key dependencies.
Dependencies, cost drivers, cyber interfaces and emissions are assessed together. The result is a prioritised list of risks and levers – including the trade-offs that need to be decided.
Shared KPIs, responsibilities, escalation rules and – where it makes sense – a control tower. Purchasing, logistics, sales and IT work from a common data basis.
Measures are implemented, partner contracts adjusted and contingency plans rehearsed. In regular reviews we check whether the control model is working. At the end, I hand over to your team.
As Director Supply Chain Management in international retail, I was responsible for network planning, warehouse sites, automation and digitalisation programmes across several countries – with purchasing, sales, IT and external partners at one table. I bring this cross-functional perspective to your company.
Supply chain mapping, resilience and risk analysis as a basis for decisions.
Setting up a control tower, supplier risk management or a network transition.
Interim supply chain leadership, for example during a crisis or a vacancy.
In an initial consultation, we clarify where the biggest lever for your end-to-end control lies.
Phone +43 676 48 40 772 · [email protected]
Supply chain resilience is the ability of a supply chain to anticipate disruptions, absorb them and recover quickly. It is built on transparency about dependencies, prepared alternatives, targeted buffers and clear decision rules.
A supply chain control tower is a central control unit that brings together data from all tiers of the supply chain, reports deviations early and coordinates responses. It consists of organisation, processes and KPIs – the software is only one part of it.
Through supply chain mapping: critical suppliers are asked about their own suppliers, production sites and transport routes. This reveals, for example, when several of your suppliers depend on the same sub-supplier.
NIS2 requires the companies concerned to manage the security of their supply chain. In Austria, this is governed by the NISG 2026. Affected customers pass these requirements on to their suppliers and service providers – which is why companies that do not themselves fall under the law are also affected.
Reverse logistics covers all return flows in the supply chain: returns, reusable load carriers and empties, take-backs, repair and refurbishment, as well as disposal and recycling.
Scope 3 emissions arise outside your own company in the upstream and downstream value chain – for example from transport by service providers, purchased goods and packaging. For many companies, they account for the largest share of emissions.
Yes. Medium-sized companies in particular often depend on a few key suppliers or logistics partners. The starting point does not have to be large: mapping the most critical flows of goods usually already reveals the most important risks and levers.
