Google Geo’s supply chain manages the design, manufacture, distribution and servicing of complex camera and data collection systems that provide data for Google Maps and Google Earth. These systems operate across more than 100 countries and form part of Google’s approximately $30 billion annual hardware supply chain.
Google wanted to strengthen the consistency and performance of its end-to-end value streams while flexibly managing its global suppliers. Processes varied across sites and functions, and integration between stages was limited. Understanding how changes in the supply network affected costs and performance was nearly impossible. Critical knowledge often remained with individuals rather than within shared systems, limiting both visibility and the use of advanced analytics.
Without a unified view, it was difficult to identify constraints, understand dependencies, respond consistently to demand changes, or optimise performance. Google needed a clearer picture of how its processes and capabilities worked together, and where improvement would create the greatest commercial and operational value.
The journey began by identifying immediate sources of disruption and delay across two product value chains and the ways of working connecting them.
S A Partners worked with Google to map each stage of all of the value streams, define the supporting processes and identify the points at which work and information moved between functions. This created an integrated view of the end-to-end supply chain and revealed where inconsistent processes, insufficient data, missing business capabilities and unclear dependencies were affecting performance.
The supporting business capabilities were assessed against a maturity model aligned to Google’s strategic and operating objectives, while performance objectives and value-driver metrics established which gaps had the greatest influence on cost, flow, reliability and responsiveness.
Google defined excellence as an integrated supply chain in which teams could see all of the complete value streams, understand their interdependencies and make decisions based on a shared view of performance.
Google developed a comprehensive Value Stream Model covering the stages, processes, integration points and targeted capabilities across both value chains. This provided a common structure through which supply chain leaders could understand performance and design the future state together.
Cross-functional workshops helped leaders move beyond a siloed view of their individual areas. Teams learned how to examine the complete process, recognise dependencies and identify how changes in one function could affect performance elsewhere in the value stream.
Capability assessments and value-driver metrics were then used to prioritise improvement opportunities according to their expected impact. These included a $4 million reduction in fleet requirements, more than $3.2 million in buffer-stock savings and annual contractor-cost reductions of between $400,000 and $500,000.
The work also identified opportunities to reduce one order-to-delivery lead time from 80 to 51 weeks, extend asset life through modularity and reduce the cost of field upgrades.
The intervention gave Google more than a documented view of its supply chain. It introduced a repeatable way to plan business transformation by understanding strategic and operating objectives, assessing capabilities, prioritising opportunities and designing improvements collaboratively across functions.
The $7.2 million in identified capital opportunities represents a potential 26x return on investment. This conservative calculation excludes the identified annual contractor-cost reductions and further savings available through lower-cost field upgrades.
Templates, maturity assessments and prioritisation tools created a scalable foundation for extending the same diagnostic approach across additional value streams. Leaders and operational teams developed the skills and habits required to maintain the models, reassess strengths and weaknesses and respond as conditions changed.
By combining a shared process view with stronger cross-functional behaviours, Google established the foundation for more reliable planning, faster decision-making and future digital and operational transformation.
An end-to-end view that made constraints, capabilities and cross-functional dependencies visible.
More than $7.2 million in capital opportunities, representing a potential 26x return on investment.
A repeatable approach and new collaborative habits that Google can extend across future transformation activities.
Google created a shared view of its supply chain and the internal capability to keep improving it. The result is a scalable foundation for reducing costs, accelerating flow and guiding future transformation.