Prysmian Group Overview

– 17 – OVERVIEW A FAST-PACED SUPPLY CHAIN The Group’s global presence poses complex challenges, while also offering considerable opportunities in terms of the allocation of production and procurement flows. To ensure proximity to the market and reactivity, countries and regions are fully responsible for planning demand, production at their facilities and the related inventory levels. Thanks to its comprehensive vision of the Group, HQ supports all subsidiaries by identifying opportunities for optimisation and new intercompany flows . Prysmian’s supply chain also plays a driving role in the business by covering unsaturated areas of plants or managing situations of over-saturation, while also promoting the elimination of production bottlenecks to exploit market potential fully and, where necessary, to adjust the industrial footprint. Network efficiency also requires monitoring and optimising logistics costs, which play a key role in the economic sustainability of the business due to high product weight and bulk. At the same time, Prysmian is highly committed to the environmental aspects relating to transport, focusing on constantly reducing its CO 2 emissions by both improving the efficiency of its distribution network and of the vehicle fleet of its logistics partners. The supply chain is crucial to the Group’s volumes and net working capital: due in particular to the high value of the metals contained in its products, inventory control is an essential component of the Company’s soundness and the speed with which inventory levels can be adapted to market conditions is key. Last but not least, in keeping with Prysmian’s philosophy, the supply chain pursues excellence in terms of service levels, seeking to ensure product availability according to the various needs of its clients. CUSTOMER PROXIMITY Customers are always at the heart of every strategic and organisational decision that the Group makes. The strategic focus on customer centricity is aimed at achieving a high level of service performance in terms of the reliability of deliveries and a constant commitment to reducing “lead time” from order receipt to the delivery of products to customers. Prysmian is capable of applying elements of flexibility to the entire supply chain to reduce time-to-market and adapt to its customers’ needs in various sectors. The close collaboration with customers also makes it possible to develop products that not only meet their needs, but are also designed to ensure constantly increasing sustainability and offer solutions that often have specific components in the digital arena (e.g., smart cables). Prysmian Group monitors the satisfaction of its customers by conducting extensive online surveys, but also by investing in individual interviews with the Group’s main customers in the Regions of reference. The goal is to ensure an increasingly close relationship with Customers , understanding their needs and the areas in which greater technical, service and market support is required, but also in view of developing innovative solutions that meet the needs of the various markets. Specific Action Plans are formulated and implemented through joint activities at the HQ and country level, with monitoring of the results achieved.