With multiple steps in the almond supply chain – from growers to haulers to production facilities – agricultural corporation Blue Diamond Growers uses the SAP Transportation Management application and SAP Business Network for Logistics to solve complex transportation challenges.
At SAPinsider Las Vegas 2025, Joe Barnett, Director of Global IT Programs & Analytics for Blue Diamond Growers, shared his company’s journey with synchronized planning and transportation management, which has provided the company with enhanced visibility into supply chain and transportation operations, leading to significant cost reductions.
Who are Blue Diamond Growers?
Blue Diamond Growers is a cooperative with a long and storied history. The organization has been in business for over 115 years and represents about 3,000 almond growers across California. California produces over 85% of the world’s almond supply. This geographic concentration has significant global transportation implications. Blue Diamond exports branded products while also engaging in commodity sales across various secondary markets, including China, India, and Turkey. Their products also make their way into many third-party consumables.
Supply Chain Challenges
Before reaching consumers, the Blue Diamond almond supply chain must overcome numerous challenges and unexpected destinations, which are sometimes only known about 45 days before their deadline. Balancing this constant and inconsistent demand from various customers requires meticulous planning.
The almond supply chain is complex, involving harvesting, third-party processing, receiving, and final manufacturing before shipping. Before adopting SAP, Blue Diamond’s logistics processes relied heavily on outdated spreadsheets and inaccurate and outdated but commonly held process management knowledge.
Blue Diamond’s Transformation Journey
Blue Diamond’s journey toward supply chain process improvement began in 2014 with the rapid deployment of SAP’s ECC solution. This was complemented by their implementation of IBP in 2017 and an upgrade to S4/HANA in 2020.
Blue Diamond Growers also harnessed the capabilities of SAP Analytics Cloud to feed analytics into their operations, especially in demand planning and sales and operations planning facilitated by IVP.
Blue Diamond also improved their transportation management processes by adding visibility into freight collaboration. This allowed them to track shipments better and efficiently communicate with logistics partners.
Recent activities include successful migration to SAP Rise and initiatives such as real-time integrations and order-based planning, which are vital components of their current ecosystem.
Building a Supply Chain Improvement Project
According to Barnett, there are six major highlights to keep in mind when considering a supply chain improvement project:
- The business landscape and tools are never static. Let the need for action be the catalyst for action.
- Implement in multiple phases (eg, by mode, geography, etc.) to reduce risk and change management efforts.
- Look for opportunities to improve your processes, keep it simple and standardize.
- Centralization allows for improved data integrity, and (hopefully) decision-making
- Leverage partners to provide guidance and deployment knowledge (SAP Enterprise Support, etc.)
- Utilize Agile Project management to increase business ownership and participation.
Benefits
Throughout their journey, Blue Diamond has made continuous improvement a hallmark of their supply chain optimization project and has worked toward minimizing reliance on manual processes and diversifying their sources. Other benefits include:
- Enhanced visibility into their supply chain and transportation processes.
- Streamlined operations leading to significant cost reductions
- Improved collaboration across teams, leading to quicker and more informed decision-making
- A reduction in days on inventory and enhanced warehouse utilization
Takeaways
Barnett offered three key takeaways during his presentation:
- Adapt to Change: The business landscape and tools are always evolving, so we must continually plan for perfection while being open to change.
- Partner Collaboration: Leverage external partnerships and resources for support and enhancements.
- Simplicity & Standardization: Streamlining processes and focusing on standards while acknowledging that exceptions will always exist.
What this means for SAPinsiders
Supply chain management logistics are ripe for continuous process automation. Managing perishables in a global supply chain is never easy. Products must be harvested, processed, packed and shipped with precision and in a way that meets the timing requirements of both the product itself and the customer or partner who needs them. This complexity often requires a phased approach similar to that taken by Blue Diamond. Thier implementation included multiple SAP products, including an ECC solution, an upgrade to S4/HANA in 2020, and the successful migration to SAP Rise. These solutions are designed to accelerate supply chain operations, but in a way that allows organizations to grow into them and slowly but surely improve their processes.
Adapting to change is a critical takeaway that must be handled over the long term. During his presentation, Barnett noted that adapting to change was a critical part of any technology adoption process. Indeed, Blue Diamond’s process optimization was a long-term, evolving goal that started as early as 2014, continues through today, and is a priority for the foreseeable future. Along the way, the company adopted multiple solutions from SAP and others, all while looking at available solutions in the marketplace in the moment and their ability to satisfy existing requirements. Change is the one constant for any organization, and technology adoption choices must continually receive proper scrutiny along the way.
SAP’s S4 Analytics Cloud offered Blue Diamond Real-time Analytics Viability. Blue Diamond benefitted greatly from a real-time analytics engine that enables a very tight view of their supply chain. Given the challenging demands of location, trading partner needs and the perishable nature of their almond product, this made a lot of sense for tight visibility and decision-making. SAP’s S4 Analytics Cloud offers live connectivity, data harmonization, advanced analytics, planning and analysis, and other key features that empowered Blue Diamond to be successful. 
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