Coca-Cola HBC Builds Supply Chain Capability Through CELEMI PartnerStock™

Diversifying the learning experience while adding a personal touch

Coca-Cola HBC is a leading FMCG company operating across three continents, with a large and complex Supply Chain organization. Its Supply Chain population includes people working across production and manufacturing, engineering, quality and sustainability, logistics, procurement, supply as well as demand planning, and related operational roles. The Supply Chain Capability team has been developing a broad capability-building system for this population, with on-the-job tutoring and classroom learning as the core formats, supported by lecture-based programs in the form of self-learning and e-learning.

This gives Coca-Cola HBC a strong foundation, but it also creates an ongoing challenge. The Supply Chain Capability team sees the need to diversify the learning experience with an engaging, interactive, and experience-based element. The solution to this challenge needs to be highly targeted and help build capabilities to solve day-to-day operational challenges. At the same time, it has to represent a good fit with the demanding agendas of shop floor professionals and leaders, since pulling these experts away from their day-to-day responsibilities for extended periods is not feasible. Any new learning experience must therefore be concise, relevant, and strong enough to create impact within a limited time.

The broader goal is not to add another training activity, but to create shared learning experiences that help people see how actions, processes and metrics connect across the Supply Chain and the wider business.

Using CELEMI PartnerStock™ to amplify face-to-face training and turn learning into a lived experience

Coca-Cola HBC selected CELEMI PartnerStock™ for two main reasons.

First, the simulation offers a pedagogical approach that is clearly different from the other learning formats in the Supply Chain Capability portfolio. Instead of relying only on on-the-job learning, lecture-based programs, self-study, or e-learning, participants learn by doing. Within a predefined framework, they interact with colleagues, make decisions, see consequences, and connect this experience to their own supply chain reality.

Second, the format is operationally feasible. CELEMI PartnerStock™ can be delivered in half a day or less, which is critical for shop floor professionals, leaders, and Supply Chain experts whose daily roles make longer training sessions difficult to schedule.

The simulation gives participants a face-to-face learning experience where they interact with each other and explore business dynamics together. For many learners, this is a very different format from the learning approaches they are used to. It is unfamiliar enough to feel fresh, but natural and accessible enough to be adopted quickly.

CELEMI PartnerStock™ is used in different ways depending on the audience and the point in the learning journey. For frontline Supply Chain professionals participating in development programs, it is introduced early in their learning journey to create engagement and build broader understanding. For planning and logistics professionals, it is used more as a capstone experience, helping them connect their specialist knowledge to wider business principles.

A third important value element is the CELEMI Train-the-Trainer model. A group of Coca-Cola HBC Supply Chain Capability Development Managers has been certified to deliver CELEMI PartnerStock™ internally. This enables Coca-Cola HBC to run the simulation with its own Supply Chain experts, adapt the debrief to different audiences, and deliver in local languages where relevant. For management groups with participants from several locations, English can be used as the common language. This internal facilitator model helps internalize CELEMI PartnerStock™ as part of Coca-Cola HBC's own Supply Chain capability-building infrastructure, not just a standalone training event.

A business simulation that helps increase partnering across Supply Chain and beyond

CELEMI PartnerStock™ has become an important component of Coca-Cola HBC’s Supply Chain Capability learning portfolio. The simulation is being delivered across multiple cohorts, reaching a broad mix of participants from different Supply Chain audiences.

The program is part of two Supply Chain development programs delivered in partnership with international academic institutions. In this role, the simulation helps bridge academic content with practical, real-world experience.

One strong indicator of value is the positive feedback the program receives from participants. In addition to formal deployment through development programs, participant recommendations have contributed to continued interest in the experience.

Different audiences gain value in different ways.

For planning professionals, the simulation deepens awareness of core business principles and creates a platform for learning from each other’s experience. For production operators, distribution supervisors, and warehouse leaders, it provides greater visibility into Supply Chain processes and performance drivers that may sit outside an individual’s immediate area of responsibility. Participants report a stronger appreciation for how their part of the operation connects to the whole, and participant feedback has consistently highlighted the simulation’s ability to improve understanding of end-to-end Supply Chain dynamics, as well as the interdependencies between operational decisions.

The simulation is also proving valuable beyond Supply Chain. When used with Field Sales professionals, CELEMI PartnerStock™ helps them better understand upstream and downstream Supply Chain effects. This creates a deeper appreciation of the operational realities behind customer discussions and strengthens their understanding of the broader business system.

For Coca-Cola HBC, this is especially relevant because the organization is strongly commercially oriented, while Supply Chain also represents a major part of the workforce and plays a central role in delivering the right product, in the right place, at the right time.

By combining an engaging simulation format, a short and operationally feasible delivery model, internal facilitation capability, and strong relevance to real Supply Chain work, CELEMI PartnerStock™ helps Coca-Cola HBC make capability development more practical, social, and memorable.

The result is a learning experience that has generated strong participant engagement and continues to support shared understanding and partnering across Supply Chain and beyond.