PSC LIVE Dubai: Sandeep Sharma, Domino’s Pizza Fireside Chat

In a fireside chat at Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE Dubai, Sandeep Sharma, Director of Group Procurement (MENAP) at Alamar Foods - Domino's Pizza, broke down what operational excellence looks like in the context of today’s volatile supply chain landscape.

With Domino’s customers expecting fast, consistent service, Sandeep illustrated how the brand’s supply chain adapts across regions under pressure from inflation, conflict and shifting customer expectations. 

His advice focused on balancing core principles of planning, visibility and agility with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and IoT integration.

Defining excellence: planning, visibility and partner alignment

Sandeep opened with a definition of operational excellence rooted in reliability and consistency. 

“It refers to the ability to deliver products and services efficiently, effectively and reliably,” he said, noting that the key metric is “on time in full.”

He outlined several core variables critical to achieving this:

• Demand forecasting: Understanding trends and consumer behaviours to optimise inventory levels.
• Inventory management: Adapting stock levels in response to geopolitical and market dynamics.
• Supply chain visibility: Using automation and digital tools to monitor products and risks in real time.
• Supplier and partner management: Ensuring transparency with partners to understand their manufacturing processes, sourcing strategies and associated risks.
• Logistics optimisation: Reducing cost and improving delivery performance through network design.

Each of these factors contributes to what Sandeep calls the ultimate goal: “delivering what the customer wants and improving customer satisfaction in a consistent way.”

Meeting rising customer expectations

Speaking specifically to the QSR sector, Sandeep highlighted that customer expectations have evolved rapidly.

“The one word that works is convenience,” he explained. “Customers want the same kind of taste, the same kind of experience everywhere.”

To support that demand, Domino’s must ensure a consistent product, cost-effectiveness and service speed. 

Sandeep noted that this involves optimising not just price or supply, but value. 

“Optimise is not reduction, it is not increase – it is optimum value for the circumstances,” he said.

Quality assurance also plays a central role, with the supply chain tasked with maintaining standards across borders, suppliers and formats. 

Meanwhile, operational costs must be carefully balanced to stay competitive in a cost-conscious market. 

This balancing act between value, reliability and efficiency forms the heart of the company's approach.

Navigating geopolitical and economic disruptions

Sandeep mapped out a series of major disruptions that have shaped modern supply chains, including:

• The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a global rethink of contingency planning.
• Commodity inflation introduced unprecedented unpredictability in procurement and manufacturing.
• The Russia–Ukraine conflict and its impact on wheat supplies and energy costs.
• Regional instability, including the Israel–Palestine conflict and Red Sea disruptions, led to container surcharges and extended shipping routes via the Cape of Good Hope.
• Trade tariffs and reciprocal tax moves affecting pricing and sourcing strategies.

These layers of disruption, according to Sandeep, require agile and proactive responses. 

“The typical scenario has given rise to two words in supply chain: resilience and agility,” he said.

Balancing cost, efficiency and speed requires a blend of strategies. These include:

• Economies of scale and strategic hedging.
• Transparent supplier negotiations, often using open-book costing models.
• Inventory optimisation to mitigate working capital risks.
• Supply planning that accounts for longer manufacturing and shipping timelines – now stretching from 90 to 240 days.

Technology, visibility and advice for peers

In closing, Sandeep urged fellow professionals to embrace technology: “We cannot go out of technology at this point of time,” he said.

From business intelligence tools like Power BI to AI and machine learning, new tech enables smarter forecasting and response.

However, he warned that data must be segmented and clean to be useful. 

“The inference of the whole AI is coming out of the same data,” he said, suggesting that poor data quality undermines technology’s promise.

He highlighted IoT as a tool to monitor inventory and logistics in real time, which in turn enhances supply chain visibility – a priority he reinforced repeatedly. 

“If you don’t have supply chain visibility, you will not be able to decide on time.”

Sandeep closed with a clear message: design your supply chain with the customer at the centre – where convenience, speed and value converge. 

In a world of disruption and digitalisation, the brands that succeed will be those that align people, processes and technology to stay one step ahead.

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