Thomas Denis leads Renault Group's supply chain with aim to better sync production and delivery
In 2026, Thomas Denis was appointed vice-president of supply chain at Renault Group
Renault
Thomas Denis took over earlier this year as vice-president of supply chain at Renault Group, leading logistics and supply chain planning as the carmaker aims to improve reliability, digitalisation and efficiency across operations.
Thomas Denis took responsibility for the Renault Group’s global end-to-end supply chain management in December 2025, responsible for functions including supply and demand planning, sales and operations planning, inbound and vehicle logistics, logistics engineering and digitalisation.
A 20-year veteran in manufacturing and strategy at the French carmaker, Thomas Denis leads logistics at a time of ongoing transformation, complexity and pressures across the supply chain, including geopolitical crises such as in the Middle East, supplier disruption, the uncertain transition to electrification and rising competition across Europe. Among his top objectives include enhancing scheduling reliability with suppliers and plants and building greater efficiency and competitiveness in logistics and supply operations.
“One of my ambitions is to help design our systems to reduce entropy across the supply chain,” he told Automotive Logistics, whilst also citing plans to accelerate progress in supply chain visibility and digitalisation.
The appointment of Thomas Denis is an important evolution in the Renault Group’s supply chain since the appointment of François Provost as chief executive in summer 2025 and a wider re-organisation across the company. Denis Le Vot, who was previously chief supply chain officer at the group as well as CEO of the Dacia brand, left the carmaker at that time; supply chain management was subsequently consolidated with manufacturing under chief industry, quality and supply chain officer Thierry Charvet, to whom Denis reports.
According to Renault, this streamlined management structure supports a more agile supply chain. "To meet the challenges ahead, we need an organisation that decides faster, executes smarter and stays closer to our customers," commented Provost last year.
Thomas Denis sees this integrated organisation as a strength, whilst he will also aim to “ensure supply chain maintains a strong influence” across the organisation.
That will be strongly aided by his experience and cross-functional working relationships. Denis was most recently chief of staff to the chief executive’s office, a role he held both under former CEO Luca de Meo, who left Renault to leading fashion group Kering in spring 2025, and latterly under François Provost, who became CEO after leading procurement.
Previously, Denis worked across a variety of roles mainly in manufacturing and in plant leadership, including 12 years in production roles at Renault’s Douai plant in north-east France, including in paint shop, trim and chassis and body shop. He went on to be the director of the Cléon factory, near Rouen, a major powertrain plant for the group, where he led the transition towards electric and hybrid engine production.
A focus on supply chain fundamentals and proactive management
Talking with Automotive Logistics about his new role, Thomas Denis pointed to a strong focus on strengthening the foundational processes of the supply chain including supplier and production scheduling. “As we work across functions in sales, operations and with suppliers, we aim to further improve operational stability and reduce unnecessary efforts,” he said.
He pointed to opportunities to improve scheduling as well as in managing lead times and external risks for long supply chains, for example for material flows between Asia and Europe.
“As we strengthen these processes and accountability, we will then be able to put even more focus on high-value activities such on-time delivery, right capacity and smart stock sizing," he said.
Supply chain and logistics data and visibility is another strength upon which Thomas Denis aims to build further. For example, Renault Group has continued to expand the scope of its digital control tower, which has been a major focus over the past five years to track and monitor supply chain orders, logistics flows and production information in real time, layering in analytics and AI capabilities. In past years, the carmaker has expanded control tower scope from inbound to vehicle logistics, and more recently has been integrating suppliers’ business continuity.
Thomas Denis sees high potential in converting that visibility into more proactive and predictive management across operations.
"Digitalisation is essential for a resilient supply chain and our strong data management is helping us to flag risks and provide better transparency," Denis said. “But we also see opportunities to make these digital signals even more actionable in our scheduling.”
To support these objectives, Denis said that Renault is developing an updated midterm plan for its supply chain that further set out key performance targets and align closely with the group’s wider strategy under Provost’s leadership.
More details will be shared in the coming months with Automotive Logistics.
Jean-Marc Carlicchi, previously vice-president of supply chain engineering – and who played key roles in the carmaker’s digital control tower – took over Thomas Denis’s previous role as chief of staff to the CEO. Carlicchi has been succeeded in supply chain engineering by Jérôme Bourcier, who has held a variety of supply chain operational roles, including most recently as director of performance and total delivered cost for the supply chain.
