Company

Privately held B2B manufacturer of foodservice sauces and gravies.

Reduced Forecast Error

Improved Collaboration

Established Formal Process

Challenges

• No professional Demand Planner.
• Demand Review meetings led by Sr. Manager of Supply Planning were unstructured and poorly attended.
• No formal process to collect demand input from Marketing and Sales.
• No ownership of forecasts.
• Heavy overall inventory driving high working capital.
• Stock outs on key items were causing lost sales.
• Overall budget targets were missed.

Solutions

• Developed and led a data-based consensus planning process.
• Developed template for Marketing and Sales input to forecasts that presented relevant data in a concise format.
• Created dynamic Excel tools for tracking forecast accuracy, and pivot graphs for meeting presentations.
• Realigned Demand Review to formal data-driven review of KPIs and exceptions that built alignment for one forecast to be used in S&OP.

Benefits

• The first two months of new process saw 8.3% reduction in forecast error.
• New consensus planning process enabled projections of demand changes during the COVID pandemic.
• Company has transitioned to a dedicated demand planner with a formal process, ownership of the forecast, and dramatically reduced net working capital with increased service levels.