Challenge
A multi-billion food retailer launched a new specialty retail branch with complex supply chain needs. Key challenges included:
- 60,000+ active SKUs with 30% annual assortment changes
- Flexible, automated planning required to maintain product availability and working capital limits
- Large scale – almost 7 million SKU-Location combinations across 250 stores
Actions
To address these challenges, the company implemented a new Supply Chain Planning System:
- Vendor Selection & Analysis – Market research, AS-IS and TO-BE documentation, shortlist of vendors
- RFP & Evaluation – Assessed functional fit, scalability, security, timeline, and commercial terms; calculated total cost of ownership
- Implementation Support – Project management for Supply Chain and IT teams, including risk assessment and timeline/budget control
Results
- Implemented within 14 months; system still in use
- Automated key processes – promotion, demand, and supply planning; team workload reduced 3x
- Extended planning horizon – from 5 weeks to 6 months
- Improved supplier service levels – +2 percentage points in the first year
- Financial impact – ROI achieved in 1.5 years through cost savings and reduced capital tied in safety stock
- Single source of truth – supports Supply Chain, Logistics, Commercial, and Finance
Summary
The retailer successfully:
- Replaced SAP MRP with a modern planning system
- Automated planning processes, enabling growth without expanding the team
- Enhanced visibility and collaboration across functions
- Increased planning horizon and supplier performance
- Achieved ROI in 1.5 years
This solution enabled efficient scaling while maintaining high service levels and financial performance.