Alignment between demand and production for food manufacturer

At a glance

For a Belgian food manufacturer with global presence, Lanark established a tailored sales & operations planning (S&OP) process and implemented a multi-level material requirements planning (MRP) in ERP. The result? Better insights in their forecast, and a better alignment between customer demand and production.

The challenge?

A Belgian food manufacturer, who produces across multiple sites and distributes internationally, struggled to plan multi-level production in their ERP-system Navision 2009. Also, the lack of an established cross-functional planning process was a burden.

Lanark’s solution

When Lanark stepped in, the team built a business case for the board, in order to start a planning improvement project. The business case was developed after Lanark performed a technical feasibility study and an S&OP process design.

The S&OP process was customised to meet the specific requirements of this manufacturer. Lanark’s pragmatic approach made this process robust and realistic, ensuring that it will be executed after the implementation. Alongside, Lanark integrated an internal demand planner role into the organisation. For this, Lanark established what the role encompasses, and initiated the selection, onboarding and coaching of the new demand planner within the company.

Finally, Lanark implemented multi-level MRP in Navision. Hence, solving a long-lasting problem, and improving the alignment of the customer demand and the production output.