Why be afraid of short product life cycles?
There are tough challenges in the consumer goods industry. Competition is fierce, margins are tight, and product life cycles are getting shorter, making the management of global operations increasingly difficult. How do you keep track? Unison Planning™ puts in place reliable demand sensing instruments, smart solvers and scenario planning tools to manage phase-ins and phase-outs, optimize asset utilization and continuously rebalance your DC network.
Managing phase-ins and phase-outs with precision
Consumer behavior is more unpredictable than ever, with demand influenced by promotions, seasonal factors, the weather, trends, and more. The rise of e-commerce and rapid evolutions in the sales channel landscape add to this demand uncertainty, impacting upstream processes.
High runners need to be available at points-of-sales in sufficient quantities, yet not excessively. Product phase-ins and phase-outs are a daily occurrence. Bulk production and the packaging lines for all submarkets have to be rapidly brought in sync, requiring cost-effective sourcing of appropriate raw and packaging materials.
Campaigning strategies and bottleneck capacity constraints must be taken into account too, as do expiry dates, diverging product chains and the push effects of goods giving rise to co-products. At all times, supply and demand must be in tune across the entire consumer goods supply chain, and production must happen on a just-in-time basis as much as possible.
Achieving end-to-end visibility
Unison Planning™ allows you to do just that. It can model your entire consumer goods supply chain planning in detail. We put in place demand planning and sensing solutions for reliable forecasting in the short, medium, and long term, and collaborative processes to align sales and supply.
Manufacturing can be planned in ever-shorter cycles resulting in faster response times. Production and distribution can be planned in unison, with full end-to-end visibility. We put in place smart solvers to orchestrate component sourcing, plan campaigns so as to reduce set-up times and costs, shorten product lead times, and keep distributed stocks of finished goods as low as possible.
Unison Planning™'s proven solutions support faster decision-making and increase agility by running multiple planning scenarios at once. Full end-to-end visibility and control will not only streamline operations and cut costs, but it will also enhance market responsiveness and strengthen trust across your organization.
Looking for real business results? Unlock enhanced visibility and profitability for your organization with Unison Planning™.
A tailored solution
Meet the experts
We know all about the enormous impact of marketing campaigns and rapidly changing consumer behavior on your upstream processes. Meet our consumer goods team.
Challenges of the consumer goods supply chain
Margins are tight, demand is volatile, and product phase-ins and phase-outs are the new normal. Discover how OMP for Consumer Goods tackles these challenges and helps you achieve real results.
Ask our experts
How does OMP for Consumer Goods address your challenges? Browse through our FAQ or submit your own question.
Check the FAQSuccess stories
Key takeaways from the Consumer Goods Council
At the November 2024 Consumer Goods Council, CPG thought leaders met in Amsterdam for a powerful OMP Community session on using AI to enhance performance, adoption, and explainability in demand-driven supply chains. Explore the key insights from this dynamic discussion.
Read the takeaways
How full visibility empowers P&G’s Supply Flow Analysts
P&G, with arguably one of the most complex supply chains in the world, has been facing the challenges of the consumer goods market. This has sparked a fundamental shift in P&G’s approach to supply chain planning, evolving them from the pursuit of excellence among individual sections to establishing end-to-end visibility over the entire supply chain.
Read the case study
What keeps consumer goods leaders up at night?
How to bring winning strategies to life in the physical and information supply chain? How did P&G approach the information supply chain? And what was the impact of shifting to centralized planning? Bob Herzog, former Senior Director of Planning at P&G, sheds light on the key drivers for success in the consumer goods industry.
Listen to the podcast
Unison Planning™ boosts supply chain performance of Beiersdorf African operations
Beiersdorf has embarked on a digital transformation journey, and partnering with OMP is a significant achievement. Unison Planning™ enables Beiersdorf to streamline its planning activities and achieve end-to-end visibility, cross-functional collaboration, and greater agility.
Read the news
Coty Cosmetics – Reshaping planning processes boosts efficiency
Leading cosmetics company Coty redesigned its planning process and implemented Unison Planning™ at the planning hub in Ashford and at three factories. Transforming planners into decision makers, the platform significantly increased Coty’s capability to efficiently manage assets.
Read the case study
How Procter & Gamble focuses on people, processes and touchless planning
Andrew Byer and Bob Herzog explain how P&G focused on people, processes and touchless planning to enable supply chain mastery with OMP. Rewatch our joint session at the virtual Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo 2021.
Unison Planning™ boosts drive toward digital value chain planning at Land O’Lakes, Inc.
Agribusiness and food company Land O’Lakes is moving closer to full digital value chain planning by utilizing OMP for Operational Planning. The system centralizes and streamlines critical planning functions, including full-truckload optimization, and introduces E2E planning powered by AI.
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Unison Planning™ supports Corbion’s gradual transition to SAP S/4HANA
Leading food and biochemicals company Corbion has taken into operation a multi-ERP interface with Unison Planning™ to support the gradual transition to SAP S/4HANA.
Read the news
Warburtons boosts shelf freshness with Unison Planning™
Warburtons, the UK’s largest bakery business, has successfully deployed OMP for S&OP and for Operational Planning and Scheduling to significantly optimize planning processes and further assure the freshness of packaged bakery products in retail stores.
Read the news
Alpro’s journey towards supply chain excellence
Plant-based foods producer Alpro has made significant progress in making its supply chain more efficient, systematically taking advantage of the newest insights and solutions in supply chain planning.
Read the case studyWhat our customers say
“OMP has really solid experience with dairy companies. Thanks to Unison Planning™, we have managed to reduce material losses in our production.”
Dmitry Vikharev, National Operations Development Manager at PepsiCo Dairy
“We are now able to focus on the things that matter. We have the time and insights to focus on scenario management and decision-making documents for the S&OP meeting.”
Jose van den Berg, Project and Portfolio Manager at FrieslandCampina
“Our markets require us to react incredibly fast to changes in demand. Weekly planning cycles are a thing of the past. We’re planning in daily cycles now, or even per shift.”
David Hamer, Supply Planning Manager at P&G
“Unison Planning™ enables increased agility and synchronization. The supply chains of our products are now planned in Unison Planning™ consistently throughout the day. Its end-to-end approach optimizes the launch planning of new SKUs in our different markets while minimizing remnants on phase-out products and raw materials.”
Harald Fischer, Global Supply Planning Application Manager at Procter & Gamble
“With the implementation of Unison Planning™, we ensure a central collaboration between all participants in the supply chain. Our S&OP will evolve to becoming a more fully Integrated Business Planning Process.”
Lee Nicholls, Logistics and Sales & Operations Planning Director at United Biscuits
“Thanks to OMP, our planning cycle has been made smoother and faster. Unison Planning™ immediately flags conflicts in capacity utilization and inventory levels, and this enables us to take immediate action."
Ghislain Ysebaert, Vice President M.I.S. at Samsonite
“OMP is the right partner, with the right technology, to help us achieve our vision.”
Gavin Revell, Director Business Engagement & Regional IS at pladis
“The combination of the tool and the expertise of the consultants. I think that was a great benefit.”
Diederick van den Berg, E-S&OP Planner at FrieslandCampina
“The breakthrough planning capability of Unison Planning™ speeds up how we respond to changes in demand. It gives us a clear view on the availability of bulk items and critical components, and allows us to reduce inventory levels, shorten lead times and avoid waste.”
Akil R. Lile, Director of Planning at Coty
“With the implementation of Unison Planning™, we now have an improved visibility of our inventory. We were not just looking for a software vendor, but for a provider that could help us tackle the operational challenges that our current and future activities would bring.”
Jeanine Viani, Supply Chain Production Planning Director at Land O’Lakes
“OMP was chosen in preference to the other candidates because of its excellent understanding of Yoplait’s requirements and the comprehensiveness of its supply chain planning solution, including a best-of-breed scheduling solution. The planning, in particular, gives us a communication tool that enables us to keep the customer reliably informed about when the products ordered will be made available."
Gérard Serre, Logistics Manager at Yoplait