The Spark Initiative
Building outside-in processes for better supply chain planning
Today, global supply chains are under pressure. Logistic disruptions, production delays, supply shortages… How can businesses build resilience into their supply chains? One thing is certain: better supply chain planning is needed. That’s why OMP encourages supply chain leaders to embrace a new way of planning: outside-in planning.
The ultimate goal? Unlocking the wealth of external data that is available to businesses today, such as climate and weather patterns, consumption trends, variable holidays, economic and political factors, and real-time data from smart devices.
OMP invites customers to learn about these outside-in planning concepts and apply them to their own business cases.
Is your organization ready to become more agile, market-driven, and customer-centric? Read on to discover the Spark Initiative.
Glossary
This glossary is designed to help you understand the concepts that are used in the outside-in planning approach. Learn more about market and demand drivers, techniques to use, and metrics to track success.
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Charter
When will the Spark Initiative kick off? How will the testing be organized? And how can you participate? Read the charter to learn more about the objectives, timeline, and process.Check out the charter
Advisory board
The Spark Initiative is supported by a board of business leaders, industry professionals, academics, and OMP experts to accelerate the outside-in planning movement. Meet the boardTesting, learning, and sharing about outside-in planning
With the Spark Initiative, OMP wants to help companies broaden their perspective on supply chain planning by introducing an outside-in approach. Our goal is to provide a platform for the OMP Community to share, learn, and test outside-in capabilities using state-of-the-art technology.
Members of the OMP Community are invited to submit their real-world business cases to validate the value of outside-in planning. Through a reverse RFP process, the Spark Advisory Board will select a handful of companies to participate in the research. These participants will be trained to gain a profound understanding of the concepts. Together, we will validate how outside-in planning can be applied to these real-world cases, using actual data provided by the participants.
Once the pilot tests are completed, the findings and insights will be publicly shared with the industry to spark a new way of thinking about supply chain planning.
Final report
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Latest news
The Spark Initiative is supported by an advisory board of OMP experts, business leaders, industry professionals, and academics. This board is the driving force behind the agenda, the conceptual framework, and the pilot tests.
Tracy Johnson
Global Supply Chain Planning Business Process Director
Dow
Dave Winstone
Global ISC Director
Dow
Vipul Desai
Director of Technology for Supply Chain Planning
Dow
Margo Cohen
Senior Director of Supply Chain Analytics
Nestlé
Danny Kim
Director, Strategy and Capabilities Transformation
General Mills
Kirsten Olson
Manager of Global Planning Data & Technology
General Mills
Bob Herzog
Consumer Goods Senior Advisor
Former Senior Director Planning at P&G
Tomaz Vrabec
Director of Digital Supply Chain
Land O'Lakes
Pascal Van Hentenryck
Director NSF AI Institute for Advances in Optimization
Georgia Tech
Tom van Woensel
Professor
Eindhoven University of Technology
Get in touch
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Thoughts from the Spark Advisory Board
“Through real-life examples, the Spark use cases show companies how they leverage available market data. This way, businesses can enhance their performance by reducing sensing time and minimizing the disruptive bullwhip effect in the supply chain.”
Bob Herzog, Former Senior Director Planning at P&G
“We all struggle to obtain the data needed for improved demand visibility. It requires an understanding of the drivers of demand, collaboration with our customers, as well as obtaining quality data with limited or no latency.”
Tracy Johnson, Global Supply Chain Planning Business Process Director at Dow
“I’m excited to participate in the Spark Initiative because it's the next frontier in supply chain planning. How do we harness all these signals out there? How do we identify which ones matter most to our business? What do they mean to us and to our ecosystem partners? In the end, it’s not companies that compete, but the ecosystems around us. We have to make the ecosystems more effective to be able to stay competitive. And I believe this initiative will bring us one step closer to that goal."
Dave Winstone, Global ISC Director at Dow
“I am truly delighted to partner with OMP on the Spark Initiative. This is not only timely but also highly relevant at a time when supply chains face mounting challenges in scale, resilience, and sustainability. The Spark Initiative is an outstanding vehicle to drive innovation and create a vibrant ecosystem.”
Pascal Van Hentenryck, Director, NSF AI Institute for Advances in Optimization (AI4OPT) at Georgia Institute of Technology