CNH Industrial, a global leader in capital goods, was on a digital transformation journey with a focus on improving their customer experience. The company was seeking innovative solutions to optimize their spare parts management business across the 12 brands within the group. The challenge was to find a solution that could support the end-to-end supply chain, monitor changing customer needs, and align the supply chain with those needs in real-time. CNH Industrial needed a powerful processing, SaaS-based solution that could provide real-time visibility and collaboration across their supply chain, enhance collaboration across dealers and stakeholders in multi-tier networks, and maximize parts availability to minimize machine downtime and total cost of ownership (TCO).

Advance Auto Parts, a leading automotive aftermarket retailer, was facing a shift in its retail segment from do-it-yourself consumers to do-it-for-me commercial customers. This shift placed added pressure on Advance to ensure immediate product availability. The company was already using JDA Software’s solutions for space and category management, as well as replenishment, to manage its nationwide supply chain when it decided to embark on a supply chain transformation project. In 2010, Advance made a strategic decision to expand the role of these solutions, add physical supply chain infrastructure, and incorporate new technology solutions and business processes to optimize its warehouse, workforce, execution and performance management. To increase service and availability over a large geographic area, Advance decided to retrofit its existing distribution centers (DCs), while also constructing a new 550,000 square-foot facility that would provide daily replenishments to stores in a targeted rollout region.

Ace Hardware Corporation, the world’s largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative, has been on a journey of global supply chain transformation. The company's needs became more complex as it expanded globally. Ace had been relying on two different replenishment solutions: JDA to support its domestic vendors and a third-party solution to handle its import vendors that weren’t integrated with the business. The company needed a solution that could support time-phased demand forecasting along with multi-echelon and multi-tier planning capabilities for its domestic and import vendors.

Constellation Brands, a leading producer, marketer, and manufacturer of beer, wine, and spirits, faced a challenge in maximizing its category item impact on shelf due to the expansion of brands and SKUs offered in stores. The company was relying on historical data in a fast-paced market, which was not sufficient to keep up with the rapidly changing demand. The company needed a solution that could incorporate forward-looking data and predictive analytics into its space plans to support growth and maximize the value of assortment over the longer term.

UK-based supermarket chain Morrisons wanted to increase on-shelf availability through improved demand planning and replenishment based on analysis of customer behavior at every store. The goal is to put the customer at the heart of every decision. Store replenishment based on manual ordering by in-store teams proved time consuming, created inconsistencies between stores and was not always accurate. Morrisons wanted any new planning solution to easily integrate with, and streamline, its complex IT infrastructure, as well as be capital light.

McKesson Canada, a company with annual revenues in the billions, serves millions of customers every day, delivering more than one-third of all prescription drugs in Canada. The company’s global supply chain manages over 250,000 distinct product SKUs. McKesson Canada was challenged to optimize its inbound products, and the inventory in its 13 distribution centers (DCs), via an outdated legacy system. New technology was needed to meet growing customer requirements, support revenue gains, manage supply-side disruptions, and increase accuracy and efficiency. McKesson Canada partnered with Blue Yonder to manage product flow into its DCs, as well as inventory levels. The stakes are high: billions of dollars in product acquisitions and over $1 billion of inventory are managed through Blue Yonder.

Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated (CCBCC) was facing challenges in managing dynamic sales volumes, maintaining customer service levels, and providing better visibility into demand drivers across different shapes, sizes, and flavors of refreshment in real time. The company was also struggling with the complexity of dealing with more suppliers and their specific packaging constraints. The need for a higher degree of micro-marketing at the channel and chain-store level further complicated matters as each side fits into different package categories.

dm, a large retail company, faced several challenges in its operations. The company needed to improve the cooperation between the manufacturer and the distribution center to ensure product availability. It also needed to provide valid predictions for industry partners. The company was dealing with the issue of short-term demand for goods in stores versus long delivery times of industry partners. It needed to make precise sales forecasts, even for exceptional cases like holidays or vacations. The company also wanted to avoid over- and understaffing in its stores.

Mahindra & Mahindra Farm Equipment, part of the $20 billion Mahindra Group, is the world’s number-one tractor company by volume. Its automotive business competes in almost every segment of the industry. The Spares Business Unit (SBU) provides genuine vehicle and tractor spare parts via advanced capabilities in sourcing, assembling, warehousing and distribution. To maximize supply chain efficiencies and service, Mahindra & Mahindra constantly evaluates scientific methods to tweak demand forecasting, inventory management and replenishment planning strategies to ensure that the right parts are available at the right place and time. However, their traditional, manually driven segmentation processes and tools often resulted in inefficient allocation, high safety inventory levels and less-than-optimal service levels.

JFE Steel Group, a leading steel manufacturer based in Tokyo, was facing challenges in optimizing efficiency, capacity, and costs at its manufacturing facilities due to a lack of accurate sales forecast and intelligent planning software. The sales data was stored on individual sales person’s computers, making it difficult for management to collect and load the information into their planning spreadsheets. This resulted in a slow, labor-intensive process where changes to the monthly plan had to be entered manually and the long-term plan was never updated for changes. The company was in need of a solution that could provide immediate visibility to demand, including changes impacting both monthly and long-term planning.

Merck Serono International S.A., a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology leader, faced the challenge of integrating two very different supply chains for traditional pharmaceuticals and biotechnology-based pharmaceuticals. The traditional pharmaceutical supply chain was locally driven with a pull concept, while the biotechnology supply chain was centrally managed with a push concept. During the integration, the company also had to ensure high customer-service levels that aligned with its 'no stock-out' philosophy. Additionally, Merck Serono wanted to constrain distribution with planned production orders, taking into account capacity constraints and the availability of the products' main components. To optimize business practices, the company needed improved forecasting accuracy and manufacturing planning support to drive efficiency and limit inventories to increase cash flow.

Robinsons Supermarket, a subsidiary of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI), is the second largest multi-channel retailer in the Philippines. As the business grew, venturing into new regions and adding new segments and sub-formats, their manual processes and legacy systems became too inefficient and limiting. Expansion into new regions and formats created a need to segment their customer base for customized and engaging shelf assortments. The supermarket had to ensure that the products that meet the needs of their customers are always available on shelf. An efficient and equipped supply chain process was needed to address the persistent challenge of on-shelf stock availability.

Avon, the world’s leading direct seller of beauty and related products, markets to women in 143 countries through 4.8 million independent sales representatives. Avon’s products are sold with widely varying product offerings in different countries and through multiple channels including direct, Internet, catalog and outlets. Consolidation and globalization of both competitors and customers and the rapid growth of developing markets has also increased the complexity of the business. As a result, this highly promotions-driven market produces fluctuations in product demand and a complex supply chain. Although Avon’s operations expanded considerably in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in recent years, there was no single central planning function that was responsible for demand, inventory, and supply planning. Production planning at Avon’s three factories — in Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom — was highly manual, inflexible, unresponsive to customers’ requirements and could not support Avon’s planned growth into new markets.

The Hershey Company, a global leader in chocolate and confectionery, operates a complex and global supply chain. With eight U.S.-based manufacturing facilities, five finished-goods distribution centers, and over 100,000 outbound refrigerated truckloads per year, the company faced the challenge of reducing transportation costs while dealing with increased fuel charges. The company's supply chain had to handle more than two billion pounds in annual throughput in the U.S. and Canada, and its products were sold in more than 90 countries around the world. As part of Project Greenlight, an overall transportation initiative launched in 2007, Hershey decided to invest in transportation-related process and technology improvements that would deliver a high return on investment.

Caterpillar Logistics, a leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives, sought to improve its existing processes, produce knowledgeable and effective users, strengthen customer relationships, and establish customized, in-house training based on industry best practices. The company has robust experience in many logistics processes, including inbound logistics, after-sales service support, finished goods distribution and reverse logistics. However, it needed a solution that could help it optimize these processes and increase customer satisfaction.

Associated Food Stores (AFS) is a cooperatively owned wholesale distributor that operates 43 corporate supermarkets and supports over 400 independently owned supermarket locations across eight states. The company was facing challenges with its warehouse labor scheduling, which was based on static schedules from week to week regardless of daily demand changes. This resulted in wasted labor. Additionally, AFS’s warehouse operates in an area with highly competitive demand for labor. A lack of flexibility in scheduling was causing higher than desired turnover which increased hiring and training costs. The previous solution AFS used for labor scheduling and time and attendance was not integrated, causing a lack of cohesion in managing the workforce.

OTTO, a German multichannel retailer, faced challenges in its competitive environment characterized by low margins, high competitive pressure, and rapidly changing market conditions and customer demands. The company needed to balance product availability and pricing for every single article in its extensive product portfolio. One of the greatest challenges was predicting the sales of an article at an early stage, as the profitable purchase of goods determines overall success. OTTO also faced challenges in reducing delivery times for partner products, which were longer than for OTTO’s own brands due to more complicated logistics processes. The retailer needed to know which articles would sell, how frequently, and in what sizes and amounts to order the right articles in advance based on the forecasts and expedite delivery to the customer.

BIC, a world leader in stationary, lighters, and shaver products, was facing challenges with its manual sequencing process at its Charlotte packaging facility. The process could only look out three days, limiting their ability to take advantage of improved production planning. The three-day rolling schedule resulted in frequent, expensive, and time-consuming changeovers. Moreover, the Charlotte facility was nearing capacity and would require capital investment in a new facility if production throughput could not be increased.

Amway, a global company selling health, beauty, and home care products in over 100 countries, was facing inconsistencies in its supply chain and logistics processes as it expanded into new regions. The company's annual sales exceed $8 billion, and managing the supply chain for such a vast operation was becoming increasingly complex. The company had a long-standing partnership with Blue Yonder, which had helped unify the global supply chain and deliver more consistent results. However, Amway was looking to further improve its operations by migrating its Blue Yonder solutions to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model. This move was aimed at maximizing speed, capacity, and agility, while minimizing Amway’s total cost of ownership.

PVH, a U.S.-based retailer with a diversified portfolio of brands including CALVIN KLEIN, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, and IZOD, aimed to enable end-to-end global planning across multiple brands. As one of the largest global apparel companies reporting $8.2 billion in 2016 revenues, visibility of products from creation through the end consumer’s purchase was crucial. The company needed to ensure they were using their data properly, sending out the right demand, and contracting correctly with their factories without overcapacity.

Bayer Crop Science, a company with annual revenues exceeding $23 billion US, delivers agricultural products in more than 70 countries. The company operates more than 350 facilities and was challenged to adopt consistent technology solutions, analytical tools, and best practices across all these locations. Logistics managers at Bayer needed standardized decision-making practices and shared values that would enable them to act in the best financial interests of the company. The challenge was to implement a single logistics platform with shared data, metrics, workflows, and best practices across all locations, supporting the company’s goal for global standardization.

Butterball, a leading producer of turkey products, faced significant supply chain challenges due to the seasonal and promotion-driven nature of many of its products, as well as the fact that every product is date-sensitive. The company needed to forecast at a very high level of accuracy, as well as improve its date-sensitive inventory management. Meeting retailers’ different service-level expectations and product freshness requirements added a layer of planning complexity to Butterball’s supply chain that if not managed well could lead to a risk of obsolescent inventory and unhappy customers.

Infineon Technologies operates in the semiconductor and system solutions industry, which is known for its demand volatility, long product lead times, and high capital investments. The company serves a diverse range of customers worldwide, including auto manufacturers, industrial electronics companies, chip card and security businesses, and information and communications technology leaders. The challenge for Infineon was to create a single integrated, multidimensional sales and operations planning process that promotes global collaboration and enables the company to quickly respond to market changes. The company’s ability to sense and respond to demand changes, while balancing global production capacity across its more than 20 facilities, was proving to be a significant challenge.

Oxford University Press (OUP), founded in 1478, publishes around 7,000 new titles every year, in a variety of formats and up to 40 languages. As the largest university press in the world, it has annual sales of 110 million units. OUP operates its own distribution centre, making it one of the few publishers worldwide to not rely on a third-party distributor. From its warehouse in Kettering, the organization dispatches 36,000 orders every month, 70 percent of which are destined for addresses outside of the U.K. To keep up with growth, OUP sought a scalable warehouse control system to replace their outdated technology which severely restricted how the organization operated and made it reliant on a conveyoring system that was complex and costly to maintain.

Super Retail Group, a leading leisure retailer in Australia, faced significant supply chain complexity due to its rapid growth through strategic acquisitions. By 2011, the company was managing seven distinct supply chains, spanning from sourcing in Asia to distribution in Australia and New Zealand. The vast geography of Australia added another layer of difficulty, making cost optimization per unit and movement critical. Additionally, the company started adding more soft goods, which have different demand patterns than hard goods. The retailer needed a forecasting and replenishment solution that could handle its geographic difficulty, as well as the stock-keeping unit (SKU) complexity and demand variation across its seven retail brands. To overcome these challenges, Super Retail Group committed to investing more than $50 million in supply chain and inventory management improvements over three years.

B&Q, a major retail brand under Kingfisher plc, operates 359 stores in the UK and Ireland, offering more than 40,000 products. To support its retail program, B&Q needed to transform its logistics function, replacing its manual, mainly paper-based legacy systems, which were no longer suitable for a business that serves more than 150 million customers a year. This required a flexible warehouse management solution (WMS) to provide real-time information. B&Q wanted to ensure a seamless transition of IT functionality across a network that had been established for 15 years, and needed a solution that would provide it with the ability to manage more than 100,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across its sites, integrate stock supplied by approximately 600 different vendors, improve inventory accuracy with real-time information and clear visibility of orders, manage cross-dock and flow through platforms, and consolidate and pick stock for each store, which is dispatched daily via 500 trailer loads carrying around 45 pallets of products.

The 1995 merger of Scotts and MiracleGro to create The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company marked a major historical milestone for the company. However, for several years following the merger, the combined company operated with multiple customer invoices, multiple sales forces calling on the same customers, multiple supply chain designs, and multiple technology platforms. These factors resulted in low productivity and hampered customer service, making effective execution of the company’s primary selling season extremely difficult. ScottsMiracle-Gro realized it needed to evolve in order to address these post-merger challenges. In the period from 2000 to 2005, the company launched its “One Face to the Customer” initiative and invested $250 million in additional capacity and other capital programs as well as $100 million in technology system upgrades to support this forward-looking direction.

ITC Limited, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate based in India, was facing challenges in managing its supply chain for its fast-growing packaged foods business, particularly biscuits. The biscuit segment was experiencing high demand volatility and materials cost fluctuations. ITC's existing spreadsheet-based tools were not accounting for its continuously changing cost structures, making it difficult for the company to see the macro effects of the supply chain decisions they were making. The frequent manufacturing changeovers required to produce its more than 120 distinct biscuit SKUs across its network of 17 factories and the dramatic price fluctuations in the agricultural sector that affect their materials costs added to the complexity of cost optimization. Furthermore, ITC’s spreadsheet-based planning did not allow them to make effective medium and long-range strategic plans.

UTi Worldwide, a global business based on air and ocean freight forwarding, was facing a challenge. Its customers were demanding more than just the operational business offering. They wanted enhanced supply chain management services that would optimize their supply chains. UTi's existing IT systems were not equipped for this task as they were primarily geared towards processing orders and not optimizing logistics flows. The company needed a new IT solution that could provide a range of new logistics services, evaluate different distribution solutions, simulate alternative distribution networks, and optimize supply chains.

PetSmart, Inc., the largest specialty pet retailer in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, faced a significant challenge in keeping the best assortments of products stocked and effectively displayed on store shelves to meet evolving customer needs. This challenge was particularly acute given the company's extensive network of more than 1,600 stores and a thriving online business. PetSmart's customer needs continue to evolve, making family-friendly localized assortments and space planning difficult to maintain across its stores. Furthermore, the company previously lacked visibility to customer demand across its stores and online operations, making strategic planning difficult. A continued focus on efficiency was also critical for offering competitively priced products and services.