Driving integrated planning excellence through collaboration

Background

PwC’s Consulting and Risk Services worked collaboratively with an FMCG client to deliver Phase two of its planning migration through the follow-on implementation of SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP). This phase covered the Inventory module, the Time Series Optimiser within Response and Supply, and Demand Sensing, alongside the implementation of SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) to enhance business intelligence and predictive analytics.

The client, a leading FMCG manufacturer with multiple business categories and divisions, had already made significant progress in transforming its supply chain planning.  

Phase one of this journey involved a collaborative effort with PwC to implement SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) for Demand, Sales and Operations Planning, and the Supply Chain Control Tower modules, successfully achieving their strategic objective of unifying operations planning across the enterprise. This initial phase demonstrated that a unified, SAP IBP-enabled planning process was attainable, with a primary focus on improving demand planning, strengthening proactive reporting, and enabling timely alerts. 

Building on these achievements, the client recognised the opportunity to further strengthen their supply chain by expanding their IBP capabilities. They advanced to the next phase, introducing inventory management and cost-optimised, constrained supply planning, to drive value through improved inventory and manufacturing efficiency. Simultaneously, the client broadened its adoption of SAC, aiming to establish a global supply chain reporting platform that would complement their transformation. Through intuitive analytics stories and advanced predictive, machine-learning features, SAC empowered the client to realise greater business intelligence and visibility, reinforcing their commitment to end-to-end supply chain excellence. 

For Phase two of the client’s planning migration, PwC’s Consulting and Risk Services continued our collaborative approach by leveraging lessons learned from Phase one and deepening our partnership with the client’s business and technical teams. We kicked off with targeted familiarisation sessions to align on the expanded SAP IBP scope, focusing on inventory management, the Time Series Optimiser (focusing on response and supply), Demand Sensing, and SAC. Through a series of joint fit-gap design workshops, we worked closely with client stakeholders to map business requirements to SAP IBP best practices, identify custom needs, and co-design solutions.  

Our integration specialists worked with the client's data experts to design robust end-to-end data flows, iteratively expanding data models to support new reporting and planning scenarios. This was essential as the client was integrating external data (data not created in or from SAP IBP) into the SAC solution. Regular playback sessions and feedback loops ensured—transparency, alignment, and continuous improvement throughout the build and test phases. 

A key highlight of this phase was our ability to draw on our global SAP IBP expertise to successfully push the boundaries of the Time-Series Optimiser, requiring innovative deployment of sub-networks to address complex Bills of Materials (BOMs) and deliver a fit-for-purpose solution. Our consultants collaborated closely with the client’s IT and supply chain teams, jointly developing a comprehensive cutover plan and providing post-go-live hyper care support. This ensured a seamless transition to the new and improved supply chain process and empowered the client to realise enhanced inventory efficiency and supply chain visibility, reinforcing their commitment to end-to-end excellence. 

• The completion of Phase two concluded the overall supply chain transformation project and enabled the business to realise tangible benefits at a significantly accelerated pace, including real multi-echelon inventory optimisation across the client’s supply chain—delivering a 25% reduction in working capital requirement within a period of 12 months post-implementation. 

• An end-to-end planning process that was system-driven and enabled participation of all business departments from Sales to Finance, Manufacturing, and Distribution. 

• With SAP Analytics Cloud, the organisation gained a centralised global supply chain reporting capability with predictive analytics functionality enabling other areas of the business like Finance to intuit the impact of market changes or productive output on the company’s target profits and service levels. 

• The ability to generate cost-optimised constrained supply plans at a plant-product level for easier conversion into production schedules. It also introduced the ability to generate supply planning “what-if” scenarios to simulate the impact of manufacturing line downtime on expected inventory and manufacturing plans.