ArganoSCMO2ArganoSCMO2ArganoSCMO2ArganoSCMO2
  • About
  • What is Argano?
  • SAP Expertise
    • Elemental IBP Solution
    • IBP
    • S4 HANA
    • ARIBA
    • APO
    • Help!
    • Support and Training
  • Performance Improvement
    • Overview
    • Supply Chain Strategy
    • Supply Chain Plan
    • Supply Chain Perfect Order
    • Supply Chain Source
    • Supply Chain Make
    • Supply Chain Distribute
    • Supply Chain Deliver
  • Supply Chain Planning
    • Rapid Response Assessments
    • Roadmap Assessments
    • Platform Selection
    • Process Design
    • Business Strategy
  • Knowledge
    • Thought Leadership Blog
    • Video Resources
    • News
  • Events
  • Contact
    • Connect with Us
    • Jobs

General Mills Transforms Forecast Modeling Processes

11 July, 2017

General Mills, a global manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores, approached SCMO2 nearly a year ago to as they began strategizing for implementation of an upgrade to their APO infrastructure. After performing a system assessment, SCMO2 recommended a suite of specific APO enhancements that would be most effective to their operation and provide the best return on the investment of capital and time.

Identifying a Weakness in Forecasting

During the process of implementation, a new potential for system improvements was identified by SCMO2, and General Mills agreed to include the Stat Pack forecasting service in the full scope. The recommendation of SCMO2 was to consolidate their organization-wide statistical forecasting functions into a dedicated center of excellence. By adopting better methods and stronger statistical models, and tasking fewer but more specialized human resources to fulfill the role, metrics and triggers could be put in place to ensure the success of their statistical modeling efforts for the long term.

The Original Model

General Mills had been previously assigning all their statistical forecasting to a team of individual demand planners, all of whom were in overseas locations, away from their domestic headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each planner was responsible for generating a portion of potentially thousands of various planning combinations, none of which was automated or governed by triggers or threshold flags. Resultantly, forecast accuracy was unacceptable, and the turnover rate among their overseas demand planners was more than 50 percent annually which compounded the challenge because no knowledge base could be built up and retained.

The New Solution

Heeding the advice, recommendation and expertise provided by SCMO2, General Mills built a forecasting center of excellence and reassigned the statistical modeling function and responsibility to this new team. Additionally, new metrics and triggers were designed into the process to create more of an exception-based system that allows specific needs to bubble up to attention as needed. Because fewer statistical models are now applied to the entire data set, and effective triggers and metrics are in place to spotlight any potential misalignments, General Mills’ demand planning has become much more proactive and less reactionary. The accuracy and efficiency gained from this transformation has improved operations in numerous ways.

By focusing on design, process and results, General Mills was able to repurpose many of their existing demand planning resources into a system that reduced turnover, retained institutional knowledge, introduced new analysis and modeling, and allowed the company to gain better control over production. This outcome demonstrates how SCMO2 expertise can be leveraged to deliver an innovative procedural solution to a problem, rather than relying on technology alone.

No tags.

Previous Stories

  • August 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • October 2021
  • June 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
  • November 2015
  • May 2014
SAP Recognized

Contact us

Corporate Office
6100 W. Plano, Suite 1800, Plano, TX 75093

Phone
404.596.5383

E-mail
SAP-connect@argano.com

Canadian Office
1600-925 Georgia Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3L2


View SCMO2 profile on Ariba Discovery

Copyright 2023 Argano | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
  • About
  • What is Argano?
  • SAP Expertise
    • Elemental IBP Solution
    • IBP
    • S4 HANA
    • ARIBA
    • APO
    • Help!
    • Support and Training
  • Performance Improvement
    • Overview
    • Supply Chain Strategy
    • Supply Chain Plan
    • Supply Chain Perfect Order
    • Supply Chain Source
    • Supply Chain Make
    • Supply Chain Distribute
    • Supply Chain Deliver
  • Supply Chain Planning
    • Rapid Response Assessments
    • Roadmap Assessments
    • Platform Selection
    • Process Design
    • Business Strategy
  • Knowledge
    • Thought Leadership Blog
    • Video Resources
    • News
  • Events
  • Contact
    • Connect with Us
    • Jobs
ArganoSCMO2