SODEBO

The Challenge:

CENTRALIZE BUSINESSES AND FLOWS

To support company growth and enhance the quality of its services, Sodebo needed to restructure and optimize its sales forecasts for greater flexibility and to boost the responsiveness of its supply chain. The only way of doing this is to anticipate.

The demand planning department began operations at the same time as the supply chain team. The specifications of a forecasting tool were soon finalized. The obvious choice was QAD Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP)*,  with QAD Demand Planning a proven technology in the agri-food sector.

“The centralization of data which we can add to, refine and share within a solution is an extra cutting edge that helps us anticipate and make our forecasts more reliable and also project in the longer term,” says Elisabeth Rouzineau, Head of Demand Planning for Sodebo.

The Solution:

QAD DEMAND PLANNING SOLUTION FACILITATES CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

“The organization was set up with six demand planners. The fine forecast granularity gives better understanding of the market, allows us to correct the sales history if needed, and to incorporate all the future events,” says Rouzineau.

With enhancements underway and a continuous improvement strategy, Sodebo is just beginning their journey with QAD DSCP.

“As soon as we implemented QAD Demand Planning, our forecasting department skills improved. A large number of changes were made based on the robustness of QAD DSCP. This favorable environment has enabled Sodebo to build an efficient supply chain and support the S&OP process,” says Rouzineau.

‘Anticipation’ is the key word for this leader in the snacking world, receiving its orders on the day the product has to be delivered. They must deliver freshness! The forecasting unit becomes the hub, the facilitator of the S&OP process, and QAD Demand Planning is its backbone. The benchmark forecaster controls the information of his brands, enabling him to help the production planning department to finely manage its stocks. The warehouse and the logistics unit are also “customers” of the forecasting department. “Our information gives them the opportunity to best organize their workload within the given time slot and optimize the load of the delivery trucks,” adds Rouzineau.

Several factors have a bearing on the sales of Sodebo products. “With QAD DSCP, we have incorporated the management of events like promotions, public holidays and weather sensitivity data. The impact of the weather is a critical indicator we use to meet the demand of our customers and to correct our sales history. All this information enables us to provide a medium- and long-term load forecast for manufacturing units,” explains Rouzineau.

The Benefits:

EXCELLENCE CALLS FOR EXCELLENCE

In its approach for continuous improvement, the Sodebo team takes advantage, again, of QAD’s latest cutting-edge technologies in constantly acquiring new skills. Their reliability is constantly improving, six points up in six years. Product breakage has been on the decrease since 2014.

“Excellence calls for excellence,” says Rouzineau. Today we know how to manage more specificities so our customer service level is high and stable and we are more efficient. Everything is ready to enable us to go even further, always with QAD DSCP, always with QAD Demand Planning...and why not using the Cloud?”

“With this strong partnership and the business expertise of the software company teams for the agri-food industry, our future is looking bright. And so much the better! It gives us room to innovate, to continue the day-to-day development of our working tool and to offer more and more services to our customers, both internal and external,” concludes Rouzineau.

*QAD Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP)* was formerly known as QAD DynaSys