Minimizing Product Waste by Matching Forecasted Demand with Planned Production

In the fast-paced world of food and beverage manufacturing, managing a complex supply chain can pose formidable challenges, especially for a global player.

This success story focuses on a global leader in dairy and plant-based food production, with thousands of SKUs and operations spread across various continents. The company faced significant hurdles due to mismatches between forecasted demand and planned production. These discrepancies led to substantial financial losses, estimated in the tens of millions annually, either because of product waste from regional surpluses or insufficient supply to meet regional market demands.

Recognizing the critical need for an integrated approach to supply and demand planning, the company sought BBA's expertise in process optimization. Our cutting-edge technological framework uses advanced analytics, mathematical optimization, and artificial intelligence, paired with a digital twin model of the actual process. This innovative, cloud-based system allows for real-time computation of mismatches at the granularity of each individual SKU, by region, providing prioritized alerts to planners about risks from potential product surpluses or shortages.

The implementation of this system has been transformative. It not only facilitates proactive decision-making, but it also tracks the effectiveness of actions from assignment to resolution.

As a result, the company has achieved an estimated $16 million in annual savings from reduced product waste and product shortages. The success of our process optimization-based approach to supply chain planning exemplifies the power of cutting-edge technology in solving complex industrial challenges and underscores our commitment to driving operational excellence in the food and beverage sector.

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