Transforming Integrated Business Planning for a Medium-sized Plastics Packaging Manufacture

The situation of our client: low service levels and lack in the planning processes

Our client is a mid-sized plastics packaging company with multiple production plants across Europe delivering in various industrial and consumer goods segments. The company struggled to translate its operational capabilities into consistent delivery performance and efficient planning processes.

Our client faced systemic issues across the end-to-end planning process from demand forecasting to production and procurement:

• Service levels were inconsistent, and forecast accuracy was low.
• The Demand Planning process relied on manual Excel files, scattered data sources, and short-term visibility, making tactical planning nearly impossible.
• Demand profiles varied significantly across sectors, and there was no advanced statistical forecasting or workflow support.
• In Supply Planning, expensive and movable production equipment, cross-plant production flexibility, and capacity constraints made planning complex.
• The procurement of plastic granulates and additives suffered from poor data quality and short demand visibility.
• The S&OP process, while formally established, lacked decision orientation—roles and responsibilities were unclear between Sales, central SCM, Operations, and the plants.

The Approach: combining an operating model redesign with a lean digital planning system

We initiated a holistic transformation of the client’s planning and decision-making model, addressing both process and technology in parallel.

1. Redesigned the S&OP Operating Model – defining clear processes, organizational roles, responsibilities, and KPIs.
2. Integrated Finance into the S&OP cycle to move toward a true Integrated Business Planning (IBP) approach.
3. Implemented a Lean Planning System within just six months, including:
4. • Demand Planning with advanced algorithms, connecting different data sources, planner-friendly UI, and workflow automation.
   • Master Production Scheduling for tactical supply and capacity planning over an 18-month horizon – solving bottlenecks with multiple scenarios
   • Management dashboards for S&OP and aggregated materials planning, improving visibility for plastics granulates and additives purchasing.
   • A Production equipment Movement Optimizer, dynamically recommending the optimal plant location for each mold based on capacity, demand, and cost.

Part of the IBP Operating Model: Defining clear roles and responsibilities for the monthly demand planning calendar between sales, demand planning and supply chain

Demand Planning in a Lean Planning System: the Demand Planning Interface connecting order-book information, machine learning forecasting results, CRM opportunities and final recommendations for the planner where human input is needed

Supply Planning in a Lean Planning System: Master Production Scheduling and Mould Optimization algorithms calculate supply planning scenarios to fulfill the demand in economic ways and solving supply bottlenecks