2010 Readers' Choice: Supply Chain Planning

Lora Cecere, former vice president and head of Research for AMR Research, believes that although the supply chain planning list is similar year over year, the real story is underneath the covers.

Cecere is seeing the consolidation of best of breed applications in this process area. At the same time, SAP and Oracle are starting to take the industry more seriously. Supply Chain Planning leadership in 2010 will be driven by Business Intelligence as well as the definition of outside-in, demand-driven processes.

In addition, traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) will be foundational, but will not define application leadership.

CGT: How has the downturn in the economy impacted initiatives in this process area?

Cecere: The recession has level-set the consumer goods industry. Solution and service providers are more humble, and these providers are less likely to take their client relationships for granted.

CGT: What trends do you see in supply chain planning that will impact the consumer goods industry?

Cecere: Business Intelligence will be redefined. It will be the new battleground for the definition of outside-in processes. Sentiment analysis (reading of non-structured text), social network and the definition of the digital consumer will drive innovation.

Traditional back office applications like ERP and APS will increasingly be outsourced and optimization applications will move to Software as a Service applications. Also, Google applications will play an increasing role within the enterprise.

CGT: How have consumer goods companies been able to leverage new sources of data and insights to improve their supply chain planning process over the last year?

Cecere: Downstream data for the supply chain planning channel is becoming more available. Data at a daily level from the retailers is redefining what is possible in defining the channel response.

"With Logility Voyager Solutions, we have eliminated manual processes, increased forecast accuracy and reduced inventory to name just a few of the significant benefits that we have achieved as a result of our implementation. Logility has been a dedicated technology partner, delivering outstanding customer service as we continue to build a strong collaborative global supply chain."
-- Jennifer Hughey, Vice president, Supply Chain, Electrolux Home Care Products North America

SMB MARKET: ORACLE

"With the use of Oracle Value Chain Planning, Hatfield Quality Meats was able to improve the forecast accuracy and lower inventory levels while increasing order fill rates."
-- Tom Moyer, Manager, Demand Planning, Hatfield Quality Meats