"Ассортикс" implemented solutions of IBM for forecasting and demand planning in Efko

The consulting company "Assortiks" in February, 2018 announced project implementation on implementing solutions for forecasting and optimization of IBM SPSS and IBM ILOG for the Branded division of Efko Group which is responsible for promotion of food of the company in FMCG sector (butylated vegetable oils, mayonnaise, sauces, ketchups and yogurts) on Russian and foreign markets.

Project Progress

The solution is constructed on the basis of the IBM SPSS Modeler and IBM ILOG software products by consulting company "Assortiks". Within the project it was developed flexible S&OP-платформа (Sales and Operations Planning/sales and operations planning) for data entry and reporting. Key function of forecasting and demand planning is implemented based on IBM SPSS Modeler and the S&OP platform. This software product has a broad set of statistical techniques and gives the chance of flexible creation of models for forecasting solving of tasks that allowed to increase quality of the forecast for all product range of a division.

Optimization function of a system is implemented on the IBM ILOG CPLEX platform. A system allows to optimize and plan distribution of products by all logistics chain taking into account a set of restrictions, such as cost of logistic resources, logistic capacities, scheduled preventive works on production and many others. Flexibility of model on the basis of IBM ILOG CPLEX allows to maximize marginality taking into account the target objective of service.

During the project audit of business processes of the company regarding the planning block was booked that allowed to create correctly requirements to target S&OP-процессу. Implementation of the solution affected almost all divisions of the company, but competent interfunctional coordination allowed to specify quickly requirements and to adjust the business processes which are beyond the scope of the project. It allowed to bring the S&OP system into commercial operation successfully — Artem Makeev, the associate director of Management of Logistics on planning and automation of "Assortiks", the project manager told.

Project implementation was enabled by a command of Assortiks company. During the project integration with the corporate data warehouse and the workflow system of the customer was also made for providing complete S&OP-цикла, including consensus forecasting and the approval of sales plans and transactions — Andrey Alekseev, the director of the company of "Assortiks" added.

Project Results

In productive operation the information system S&OP (sales and operations planning) for planning sales and optimization of logistic transactions it was started in the fall of 2017.

Using the S&OP system the Efko company is going to increase production efficiency, to optimize the level of trade inventories and logistic costs of all supply chain and also to improve customer service for each partner consignee.

Considering the growing volumes of business of Efko Group and its strategic plans on development, automation system implementation S&OP processes on the IBM platform became logical development of the system existing in the company. Taking into account complexity of formation and accounting of all requirements of stages of development the method of management of projects of Agile for implementation of the solution was selected. Business process integration of planning will allow to increase coordination and the involvement of all functional divisions. Implementation of IBM ILOG allows to optimize and automate process of production planning and distribution of products in a supply chain. It will give to services of sales and logistics of the Branded division of the company additional tools for forecasting, sales planning and optimization of supply chains, will increase transparency of activity of all child structures of Group in the conditions of territorial remoteness from each other and the speed of response to changes both in the market, and in our production, will provide increase in efficiency of the existing business processes and a company performance in general — Andrey Drovovoz, the logistics director of Efko Group reported.

The S&OP system implementation project in the Branded division of Efko Group is one of priority projects of automation of our company. For the solution of a task we selected IBM ILOG as the most flexible and powerful instrument of optimization. For successful implementation of optimization model on this product professionals were necessary both from integrator (Assortiks LLC), and from business (the accurate purpose and understanding of business processes and business restrictions). Our company promptly develops, expands the range of products, opens new production sites, enters the new markets, and implementation of this information system will allow to continue active growth — Stanislav Loginov, the deputy head of department of information technologies of Efko Group is convinced.