February 2018

Supply Chain Planning 4.0

Supercharge your supply chain planning performance
2 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

Management summary

Today's companies need a lean, re- Next, in a special feature, we examine some of the latest

sponsive, digitized supply chain trends seen in supply chain planning. We identify four
key tendencies: the integration of previously separate
planning setup. Welcome to SCP 4.0. planning horizons, the appointment by companies of a
"collaborative planner" to oversee the interconnected
In a fast-paced and dynamic world, change is the only supply chains of their suppliers and of the company it-
constant. Manufacturing companies that control their self, the application of advanced scenario planning
own production must ensure that their supply chain tools, and the use of data analytics to forecast demand
planning (SCP) systems are flexible enough to navigate better.
the complexities that this changing world presents, par-
ticularly in the age of digitization. Unfortunately, many Based on our experience working with companies, we
firms use outdated supply chain planning practices that then present a practical, three-phase approach for su-
reduce their operational efficiency and damage their fi- percharging your supply chain planning performance.
nancial performance. Manufacturers can prepare for The three phases are: analyze your current position,
these challenges – and even profit from a rapidly chang- shape a vision of the future (including the target pro-
ing business environment – by implementing a contem- cesses, organizational setup and systems), then imple-
porary and future-ready supply chain planning setup. In ment this new vision.
a word, SCP 4.0.
Finally, we look at the investments required to trans-
SCP 4.0 envisions a lean, responsive and digitized setup form supply chain planning systems, and the tangible
that fosters data-driven business decisions. It hinges on and intangible benefits. Generally, we expect to see a
an agile organization backed by an interconnected sys- payback period of two to four years, with an internal rate
tem landscape, providing accurate source-to-shelf visi- of return of 15 to 25 percent. Intangible benefits include
bility in real time. This is assisted by advanced analytics improved employee satisfaction, greater capacity utili-
tools that aid more accurate forecasting and more effec- zation, better process control and adherence, and in-
tive scenario visualization, ensuring rapid, effective and creased supply chain agility. Implementing SCP 4.0 is a
informed decision-making. lengthy process – but ultimately a rewarding one.

In this study, we first present the results of an extensive

survey carried out among supply chain and operations
professionals. This looked at the readiness of the supply
chain planning setup across the globe. What state is it
in, and where do the chief pain points lie?
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 3

Contents

Firms know where their future weaknesses lie .............................................. 4

Our survey highlights the key pain points.

Box feature: The latest trends in supply chain planning ................................ 9

A recipe for success ............................................................................................... 10

Our three-phase approach to supercharging supply chain planning.

The bottom line ...................................................................................................... 20

Do the benefits of implementing SCP 4.0 outweigh the costs?
Cover photo: mevans/Getty Images
4 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

Firms know where their

future weaknesses lie
Our survey highlights the key pain points.
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 5

Simply put, the purpose of supply chain planning is to

accurately estimate the needs of customers and ensure
that they receive the right product, through the right "We use multiple plan-
ning systems that are not
channel, in the right quantity and at the right time. In an
ideal situation, this would result in 100 percent forecast

integrated with each oth-

accuracy, zero stock-outs and, of course, a highly effi-
cient and responsive supply setup.

In an earlier Roland Berger publication – The Supply er and do not talk to each
other. That weighs down
Chain Excellence Study 2015 – we identified a number of
factors that are challenging supply cycles in today's busi-

the planning process and

ness environment. Those factors include globalization,
the trend toward customization, political and economic
uncertainty, disruptive business models, and innovative
technology such as artificial intelligence, augmented re- makes it difficult to adjust
ality, 3D printing, robotics and the Internet of Things.
All of these factors call for agility, responsiveness and plans when necessary"
adaptability on the part of companies. In addition, in-
creasing customer requirements and rapidly shifting
tastes are driving complexity, volatility and uncertainty, said that they were well executed. Three out of four stated
putting supply chains under severe stress. that they met current business requirements. But when we
asked them whether those supply chain strategies were
Our 2017 survey, carried out for the purpose of the pres- suitable for future business requirements, the respon-
ent study, takes a deeper look at the readiness of the dents were split fifty-fifty. In other words at least half, by
supply chain planning setup across the globe. We sur- their own admission, will need to adapt their supply chain
veyed more than 200 supply chain and operations exec- strategy. It is here that SCP 4.0 can play a key role. B C E
utives. Over half of their companies were headquartered
in Europe, a quarter in North America and the remain- To add detail to the picture, we asked respondents about
der in the Middle East and Africa. The biggest group specific elements of their supply chain planning system.
consisted of consumer goods and retail companies, with Demand planning was the area most commonly identi-
the construction and utilities industries and healthcare fied as requiring the most improvement in terms of per-
and medical sectors also forming significant groups. formance. The demand planning process typically takes
A slight majority of the companies had revenues in ex- place on a local level to ensure proximity to the markets.
cess of EUR 1 billion in 2016, and over 80 percent had But this leads to variations, complexity and sub-par de-
more than 1,000 employees. A mand forecasting. What companies really need is a scal-
able and adaptable planning philosophy, coupled with a
Two-thirds of our respondents believed that their compa- high degree of process and organization maturity. This
nies' supply chain strategies were effective, and over half will ensure consistent application of the standard.
6 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) represents the ized within their company. But despite this relatively
bridge between demand and supply domains. It acts as high level of satisfaction, S&OP remains a focus area for
the fulcrum of a good supply chain process and is im- the near term.
pacted in large part by the quality of the demand plan-
ning. According to our survey, S&OP is less of a problem Compared to demand planning and S&OP, production
area than demand planning: Two-thirds of the respon- planning is generally more standardized across organi-
dents said that it was performing well, and around the zations and performs relatively well. This is the result of
same number said that the process was highly standard- continuous improvement efforts that have been made

A: Methodology.
More than 200 global supply chain and operations executives surveyed.

Location Industry
58 % Other
16%
Consumer
goods/retail
50 % Healthcare and medical
17%

Construction and utilities

17%

25 %
Revenues [2016]
17 %
< EUR 1 bn
42 % > EUR 1 bn
58 %
Europe North America MEA

Source: Roland Berger

 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 7

within companies. Nevertheless, with the arrival of In- enterprise resource planning (ERP) some time in the pre-
dustry 4.0, production planning is an area that is also vious decade. By and large, they purchased on-premise
back in focus as a way to boost efficiency. solutions from vendors such as SAP, involving major in-
vestment and a high degree of customization. While this
The survey found that companies need to update their created an IT setup that was robust enough to meet the
current supply chain planning IT systems in line with the needs of the time, it also by design embedded rigidity,
significantly changed business environment of today. which made it difficult to adapt the systems for constant-
Most of the companies surveyed last transformed their ly changing business needs. The result has been that, as

B: Supply chain performance and positioning snapshot.

Share of responses in survey.

Our supply chain strategy …

is effective meets current will meet future
(correctly aligned) business ­requirements ­business requirements

Yes No Yes No Yes No

67% 33% 75% 25% 50% 50%

The supply chain function …

is treated as a ­ is represented at
strategic partner for business ­senior ­management level

Yes No C-3 level C level

73% 27% 8% 25%

C-2 level C-1 level

50% 17%

Source: Roland Berger

8 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

new technologies have emerged over the years enabled

C: Standardization drives supply chain performance. by digital breakthroughs, the level of digitization has re-
Planning performance vs. degree of process mained rather low across the board.
standardization.
However, supply chain executives across different in-
Demand planning is … dustries and geographical locations are well aware of
the benefits of digitization. They are particularly con-
performing well highly standardized vinced of its positive impact in areas such as reducing
stock-outs (77 percent of respondents agree), reducing
Yes No Yes No
44% 56% 56% 44% the number of short-term planning changes (68 per-
cent), reducing lead times (67 percent) and increasing
forecasting accuracy (58 percent). Digitization is an
area that will see significant investment in the coming
years.

The survey results, backed up by our experience sup-

S&OP is …  porting companies engaged in transformation, indicate
that a business-as-usual approach to supply chain plan-
performing well highly standardized
ning leads to operational inefficiencies. Companies can
Yes No Yes No suffer from poor forecasting accuracy, long lead times,
67% 33% 69% 31% and numerous short-term planning (STP) changes.
These in turn reduce productivity and increase over-
time and slow-moving and obsolete inventory (SLOB).
Outdated practices are responsible for bunching and
gaps in the supply chain, too, with large inventories in
certain areas and stock-outs in others. Ultimately these
operational inefficiencies impair overall financial per-
Production planning is … formance and translate to high working capital, higher
logistics costs and lower revenues.
performing well highly standardized

Yes No Yes No In the face of these multiple challenges, companies

75% 25% 80% 20%
need not just incremental changes but a radical realign-
ment toward SCP 4.0. This entails an integrated ap-
proach encompassing a transformational vision, lean
processes, an agile organization and an interconnected
digital system landscape. In the following section, we
present a three-phase approach to achieving this vital
Source: Roland Berger transformation.
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 9

The latest trends in

supply chain p­ lanning
When defining a vision for their future supply chain planning, companies
need to be constantly aware of the latest developments in the field. We out-
line four trends currently shaping the supply chain planning landscape. This
can serve as input for the work that companies have before them.

1. SEAMLESS TIME HORIZONS 3. ADVANCED SCENARIO

A major new supply chain planning trend is the merging ­PLANNING TOOLS­
of time horizons for planning. This is a shift away from This trend involves innovative planning processes that
the old-fashioned "silo planning" approach, where com- use advanced scenario planning capabilities. Within
panies had different planning teams for long-term, mid- these processes, planners use an "optimizer" – an ad-
term and short-term planning. Integrating the different vanced algorithm that calculates the best way to balance
planning horizons means combining input from vari- demand and supply, rather than concentrating solely on
ous functions into a single planning solution, encom- feasible scenarios. The optimal scenario is based upon
passing demand planning, S&OP, finance and schedul- up-to-date supply chain data and production capacity
ing. The company can then easily zoom in and out from constraints, which are fed into the planning system. An
a more detailed short-term plan to a less detailed lon- optimizer of this type facilitates agile and responsive
ger-term plan. planning, which in turn improves capacity utilization
and minimizes inventories.
This new approach creates a shared "source of truth"
and establishes a link between long-term strategic plan-
ning, mid-term financial planning and day-to-day oper-
4. USE OF DATA ANALYTICS TO
ational planning. Other benefits include more robust FORECAST ­DEMAND BETTER
supply chain planning, less variance across stakehold- An increasing number of companies are turning to "de-
ers, and greater transparency. Together, this can boost mand sensing", a short-term forecasting analytics meth-
all-round operational and financial performance. od that combines historical internal transactional data
with external data (for example, from weather and mar-
keting reports) to predict demand in the near future.
2. COLLABORATIVE PLANNING Demand sensing provides a more accurate forecast of
Collaborate planning involves appointing a "collabora- baseline demand. It also reduces the number of short-
tive planner" or "network planner" – an individual with term planning changes and results in lower operational
responsibility for overseeing the interconnected supply waste and inventories. Ultimately, this increases cus-
chains of the company's suppliers and the company it- tomer satisfaction and company performance.
self. This provides an end-to-end view of the supply chain,
making it possible for companies to respond accurately
to customer demands and improve capacity utilization.
10 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

A recipe for success

Our three-phase approach to supercharging
supply chain planning.
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 11

At Roland Berger we have developed a practical three- We can cluster typical pain points according to wheth-
phase approach to achieving SCP 4.0. Phase 1 involves er they relate to processes, organization or systems. In
analyzing a company's current supply chain planning the area of processes, for example, supply chain plan-
and identifying its key pain points. Phase 2 is all about ning processes may not be standardized across the or-
shaping a vision for the company's future supply chain ganization, processes may be manual or repetitive, de-
planning process, organization and systems. Phase 3 cision-making in S&OP may be ineffective, and supply
covers the implementation and related steps. chain planning KPIs may be inappropriate or even
non-existent. In the area of organization, the strategic
Achieving SCP 4.0 is a slow process. In our experience, position of the supply chain may be unclear. Is it, for
companies should reckon on 15 to 30 months or even example, geared toward fulfillment or does it see itself
longer for the entire process, depending on the matu- as a strategic business partner? The supply chain may
rity of their current supply chain planning. D be ineffectively embedded within the organization,
planning may be spread between different functions
PHASE 1 – ANALYZE THE CURRENT SETUP such as finance, sales and operations, and supply chain
In the first phase, the company benchmarks its supply planning staff may lack clearly defined career paths. In
chain planning against its peers. For the peer group we the area of systems, typical problems include obsolete
can use the set of almost 200 companies that partici- systems designed for a pre-Internet age, gaps in func-
pated in our survey. By comparing the company's per- tionalities, dated interfaces, slow processes and com-
formance to others, we can establish the maturity of its peting system environments.
supply chain planning and determine how well pre-
pared it is for digitization. PHASE 2 – SHAPE A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Having identified their pain points, companies have
We back up the benchmarking exercise with a quantita- two options. They can systematically address the is-
tive analysis of relevant key performance indicators sues, closing gaps where necessary by making incre-
(KPIs) across markets and business units. We can also mental improvements. Or they can define a bold new
carry out qualitative assessments by interviewing inter- vision for their supply chain planning, transforming it
nal experts in different parts of the company, asking in line with SCP 4.0. The latter choice often involves a
them to rate the maturity of the supply chain planning quantum leap in terms of performance.
from one to five across the different planning phases.
This allows us to identify pain points. Our work with companies shows us that this second ap-
proach is the more effective one. Companies need a best-
To understand how the supply chain planning functions in-class, digital, optimized and interconnected supply
in practice and to ascertain the degree of standardiza- chain planning landscape. That means providing plan-
tion, we carry out a comprehensive process mapping ners with an end-to-end view, from suppliers to points-
exercise. In workshops with internal stakeholders, the of-sale. It means building an agile supply chain plan-
supply chain planning processes are charted end-to-end ning organization that can deal with uncertainty and
– from demand to factory – identifying pain points at volatility. And it means enhancing customer focus
the process, organization and system levels. through Big Data and advanced analytics.
12 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

Digitization is the key enabler. It draws on three levers: nate efficiencies. It now needs to design future supply
integration, automation and analytics. These levers are chain planning processes that are effective and pro-
the source of innovative applications in the supply mote adherence by design.
chain, such as demand sensing, automated capacity
leveling or balancing, real-time tracking and automat- A number of factors are key here. The company must
ed production scheduling. F introduce clear process gates (defining inputs/outputs
and deadlines) and workflow support. It must align
Future processes timeframes and levels of detail between mid-term and
Having defined its vision, the company must now de- short-term planning. It must standardize processes
tail its new processes, organization and systems. The across regions, eliminating any unnecessary planning
initial mapping of the supply chain planning process steps. It must strive to avoid repetitions by consolidat-
in Phase 1 will have revealed a number of areas where ing decision-making events. And in parallel, it must
the company can improve its performance and elimi- maximize automation.

D: Speedy implementation provides quick payback.

A roadmap for digital transformation.

1  Build foundations 2 Pilot 3  Roll out

Analyze Define
current future Implement digital SCP
SCP state

2–3 months 1–3 months 12–24 months

COMPLETION OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

15–30 months
Source: Roland Berger
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 13

The company should underpin these efforts with a new

RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed)
matrix that maps responsibilities along the process The supply chain
function is increasingly
flow, ensuring adherence to the newly defined process.
To balance demand and supply, it should introduce an

considered a strategic
empowered monthly S&OP meeting or strengthen the
existing S&OP meeting so that it becomes the single

partner for ­business
decision-making body, bringing together stakeholders
such as the supply chain planning team, finance, sales

across ­companies.
and the factories.

Current systems have

KPIs for the new process need to be realigned and
clearly linked to incentives in order to enable effective
steering of supply chain planning. Additionally, the
company should establish a controlling cycle that can not kept pace with the
take action wherever deviation from KPIs occurs. To
ensure high standards of process performance, the ­requirements of modern
KPIs should regularly monitor forecasting accuracy,
plan adherence (production reliability), process adher- supply chains.
ence, operational costs (days of inventory, SLOB) and
sales (stock-outs, time-to-market).

Data is the foundation of SCP 4.0. Traditionally, master

data management (MDM) has been seen as an IT topic.
However, we believe that master data is a key pillar sup-
porting the process. Indeed, all the improvements as-
pired to hinge on the availability of adequate, error-free
master data. Before being stored in an IT system, the
relevant data for the supply chain is entered by various
stakeholders, for example in sales, finance, marketing
and production. In the SCP 4.0 world, companies need
a robust data entry and management process, and
clear guidelines governing the handling and supervi-
sion of data.

Future organizational setup

Two things are essential for efficient supply chain plan-
ning: the correct strategic positioning of supply chain
14 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

planning, and a homogeneous supply chain planning or- ployees' job profiles and increasing their responsibili-
ganization across regions. The company needs to elevate ties, partly by centralizing planning functions. Jobs
its supply chain planning function to the strategic level. should be refocused on validating and confirming in-
Given the current volatility, uncertainty, complexity and put rather than simply entering transactional data and
ambiguity, supply chain planning should be regarded as carrying out computations.
a strategic business partner and not simply as an opera-
tional function. Our survey results bear this out: Finally, companies must fix any master data issues they
Three-quarters of respondents said that the supply chain have at the process level (as described above) and the
function is considered a strategic partner for business organizational level. To ensure process adherence in en-
within their company, and in more than 40 percent of cas- tering master data – from demand planning to factory
es it is represented at the top management level (C or C-1). capacity data – the company should put in place a mas-
ter data governance system and a related RACI matrix.
The degree of centralization or decentralization of sup-
ply chain planning activities is an important factor in Future systems
the standardized execution of the process across the When defining their future system landscape, compa-
company. A highly standardized supply chain planning nies must make sure that they involve all stakeholder
organization across countries and markets significant- groups – markets, manufacturing operations, the sup-
ly improves decision-making. Possible options are a ply chain and IT. This will ensure a holistic view of the
supply chain planning organization that includes the future functionality that needs to be supported by the
demand planning function, or an organization where systems. For instance, demand planners want the de-
demand planning is owned by finance or sales and mand-sensing capability to enhance the forecast accu-
works in close collaboration with the broader supply racy, while factory planners want real-time data on pro-
chain planning organization. The optimal configura- duction line availability and capability. The company
tion for a company will depend on the market require- should draw up a long list of use cases, prioritize them,
ments and the conditions for business: The company and then select those ideas that deliver the greatest fi-
needs to assess these factors for each function and ac- nancial and strategic impact.
tivity. We recommend including local input for de-
mand planning with centralized overall coordination In our experience, the key use cases are demand sens-
at a strategic level to ensure adequate market proximity ing and planning, demand consolidation, scenario
and consistency with the overall strategic direction. management and capacity leveling, constrained capac-
ity visibility and production scheduling. These are the
The job of a planner is often a repetitive one, and staff first modules that the company should implement.
turnover can be high. As a result, knowledge and plan- They need to be integrated into a comprehensive fu-
ning experience is frequently lost. When junior or inex- ture systems landscape, detailing the data and process
perienced planners take over, more planning errors flow and the intended modules. G
occur, weakening the operational performance of the
supply chain planning. Companies should therefore We said above that three levers exist for digitization: in-
develop career paths for planners, enriching junior em- tegration, automation and analytics. End-to-end inte-
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 15

E: SCP IT – in dire need of supercharging.

Share of responses.

The current SCP IT system landscape …

adequately and effectively has a high level of

supports SCP requirements digitization of …

demand planning
Yes No Yes No
44% 56% 25% 75%
S&OP
Yes No
42% 58%
production planning
Yes No
56% 44%

The digitization of SCP has a strong impact on …

increasing forecasting reducing the number of reducing

accuracy short-term planning changes inventory levels

Yes No Yes No Yes No

42% 58% 68% 32% 50% 50%

increasing reducing reducing slow-moving and

lead times stock-outs obsolete inventory

Yes No Yes No Yes No

67% 33% 77% 23% 55% 45%

Source: Roland Berger

16 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

gration of the supply chain planning system involves ing or minimizing offline activities and manual inter-
viewing key metrics (inventories, SLOB and so on) in real ventions such as planning by telephone, email and Excel
time, drilling down and rolling up production plans by file exchange, and automating transactional tasks. The
SKU and at market, factory and consolidated level, and third lever – analytics – involves adding non-existent
creating a seamless, error-free master data environment functionalities such as advanced scenario planning ca-
to ensure data integrity. Automation involves eliminat- pabilities and dashboard/control towers across the sup-

F: A bold new vision.

An example of a future supply chain and the potential role of digitization.

Consumers Channels Distribution

I N T E R C O N N E C T E D

Demand sensing
Segmentation and
consumer preferences
Dynamic inventory
and replenishment

Own and
Warehouse
3rd-party POS

Consumers Trans­portation Real-time tracking

Distribution
Online
center

Source: Roland Berger

 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 17

ply chain, and using advanced analytics to optimize pro- execution of the implementation plan. The PMO car-
cess parameters, for example through demand sensing. ries out controlling, coordination, support and report-
ing tasks. For successful change management, strong
PHASE 3 – IMPLEMENTATION leadership is needed to bring together the three im-
The implementation phase begins with the creation of portant pillars for change: an understanding of the rea-
a project management office (PMO), followed by strict sons for the change and its urgency, a willingness to

Demand sensing, planning and production Procurement

S Y S T E M N E T W O R K
End-to-end SCP Automatic replenishment
mobile access

Sales Raw materials

Advanced scenario
planning
Demand forecast

Supplier
Supply chain
tiers 2 and 3

Automated capacity leveling

Trans­portation
Supplier
Capacity
tier 1
Network and
route optimization Automated production scheduling
  Digital SCP functionalities
18 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

change, and the ability to develop the required skills. meeting, and process gates and metrics with aligned
The implementation should start with a number of planning timeframes. It should optimize its organiza-
quick wins. The company should run pilot projects in- tional charts, introduce new KPIs and incentives, and
troducing a new short-term planning calibration pro- redefine career paths and profiles. It should also pilot
cess, a new demand planning setup, process improve- demand sending or scenario planning, ensure the re-
ments, an S&OP and short-term planning calibration liability of master data in systems, and establish bare-

G: SCP 4.0 system configuration.

Key modules in the future system landscape.

SALES BRANCHES SUPPLY CHAIN

Demand sensing and planning Constrained planning

Demand Demand Market  Demand

sensing planning demand consolidation
forecast

Adjusted
Baseline FC baseline FC Consolidated
demand forecast
(netted)
External insights Demand
– Consumers planners
– Key events
– Weather
– Points of sale

Internal insights Market insights

– Transactional data – Finance
– Business insights
– Marketing
Source: Roland Berger
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 19

bone systems for process changes. This "quick win" meeting as the central decision-making body. It can
phase will typically last around nine to ten months. now roll out the organizational blueprint in all coun-
To achieve its future vision for the supply chain pro- tries and fully interconnect all systems. Companies
cess, the company must disseminate the demand plan- typically achieve this between 15 and 30 months after
ning philosophy globally, ensure fully operational inte- project kickoff, depending on their starting point and
gration production planning, and establish the S&OP the size and complexity of their organization.

FACTORIES

Production scheduling

Scenario management Constrained capacity Production

and leveling visibility scheduling

Demand/
supply Consolidated STP plan
capacity data

Scenarios Capacity data

– Labor force Short-term
– Production lines production scheduling
– Raw materials
regreB dnaloR :ecruoS

Optimal – Factories
production plan
scenario
Leveled
MTP plan
20 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

The bottom line

Do the benefits of implementing SCP 4.0
outweigh the costs?
 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 21

The benefits of implementing SCP 4.0 are both tangi- in end-to-end planning effort thanks to automation. In
ble and intangible, having both a direct and indirect operations, companies can expect to see a reduction of
effect on the company's profit and loss statement. But 15 to 25 percent in SLOB and 3 to 10 percent in inven-
implementing SCP 4.0 also involves considerable costs. tory days, and an improvement of 15 to 20 percent in
The question is whether these investments are worth- forecasting accuracy and one to three percent in facto-
while and how soon a company that embarks upon the ry uptime. H
road to transformation can expect to achieve payback.
Overall, our experience supporting companies engaged
We divide costs into one-time costs (such as for the in transformation leads us to expect a payback period
­implementation of supply chain planning system of two to four years, with an internal rate of return of
suites), internal costs (relating to the transformation), 15 to 25 percent. SCP 4.0 also brings intangible bene-
external costs (for software vendor support) and re­ fits such as greater employee satisfaction, higher ca-
curring costs (such as annual license fees for supply pacity utilization and uptime, better process control
chain planning system suites). The benefits of imple­ and adherence, a shorter time-to-market and increased
menting SCP 4.0 are recurring, and include better use supply chain agility and responsiveness. On balance,
of personnel and operational improvements. In the the answer is clear: Implementing SCP 4.0 is a lengthy
area of personnel, experience shows that companies process but ultimately a rewarding one. Supercharging
can achieve a 20 to 30 percent reduction in short-term your supply chain process performance is the only op-
planning changes and a five to seven percent reduction tion for forward-looking companies.

H: Typical benefits of SCP 4.0.

2-4 year payback.

Short-term Forecast Slow-moving Days

planning changes accuracy and obsoletes of inventory

-25 +20 -20 -7  %  % % %

Source: Roland Berger

22 Roland Berger Focus – Supply Chain Planning 4.0

Credits and copyright

WE WELCOME YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS

AND SUGGESTIONS

AUTHORS REGIONAL OTHER INDUSTRY

CONTACTS CONTACTS
CARSTEN BOCK
Partner AMERICAS AUTOMOTIVE
Operations Robert Henske Norbert Dressler
+49 711 3275-7223 Alexis Gardy
[email protected] CHEMICALS
EUROPE Jonathon Wright
SVEN SIEPEN Ambroise Lecat Frederic Choumert
Senior Partner Frank Steffen
Industrial Products & Services RUSSIA AND CIS
+41 43 336-8670 Artem Zakomirnyi OPERATIONS
[email protected] Sebastian Feldmann
JAPAN
Yuzuru Ohashi CONSUMER GOODS
AND RETAIL
Matthias Hanke
Alexander Belderok
Tobias Göbbel

This publication has been prepared for general guidance only. The reader should not act according to any
information provided in this publication without receiving specific professional advice. Roland Berger GmbH
shall not be liable for any damages resulting from any use of the information contained in the publication.

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 Supply Chain Planning 4.0 – Roland Berger Focus 23

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Roland Berger, founded in 1967, is the only leading global consultancy of German
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