Case Study: E2E Supply Chain Transformation & Organizational Design at an $8B Consumer Products Company

An $8B industry-leading global consumer products company was operating with four legacy business units, each with its own planning processes, time horizons, and planning disciplines. The result was a heavily matrixed organization where planning activities were misaligned with decision horizons — and where the emphasis had shifted from exception management to reporting out.

Leadership recognized the problem but had struggled to build consensus across the matrix on how to fix it. The complexity of the organization had become a barrier to change.

Three structural problems were compounding each other:

Planning misaligned with horizon. Each business unit was planning at a different time horizon, using different processes, and producing outputs that couldn't be easily compared or consolidated. The S&OP process existed in name but not in practice.

Reporting over decision-making. The planning meetings had evolved into status updates. Decisions that should have been made in the planning cycle were being escalated, deferred, or made informally — outside the process.

Organizational complexity blocking change. The matrixed structure meant that any process change required alignment across multiple functions, geographies, and P&L owners. Previous improvement efforts had stalled in the alignment phase.

We standardized four business units into one $4B segment — a structural decision that simplified the planning architecture and created the organizational clarity needed to drive process change.

This required significant stakeholder alignment work across the matrix. We facilitated the executive conversations, built the business case, and managed the change process from design through implementation.

We improved and optimized end-to-end supply chain planning processes and integrations with cross-functional teams. New processes introduced included:

• S&OE (Sales & Operations Execution): Short-term execution process to manage within-horizon demand and supply variability
• PLCM (Product Lifecycle Management): Structured process for managing new product introductions and end-of-life decisions within the planning cycle
• Manage Short Term Demand: Formal process for handling demand exceptions and priority customer commitments

Technology: SAP IBP Modules

We globalized the S&OP process — moving from four separate business unit processes to a single, standardized global S&OP that connected demand, supply, and financial planning across the segment.

The global S&OP design incorporated a governance model with centralized teams (technology, process) and segment teams (P&L) — ensuring that the process was both standardized and locally accountable.

We redesigned the organizational structure to support the new planning model — including structure, competency model development, and role definition across the planning function.

The change management program addressed the human side of the transformation: stakeholder alignment, communications, training, and adoption measurement across a complex global organization.

• Standard operating procedures established for the segment planning organization — replacing four inconsistent processes with one
• Harmonization and holistic, strategic approach among key centralized and segment teams — breaking down the silos that had blocked previous improvement efforts
• Horizon, decision, and cadence-focused planning — the organization shifted from reporting out to making decisions, with clear accountability at each level of the planning cycle

The willingness to make a structural decision — consolidating four business units into one segment — was the unlock. Previous improvement efforts had tried to optimize within the existing structure. We challenged that assumption, built the case for structural change, and then designed the processes and organization to support it.

Leadership coaching throughout the engagement ensured that the senior team was aligned on the direction and equipped to sustain the change after we left.

This case study has been anonymized to protect client confidentiality. Results are representative of actual engagement outcomes.