That’s why we created EyeOn promo:

Contact us now for a live demo of EyeOn Promo!

The post How to make a robust promotion demand forecast appeared first on EyeOn.

While everyone was (and still is) working from home, the paper industry is booming. People use at-home delivery more and more, which leads to increasing demand on all sorts of paper and packaging including carton boxes and wrapping paper. This has led to a shortage of paper, of which we see the effects right now!

Companies in the paper industry are striving for efficiency and lean planning solutions to guarantee the supply to their customers. To minimize the increase in costs and ensure availability towards the consumer market, accurate mid- and long-term planning is essential. This can for example be achieved by improving forecasting accuracy and implementing sales and operations planning.

How to ensure the holiday season goes as planned for your customers and your business?
Our team of forecasting and planning specialists are happy to help. Contact us now!

The post Don’t let the shortage of paper impact the holiday season appeared first on EyeOn.

You can also listen to it via this podcast.

EyeOn supports companies to prevent waste by getting value out of data and provide actionable insights; connect different departments within your company or even partners within the total value chain and improve collaboration with the end goal to prevent food waste. We also support manufacturers and retail companies to set optimized production and replenishment parameters that result in both food waste reduction and improved on-shelf performance.

Want to know how we can help your company?
We just launched the ‘waste prevention benchmark’ aimed for fresh food manufacturers and retail companies. Participation is free!

The post How to prevent waste with better planning decisions appeared first on EyeOn.

We can help you to turn data into actionable insights: Talk to our experts!

The post Video testimonial: Improved forecast accuracy with machine learning at Lekkerland appeared first on EyeOn.

On Tuesday September 7th we joined the kick-off of the ‘Verspillingsvrije Week’ organized by Stichting Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling.  And we also had an internal discussion on embracing sustainability at EyeOn.

Wednesday Julie Goossens, Damien Jaton, and Enrique De La Fuente hosted a webinar where they presented a customer case on preventing excess stock and obsolescence.

In another webinar on Friday Willem Gerbecks and André Vriens showed how food waste reduction and improving on-shelf performance can go hand-in-hand. After the webinar we launched a ‘Waste prevention benchmark’. Participation is easy and for free, just click this link.

To close off the week, our employees did their best to prepare a vegetarian meal with the least amount of waste. We must say, quite successfully. Here some pictures with the results!

Read more about sustainability!

The post EyeOn sustainability week 2021 appeared first on EyeOn.

What is a circular supermarket?

“Pieter Pot is Europe’s first online package free supermarket that delivers groceries to consumers’ homes in circular packaging – currently glass mason jars, in the near future custom lightweight Pieter Pot jars. We focus on bringing convenience: minimize effort at affordable prices, while being the most sustainable option.

Our aim is to help save up to 20 million kg of CO2 and 3 million kg of plastic waste on an annual basis. This equals the yearly emissions from 80 million car km and enough plastic to fill 20 Olympic swimming pools every year. We do this by growing from the 4.000 customers we currently serve to more than 100.000 by 2023. Scaling up the operation with this speed is challenging. So we reached out to Eyeon for help.

The challenges

Before we got in touch with EyeOn, we operated in silos which were barely communicating: finance/MT created the long-term budget and forecast, marketing drove the short-term sales and product sourcing and production was scheduling based on historic orders. The result was that our financial projections were always off and our inventory low on stock. This is where EyeOn stepped in.

Forecasting and planning improvements with EyeOn

EyeOn showed us the fundamentals of Sales and Operations Planning and explained the Stadtler model, which really opened our eyes. We immediately starting implementing elements from the Stadtler model which we were missing: 

• A mid-term S&OP forecast
• A short-term demand planning
• A short-term transport planning to share with our distributor PostNL Food
• Mid-term supply planning to share with our product suppliers
• Upgraded Material Requirements Planning with adjusted buffers
• A bi-weekly demand meeting

The results are tangible and very exciting: 

• Alignment in growth between MT, finance, marketing and operation
• Supplier confidence and discounts on growth trajectory
• Minimal out of stock items
• Improved financial planning
• Better grip on mid-term operational scaling

We greatly appreciate the support from EyeOn in setting us up for growth and we are looking forward to working together in the future.”

Pieter Pot founders Martijn Bijmolt (left) and Jouri Schoemaker (right).

The post EyeOn helps circular online supermarket Pieter Pot in exciting mission appeared first on EyeOn.

This was one of the questions that a group of executives from FMCG, food and retail companies discussed on the EyeOn inspiration event in the ADAM tower in Amsterdam Wednesday 13^th of November.

For many companies’ market circumstances are volatile, varying from global politics to individual consumers who can shift buying preferences ‘in a click’. Next to that data is everywhere, the war on talent is increasingly challenging and sustainability is driving major changes in how to be successful. Although many value chains are more transparent than ever before, this hasn’t made us better planners or decision makers (yet).

Luckily the possibility of next level planning and decision processes is available. Discussing the possibilities of no -touch planning with self-driving cars, the clear conclusion by all was that we need to improve 1-2 levels in the next few years.

Tooling and data are no limiting factors anymore. The group agreed that organisational readiness, cultural change and embracing the potential of analytics deserve the most attention in making the next steps.

The changing world of internet platforms is making clear that business models are changing and most likely will impact everybody not only in B2C but also in B2B, according to Maurice Jongerius from Bol.com. The consequences are not only technology driven but even more on the people side. Leaders and managers should start changing themselves!

Conclusion: Transformation thinking is key!

Overseeing Amsterdam, the conclusion was that transformation thinking is key!
5 best practices to start transforming tomorrow were shared by André Vriens & Jan Veerman:

• Ask the right questions for your business!
• Start collecting and storing data as of tomorrow
• Build strong analytical skills and embed analytics in business processes
• Collaborate with all relevant stakeholders in and outside your company
• Remain agile, just start!

Do you want to know more? Please contact André Vriens to discuss!

The post How should business leaders cope with challenging environments? appeared first on EyeOn.

No-touch planning, automated generation of master data, robotic process automation. On the one hand advanced automation seems and is closer than ever.

Advances in general purpose AI (think DeepMind) or focused AI (voice assistants, photo pattern recognition) make it easy to imagine the application in supply chain planning is only a matter of time. In this light, episode 47of the ‘After On’ podcast is worthwhile the listen.

Still, we struggle on a daily basis with bad master data, erroneous or time-consuming Excel files, difficult to interpret solvers and cumbersome scenario planning. Maybe an automated supply chain is just one leap to far?

Take a step back and think about the technology we use every day. What’s the last time you’ve used physical maps to navigate? Go to the library? Remember the stock traders shouting on the exchange floor? Technology slowly advances and seamlessly intertwines with daily life. 

The same holds for applications in supply chain management. We just executed a deep dive in the level of automation we apply in analyses we execute for and in applications delivered at our customers. The degree of automation in a typical project has risen to a level we would not find say 10 years ago. 

For example, more and more steps of setting up a forecasting process are automated. Manual segmentation is not required anymore. Segmentation is automated, just like many of the steps to select the best forecast approach for each category.

 

 

In our work to reduce data latency through speeding up requirements propagation, demand trend recognition and shorten planning cycles, we see ever more opportunities to automate. Take a multi node divergent supply chain with many routing choices per node, with varying lead times and yields. A detailed understanding of critical starting material requirements requires a full plan propagation, with a latency of (at least) one planning cycle. An automated ad hoc propagation using predicted lead times and material requirements – learning from past routing decisions and outcomes – delivers predicted raw material requirements with accuracy fit for planning on demand, rather than once every cycle at best.

 

 

And it can work the other way around. An analysis of supplier performance giving insight of performance against planned parameter, triggered the development of an automated update and learning loop feeding supplier management, QC lab priorities, master data management and planning.

 

 

 
Automation based learning loop for supplier management 

Any step, no matter how small, brings the no touch supply chain a little closer. At minimum it provides answers to the questions asked. In many cases, though, it triggers efforts to significantly reduce data latency and implement true automated learning loops.

Want to learn more? Ready to take the first step and implement? Feel free to reach us through our website or read the document “Data Engineering” to familiarize with the approach EyeOn takes on making improvements in this area.

In striving for success, large companies have to continuously struggle against growing internal complexity. EyeOn helps our clients manage this complexity by designing, implementing and executing excellent planning processes as a discriminating factor for this success. In order to achieve this, we develop and share knowledge about top level planning and forecasting, with constantly demonstrable return on investment for our clients.

The post Every journey starts with a first step, and before you know it you’re running appeared first on EyeOn.

The post How to set up forecasting for your specific business situation? appeared first on EyeOn.

André Vriens from EyeOn started the day by looking at how the FMCG market is changing and how data can have an impact for a company. By looking at several data challenges, we also saw that there are ways to transform these into opportunities. The role of the ‘machine’ in this transformation will become increasingly important, so Carst Vaartjes (visualfabriq) showed us how artificial intelligence can and will bring more benefit from the business data we already have. Although, applying AI must be done gradually, the time to act is now. While 94% of all promotions tend to increase volumes, only 63% also generate extra sales value and a mere 25% give you extra profit. Joris Monchen (visualfabriq) closed off the day by demonstrating the practical way of how visualfabriq allows you to improve the performance of your promotions.

The main message of the day: Learn from the past and impact your business now!

All participants were unanimous on the ability of the ‘machine’ to get more out of our data and were conscious about the balance that they need to find between human and machine.

If you want to know more, please find the presentation of the day here below. Get more inspiration on the visualfabriq website, read the EyeOn TPM leaflets below or get in touch with André Vriens or Erik de Vos.

Presentations of the day
– Intro EyeOn and visualfabriq
– A market view on data challenges and opportunities – André Vriens (EyeOn)
– Applied AI: Data & the machine – Carst Vaartjes (visualfabriq)
– How will visualfabriq deliver your business case? – Joris Monchen (visualfabriq)

Product leaflets Trade Promotion Management
– Promotion forecast scan
– Promotion planning
– Trade promotion management

The post Trade promotions: From margin drain to profit generator appeared first on EyeOn.