Issue/opportunity

The S4 design revealed gaps and opportunities across its Planning & Supply function:

• Limited clarity on Ways of Working (WoW) across cross-functional teams
• Uncertainty on how S4 capabilities would affect talent needs, roles, and org structure
• Manual processes that slowed forecasting and demand planning
• Lack of visibility to the skills, headcount, and operating model needed to maximizeS4 functionality

Leadership needed to determine whether to reorganize, upskill, and/or staff new roles to fully leverage S4 and achieve long-term business strategies.

Approach/outcomes

Our team led a holistic business transformation initiative integrating organization design, change management, and digital enablement to align structure, talent, and technology.

Strategic Approach

• Future-Back Alignment: Linked 3-5 year business goals to required future-state capabilities.
• Capability Mapping: AssessedS4 functionality, identified demand-planning responsibilities, and assessed headcount needs.
• Org Design & Operating Model: Defined structure, roles, spans/layers, standard operating processes (SOPs),governance, and scalable processes.
• Pilot & Change Management: Launched a targeted demand-planning pilot, gathered feedback, and rolled out a phased activation with training and engagement plans.

Key Outcomes

• Fit-for-purpose planning organization aligned to current and future business strategies.
• Established a Demand Planning function to interpret S4 data.
• Delivered a 15-20% efficiency gain in demand-planning processes and reduced forecast errors by 18%, directly improving supply accuracy and working capital management.
• Created blueprint and readiness dashboard to guide ongoing S4 activation across brands and categories.
• Developed clear roles, responsibilities, and career paths to attract and develop critical talent.
• Improved employee engagement scores by15%, cutting voluntary attrition by 8% during transformation.