COMPANY: MARS Incorporated
WEBSITE: https://www.mars.com/
INDUSTRY: Food & Nutrition
JOHN GALT SOLUTION: Atlas Planning Platform
Results:
- Digitized the supply chain for mid-markets across 25+ markets (60 countries) through agile implementation methodology.
- Achieved a single, integrated supply chain model across all markets.
- Standardized demand planning processes across markets and regions, improving accuracy and reporting.
- Increased end-to-end visibility across global supply chain network.
Company
Founded in 1911, MARS Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer with a diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services. MARS is one of the largest food companies in the world and has marketed products for more than five generations under well-renowned brands such as M&M's, Snickers, Skittles, Milky Way, Mars, Pedigree, Whiskas, TWIX, and more.
Challenges
MARS encountered challenges to digitize and standardize processes and operations across its mid-markets around the world. The use of legacy solutions at MARS required continuous time-consuming upgrades and made it difficult to compile and compare data across different regions and business units. Excel spreadsheets were widely used by businesses in smaller markets for forecasting, leading to disconnected processes and siloed working environments, while also increasing the risk of inconsistencies in data and inaccuracies in demand forecasting.
MARS struggled with lack of visibility across its midmarket footprint, in addition to critical data scattered across various systems and spreadsheets, low degree of automation and insufficient statistical analytics for demand planning. For a global company like MARS, standardization is critical for ensuring consistency in data management, analysis and reporting. Without a standard process for demand planning, it was a challenge to consolidate KPIs and gain a comprehensive view of demand trends and supply chain performance.
The company recognized the need to upgrade to a powerful supply chain planning platform to standardize the process and overcome the challenges posed by disparate spreadsheet-based demand planning practices, and to create an adequate environment to efficiently navigate uncertainty and mitigate risk.
Solution
Amid times of significant disruption and uncertainty, John Galt Solutions worked closely with MARS to complete an agile implementation and accelerate the digital transformation of MARS’ supply chain to drive growth.
By implementing the Atlas Planning Platform from John Galt Solutions, MARS re-engineered the manual demand planning process to an integrated process. The team removed hundreds of spreadsheets and reduced countless hours of effort by upgrading to one AI-driven supply chain planning solution with end-to-end integration. The solution enables the company to work with one integrated supply chain model across all markets globally, with one source of truth allowing for real-time demand and supply matching with a view of trade-offs across the global plan.
Atlas has enabled MARS to standardize demand planning practices across different international markets and regions, which are now demonstrating tangible outcomes based on increased forecast accuracy. MARS implemented a 6-step planning process across 25+ markets (60 countries) while establishing consistent demand planning. Each market now follows a standard process and can measure its accuracy and report accordingly to help drive improvement.
Atlas provides the team with a single platform for accurate forecasting and improved decision-making, plus the ability to automate processes and gain end-to-end supply chain visibility. MARS is now able to plan for continuous success with increased visibility across the supply chain network, real-time insights and the ability to sense and shape demand.
“We looked at different vendors and chose John Galt Solutions to digitize our mid-markets for their demonstrated capabilities in demand and supply planning. The upgrade process is easy, which was a key element for us, as it was critical to partner with a vendor that could deploy globally.
Once you have a clear vision and strategy, you need to have the right technology. It’s not always easy to make the right choice, but choosing the right partner is essential for success.”
Lionel Koster, Global Deployment Lead, MARS.
