Case Study: Reckitt Benckiser

Tracking Real-World Performance Helps Reckitt Benckiser Polish Its Reputation

With some of the world's most recognized consumer brands in its stable Lysol, Vanish, and Calgon, to name a few, Reckitt Benckiser has a lot of experience helping its customers in the grocery, pharmacy and retail trades clean up steady increases in sales and profits. But things can change quickly on retail store shelves. And that requires Reckitt Benckiser to have a robust, flexible supply chain planning system that provides the capability to manage demand and accelerate product turns. Reckitt Benckiser built its strategy in Australia around marketing products that command the first or second position in their category. It's a demanding promise, requiring that the company regularly adjust its 500product portfolio of global and regional brands. Reckitt Benckiser relies on data provided by Demand Solutions Sales and Operations Planning (DS S&OP) to drive strategic decisions about manufacturing volumes, promotional activities and even product pruning. This disciplined approach to brand management has been very successful to date, making it possible for Reckitt Benckiser to generate a full 70 percent of its grocery store sales from products that command either the first or second position in their segments. But the strategy didn't always produce such desirable results. Before Demand Solutions was implemented, Reckitt Benckiser often experienced problems with the forecasting numbers provided by different parts of the organization. By standardizing around Demand Solutions the company is now able to manage its brands "using one set of numbers," said Ariston Banaag. With the rollout of the Demand Solutions software Reckitt Benckiser also formed a demand management team consisting of representatives from Sales, Marketing, Distribution, and Research & Development. The team meets regularly to review planning data, using it to adjust the company's tactics in the marketplace. By taking ownership of the forecasting process the demand management team performs a vital function in support of the company's overall Sales & Operations Planning process as well. Reckitt Benckiser uses both Demand Solutions Forecast Management (DS FM) and DS S&OP as the basis for its S&OP process. This approach allows the company to integrate product development activities and product promotions into overall management objectives. The Demand Solutions software suite provides a number of practical benefits for Reckitt Benckiser, including the ability to easily track the performance of new or superseded products. Before Demand Solutions it was difficult to generate new product codes to replace old codes for discontinued products. But that kind of flexibility is built right into the DS FM: its Supersession function allows Reckitt Benckiser to systematically update it codes as new products are introduced that take the place of old ones. Demand Solutions is making a big difference for Beckitt Benckiser. It's giving the company a balanced, real-world view of its brand management activities. Together, the forecasting and planning tools allow the company to ensure that its day-to-day operations proceed in step with its business development strategy. Based on the success Reckitt Benckiser has seen with the software to date, the company has now elected to implement the suite throughout the Southeast Asia region.