SUPPLY CHAIN
MET
CONSULTING
Model Consumer Demand.
Make Evidence-based decisions.
Work from Transparent assumptions.
Growth,
without the Guesswork
We’re revolutionising CPG planning with Connected Demand.
The missing supply chain link between consumer and production.
MET helps £10-£350m brands build forecasting and supply planning
capabilities that reduce waste, improve OTIF and give CPG suppliers and their
customers confidence, without the cost or complexity of enterprise consultancies.​
Inventory doesn't appear by accident.
It arrives one planning decision at a time.
For five years I worked alongside the European leadership team in one of the worlds biggest consumer goods businesses, at one of their most challenging times, minimising the impact of declining consumer demand and poor planning on operating income.
The familiar symptoms: excess inventory, stagnant stock in trade, margin erosion, frustrated retailers, distracted sales teams, rising storage costs and millions of pounds trapped in working capital.
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25 years leading FMCG Supply Chain thinking
The root cause was the internal planning process and the forecasting culture.
​Month after month, undisciplined forecasts of anticipated customer replenishment were submitted by account managers ignoring market facts, aggregated and used to drive production commitment through monthly consensus meetings where the loudest voice won based on opinion and gut feel.
Backward facing historical sell in was the foundation on which the forecast was built.
That experience changed my career path.
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Today I bring planning philosophies, tools and techniques that connect consumer insight, customer facts and commercial data into one joined-up process that creates a solid foundation for consumer goods supply chains, turning planning into a competitive advantage.
These practices improve cash flow, protect margins and unlock profitable growth.
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Most consumer goods businesses I work with don't have an inventory problem.
They have a planning problem.
And great planning starts with forward facing consumer sales, not from past sell in.
The year before I joined they wrote off almost a hundred of million $ of EU stock to make room for the next season's stock on its way across the water.
"..amazing job Neil,
since aligning our plans on consumer demand, we've restored trust through consistent on time delivery within the season. That improved supply has been rewarded with listings growth netting £500,000 in additional revenue."
Chris Howarth, Sales Director, HoX Global
Strengthen Delivery
Many demand planning systems are built around one broken philosophy:
What sold in historically is the best indicator of what will happen in the future.
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Rear View Mirror forecasting
Most demand planning problems aren't forecasting problems.
They're profit problems. Service problems. Inventory problems. Cash flow problems.
When plans use the wrong demand signals, businesses carry too much stock, run out of the products customers want, waste working capital and miss growth opportunities.
Many SMEs try to solve these challenges by improving statistical forecasts based on historical sales data. But historical sales represents customer replenishment and doesn't tell you what their consumers will buy tomorrow.
Consequently, suppliers spend their time reacting to demand rather than anticipating it.
It's the equivalent of driving a car while looking only in the rear view mirror.
From firefighting to foresight.
MET feel differently about planning.
We focus on factors that drive customer replenishment in the first place.
Our forecasting uses:
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projected consumer demand
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projected customer inventory
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retailer promotional activity
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planned distribution changes
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new product launches
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seasonal demand drivers
By understanding future consumer demand and how customer inventory will respond, we help suppliers predict their customer's future replenishment needs rather than simply extrapolating the past.
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The result is a demand planning process that puts you on the same side of the table as your customer.
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By understanding the demand signals driving their business, you're:
anticipating their future needs,
speaking their language,
helping them grow category share.
Isn't that what's it about? A cyclic mutual benefit journey of growth.
MET's philosophy creates value and enables customer conversations your competitors simply can't entertain. ​
AI driven planning.
At MET, we partner with cutting edge tools to fuel innovation.
Bespoke planning engines are built on the Lumina platform, hands on in 6-8 weeks, providing the team with:
one version of the truth
time to plan the business, avoiding spreadsheet maintenance
big Supply Chain intelligence,
SME sized and built to fit your unique operation​​
Imagine delivery performance worries being a thing of the past,
trust and relationships growing,
profitability improving,
retailer listing growth discussions,
all whilst inventory is kept to a minimum.
If you're driving your business by looking in the rear-view mirror or considering an off the shelf forecasting model or ERP we should talk.
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In 45 minutes, we'll discuss whether your forecasting gap is a process, data, or capability problem and what it's costing you.