In the space where innovation enhances patient health, biopharmaceutical companies are presenting to the market revolutionary treatments to responses to patient health. Therefore, this industry is compelled to proactively anticipate, prepare for, and address the continuously changing needs of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) market. This is where supply chain joins as a strategic ally since a well-managed end-to-end supply chain not only ensures visibility, flexibility, anticipation and a strong decision-making process but also helps biopharma companies stretch limited resources, making it a pivotal allay in navigating financial challenges and achieving long-term growth.
Case of Study: An integrated demand planning process to support a biopharmaceutical company's preparation for future growth
A leading biopharmaceutical company, already leveraging Kinaxis for supply planning, recognized the need to future-proof their demand planning capabilities. While their current Excel-based forecasting process serves immediate needs, the company's ambitious growth trajectory and planned product launches demanded a more robust solution. They made the strategic decision to implement Kinaxis' Demand Planning module, ensuring they would be fully prepared when the time comes to challenge their current forecasting methods with more sophisticated data-driven approaches.
The company faced two significant challenges in their transformative journey:
- Their existing process for demand planning was manual, slow, and offline, making it cumbersome to capture, analyse, and visualize different business scenarios for consensus demand planning. This limitation was further compounded by their struggle to efficiently monitor the accuracy of their current forecasting methods.
- By not fully utilizing Kinaxis RapidResponse Demand Planning's end-to-end supply chain capabilities, they were incurring significant opportunity costs and missing potential efficiency gains.
By partnering with expert consultants and focusing on a key market, they set out to enhance their integrated planning capabilities with real-time data visibility. This proactive approach to demand planning modernization positions them to respond with greater agility to market dynamics and maintain their competitive edge in the biopharmaceutical landscape.
To tackle these challenges head-on, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the existing demand planning process, performing a detailed as-is analysis that identified operational gaps and improvement opportunities. Our expert consultants then designed a future-state (to-be) process that seamlessly integrates both Demand and Supply Planning Kinaxis modules, creating a unified planning ecosystem. Building on this foundational work, we orchestrated a seamless implementation of RapidResponse Demand Planning through our proven, stage-gate methodology. We began with collaborative design workshops where industry best practices met client-specific needs, creating a blueprint for success. These insights informed our detailed requirements gathering sessions, ensuring every business need was captured and addressed in the solution design.
The journey continued through rigorous user acceptance testing (UAT), where the solution was refined to ensure optimal performance and user experience. Our meticulous cutover preparation paved the way for a smooth transition, while comprehensive knowledge transfer sessions empowered the client's team with deep system expertise. The implementation concluded with a dedicated hyper care period, providing hands-on support to ensure confident user adoption and maximum value realization from day one.
We firmly believe that the true game-changer lies in orchestrating processes and evaluating how cutting-edge planning technology supports them. This belief guided our implementation strategy, ensuring all system configurations and process designs aligned with best practices while maintaining flexibility for future adoption. Upon completion, we handed over a complete, production-ready solution to the client, empowering them to activate the new capabilities whenever their business needs align with their digital transformation roadmap. This approach ensures the company is fully equipped to seize future growth opportunities and drive operational excellence when they decide the time is right to transition from their current Excel-based process.
By combining a comprehensive assessment of the existing demand planning process with the deployment of Kinaxis Demand Planning, our client achieved remarkable results:
- Cross-functional collaboration by taking into consideration various forecast streams as well as scenario planning during the demand planning process.
- Identifying gaps within the Demand Planning Process within the agreed focus key market
- Break down silos and prepare for growth by leveraging the functionalities of Kinaxis Demand Planning. This allows for effective monitoring and analysis of current forecasting accuracy, with the ability to challenge existing methods once sufficient data is available
- Enhance visibility to support faster, informed decision-making.
Future-proof your Supply Chain: Build the visibility, agility, and insights you need to thrive
As a leader in a biopharmaceutical company, where precision, speed, and responsiveness are crucial, it is key not only to strengthen your competitive advantages but also to continuously seek new ones. Your supply chain transcends offline calculations and shared files; your supply chain strategic asset that can set your company apart in today’s capital-constrained operating environment.
We would like to collaborate with you to evaluate your current end-to-end supply chain practices and identify opportunities that position your organization for sustainable growth in a challenging business environment.