📖 Multi-store retailer

From hours of ordering to one morning review

How a planning team moved from building orders to reviewing exceptions.

Illustrative scenario — a composite of situations teams commonly face, not a description of a specific customer.

The situation

Every morning, the planning team rebuilt orders by hand — product by product, store by store. It took most of the day, and by the time orders were sent, some of the numbers were already out of date. Real problems were easy to miss in the noise.

The turning point

The team let the system prepare the orders overnight. Instead of building orders, they started their day with a short list of the ones that looked unusual.

What changed

Three shifts

01
Orders prepared overnight
Every supplier and location had proposals ready before the team arrived.
02
Exceptions first
Unusual orders were surfaced; routine ones flowed through with a clear record.
03
Time back for improvement
With the routine handled, planners worked on accuracy and the causes of recurring problems.

The resultThe team stopped chasing orders and started improving the plan.