HBO/WO Stage: Worksheet Supply Planning

The Assignment

The Supply Chain Planning department is responsible for creating and maintaining an appropriate shipment plan for future global sales. Within this shipment plan, available capacity, inventory, and service—including the timely delivery of orders—are aligned as effectively as possible. When the desired service cannot or can no longer be achieved, the Supply Chain Planner is responsible for performing and communicating an impact analysis.

Such an impact analysis maps out the operational consequences of a change in short-term planning. Additionally, these changes can have financial consequences, for example, due to changes in inventory levels and inventory value, the risk of obsolete or expired stock, extra production and changeover activities, expedited transport, additional storage, or the inability to deliver orders on time. It is therefore important that available financial information is included in the impact analysis in a consistent and usable manner. This makes it possible to assess alternative planning scenarios not only operationally, but also on the basis of their financial consequences and to optimize them where possible.

Over the past year, new datasets have been developed in collaboration with multiple teams. These datasets have the potential to automate part of the impact analysis and to provide better insight into the operational and financial consequences of planning changes. The goal of the assignment is to investigate what is technically possible with the available data and tooling. Additionally, you will investigate which operational and financial information the receiving stakeholders expect from such an impact analysis.

You will begin by analyzing the current processes, the available data, and the tooling used to perform an impact analysis. Based on this, you will map out which available information and functionalities are currently used and not used in the process. In doing so, you will also investigate to what extent existing financial data, such as inventory value, costs of additional logistical activities, and possible write-off risks, are available and usable for the analysis.

Parallel to this, you will collect feedback from various stakeholders regarding the current process, the usability of the existing impact analyses, and their additional wishes. In this, you will pay attention to, among other things, the question of which operational and financial insights are needed to properly assess and communicate the consequences of short-term changes in the supply chain planning.

The outcome of the research is a fit-gap analysis between the current process, the available data and tooling, and the expectations of the stakeholders. This includes a proposal in the form of a concrete recommendation for a next step. Part of the assignment is also developing a proof of concept. With this, you will demonstrate how available operational and financial data can be combined to partially automate an impact analysis and support decision-making during planning changes.

During the assignment, you will work within the Supply Chain Planning team. This will give you a good impression of the working environment, the daily planning challenges, and Abbott as a company.

You will be given the space to adapt the assignment to the requirements of your degree program. Additionally, you will receive regular guidance and feedback from an experienced mentor, access to the necessary software and tools, and support in collecting relevant data and information.