158 FEATURE In 2023, UK retailer Sainsbury’s, already a long-time user of Blue Yonder’s warehouse management software, was looking to replace its other existing solutions with modern, machine learning-driven solutions to improve its forecasting and replenishment abilities. Sainsbury’s implemented Blue Yonder’s demand planning, store order planning and fulfilment solutions across all its food categories. “The results speak for themselves,” says Miller, explaining that Sainsbury’s has not only reduced the number of key systems it uses, but has also improved inventory stockholding and built a more resilient supply chain that can support future business changes. Furthermore, the retailer has enhanced its ability to monitor and respond to changing customer needs and predict potential disruptions. For example, the ML-based forecasting and ordering capabilities help stores to better manage fresh and perishable products. “When we started the project with Sainsbury’s, our goal was to make ML a key enabler of the firm’s future digital transformation,” says Gaël Ramaen, corporate vice president of retail for EMEA at Blue Yonder. “Now, Sainsbury’s is on a great trajectory and continues to invest in what matters most to its customers to provide great experiences through any channel and great offers adapted to local consumer demand.” Several other large organisations, like beauty retailer Avon International and brewer Heineken, have adopted Blue Yonder solutions to optimise operations, yielding benefits like improved forecast accuracy, optimised service levels, and quicker response to supply chain disruptions. Microsoft has an entire ecosystem of partners – firms like Accenture, EY and TCS – that provide supply chain organisations with solutions and advisory services to optimise their business processes and make better, data-driven, decisions. “Utilising data in supply chains doesn’t just help to unlock better insights; it also helps make decision-making more predictive than reactive, helping organisations stay ahead of consumer demand and be more agile operationally,” says Miller. “Not only that, but data is key for establishing a digital foundation that retailers can use across the entire supply chain and beyond.” For example, a unified data structure helps to improve communications across different areas of the supply chain and external teams. This can then lead to faster operations and reaction times in the case of a disruption. Data can also be used to build digital twins, which allow retailers to virtually simulate possibilities across the supply chain and optimise product routes, inventory management, sustainability efforts and more. “The idea here is to simplify and optimise the business in a unified way across the end-toend supply chain, leading to more consolidated orchestration, execution and collaboration both inside and outside of the organisation,” says Miller. Heineken has used supply chain solutions to improve its forecasting accuracy and make better data-driven decisions Photo: The Heineken Company
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