Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Vital Farms is a high-end CPG manufacturer that specializes in pasture-raised, ethical production of eggs, ghee and butter. Vital Farms began as one farm but grew into a network of over 200 family farms that are now used to source their products. They distribute and sell their products to grocery stores and larger chains across North America.
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With their perishable product line and contract business model, Vital Farms experienced several key business issues that needed a planning solution. Their original process used an Excel based system that did not deliver accurate results. They had no system for decomposing order history or providing statistical forecasting, leaving their demand planning practice as a best guess scenario. This created and led to many problems with inventory and stock levels.
Along with their process issues, Vital Farms has a large network of contracted farmers to supply their products. Without a proper demand planning system, they were unable to properly negotiate contracts and calculate how much product was needed from each of their farming suppliers.
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Anaplan gave Vital Farms a tool to finally have a data driven Demand Planning process. The company is now able to see deep insights into their products from an item and customer level. They can easily take snapshots of the forecast and compare them, which is a process that took 3 days before, and now only takes half a day with Anaplan. Vital Farms can layer assumptions and track changes from period to period. Using Anaplan also enabled them to have an S&OP process, which captures inputs from sales and allows the team to make their updates for new distribution on their own.
Accelytics was brought in to enable a demand planning solution after completing our proprietary Accelerated Technology and Process Analysis that determined the key business opportunities, processes improvements and technology needed at Vital Farms. Anaplan was determined to be the best solution for their unique needs.
The Demand Planning model starts by taking historical demand data from customer orders and the retailers point of sale systems, which is used to create a statistical forecast. That forecast is enriched with business intelligence by the various departments in the organization, with the goal of achieving the most accurate possible forecasts at both the customer and item levels. These forecasts are essential in establishing optimum contracts with suppliers and increasing
customer service levels throughout the supply chain.
The entire process is enabled by 4 separate Anaplan models, including a data hub, two stat models, demand planning and other enrichment features including the monitoring of customer inventories and allocating supply when demand outpaces supply.
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