Heizen

Acme Industrial Systems

Industrial components manufacturing · 11 countries · 2 plants

Discovery conversationThursday 20 August 2026, 15:00 IST· 45 minutes

Compare

Regional plan-to-approved-demand

Demand & Supply Planning · 2 of 5 client steps unknown

Have we seen this workflow before, and where does Acme differ from the companies we fixed it for?

Compare against

What stands out

  • Acme is the only lane where the reconciliation step has no number against it. Every peer had one before we started.
  • The write-back step is the real divergence: both peers ended with an interface, and no source suggests Acme has one.
  • Acme's review cadence looks the same as Northfield's did before the work — monthly, on the whole plan rather than on exceptions.

This client

Acme Industrial Systems

What the public record establishes. Two steps unknown.

Reference pattern

What good looks like

The pattern across manufacturers that standardised regional planning. A reference, not a promise.

Heizen engagement

Northfield Foods

82% match

Nine countries planning in workbooks, central S&OP blind until the monthly review.

Regional forecast prepared

Established

Prepared in Excel by the regional planning team

Established

Entered directly in a shared planning system

Established

Was in workbooks — the same starting point as Acme

Submitted to the centre

Inferred

Submitted as a workbook — the format is stated, the route is not

Established

One submission format, one interface

Established

Emailed, with no fixed cut-off

Reconciled against the central plan

Unknown

Reconciled by hand. Effort unknown.

Established

System reconciles; only exceptions are raised to a person

Established

220 manual hrs / cycle before, 40 after

Reviewed and approved

Established

Monthly S&OP review, ahead of which the pack is prepared

Established

Weekly review, on exceptions rather than the whole plan

Established

Monthly moved to weekly once exceptions were separated

Written back to execution

Unknown

No evidence of a write-back interface

Established

Daily write-back to the ERP and the plants

Established

Daily interface built above the existing ERP

Measured

Operating countries
11
Cycle
unknown
Manual effort
unknown
Operating countries
—
Cycle
6 days
Manual effort
40 hrs / cycle
Operating countries
9
Cycle
14 → 6 days
Manual effort
220 → 40 hrs

Multi-region demand planning coordination

How to read this comparison

The reference lane is a pattern across manufacturers, not a promise about this client. The peer lanes are engagements Heizen measured — those numbers are real, but they belong to those clients. Nothing here says Acme will reach them.

What would make this comparison real

2 steps in the client lane are unknown, each with a question against it. Asking those in the room is what turns a pattern into a business case.

The questions that would fill it

Prepared for Technical Consultant meeting CTO. 0 questions on the agenda.