Universal Robina Corporation Selects Blue Yonder to Digitally Transform Planning Capabilities

By AIT News Desk On Dec 2, 2022

Leading Filipino consumer food and beverage product company to implement Blue Yonder’s Luminate Planning solutions to upgrade demand planning, inventory optimization & segmentation, and financial planning processes

Managing the manufacturing of products from production to distribution is key to balancing demand and supply for consumer packaged goods companies. That’s why Universal Robina Corporation (URC), one of the largest branded food and beverage product companies in the Philippines, has selected to digitally transform its supply chain processes across the region with Blue Yonder’s SaaS-based Luminate® Planning solutions.

URC is engaged in an array of food-related businesses, including the production and distribution of branded consumer snack foods and beverages, commodity food products, and agro-industrial products, such as hogs, animal feeds, and other related products. In addition to its large presence in the Philippines, the company exports products to other markets, including Japan, Korea, the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and West Africa. As a trailblazer in manufacturing through its technologies and processes, URC was seeking to upgrade its manual planning processes and replace an older system, so it turned to Blue Yonder. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a Blue Yonder partner, will implement the project.

Once implemented, Blue Yonder’s solutions will enable URC to:

Transform its supply chain processes across the region starting with a focus on the Philippines.
Visualize, control and orchestrate its entire supply-demand processes and situations, starting from production all the way to distribution planning.
Improve planning efficiencies across supply chain processes along with delivering real supply chain results.

“Showcasing innovation and excellence has been a hallmark characteristic of URC since the company was founded more than 50 years ago. To stay with that tradition, we were seeking a supply chain planning solution that could cover a variety of capabilities. Blue Yonder’s Luminate Planning proved to have the end-to-end capabilities, as well as AI and ML functions, that we needed to take our business to the next level. We are looking forward to implementing these solutions and building on the strong relationship with Blue Yonder for future capabilities,” said David Lim, chief supply chain and sustainability officer, URC.

With Blue Yonder’s Luminate Planning, URC will be able to achieve higher planner productivity, better inventory management, and gain an improved understanding of demand drivers and customer behavior. Using AI/ML, the company will be able to calculate hundreds of demand-driving factors to provide a unique demand projection. In addition, URC will use inventory optimization to segment its portfolios to align inventory planning, strategy and execution to meet its goals.

“To maintain the status of being a premiere food and beverage player across APAC, URC needed a solution to help them manage the entire spectrum of supply chain processes, from demand planning, to inventory optimization & segmentation, deployment planning, and financial forecasting. Luminate Planning will help URC manage all these challenges and more as the company continues to build a strong brand, robust product innovation pipeline, and world-class manufacturing and supply chain capabilities,” said Antonio Boccalandro, president, APAC, Blue Yonder.

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