The CPG imperative: The right goods in the right hands at the right time

It’s critical to keep growth and profitability front and center—and this consumer goods major understood that. It also recognized that its legacy systems and processes created challenges in several ways. For one thing, its supply chain was volatile. For another, its business rules were too rigid. And as for management processes, the right hand didn’t always know what the left hand was doing. Teams weren’t collaborating efficiently or taking advantage of the insights analytics had to offer.

As well, poor order management and resource allocation—especially for promotional events—left retailers with empty shelves. The company even lost some of their orders altogether. Simply put, product wasn’t getting to the right place—the consumer—at the right time. All this impacted revenue.

When we came on board, we put the AI in Genpact’s Cora OrderAssist to work. The goal: to boost the company’s growth by improving the way it allocates products. Our intelligent, dynamic solution is on the case. It’s a virtual assistant that negotiates its way through systems of record, ERPs, and diverse data sets using digital technologies and analytics.

Cora OrderAssist is consolidating data across the value chain and delivering clear, executable actions to cut back on lost sales and keep products on the shelf. With fewer order cuts, the impact on growth will be direct and unequivocal. What’s more, Cora OrderAssist’s platform-based intelligence creates real collaboration between categories and channels. So the company can now strategically rescue orders that might otherwise be lost despite stock availability.

All this led to a clear improvement in three broad areas: Better data consolidation, more actionable recommendations, and visible impact. While we’re working with the company, it expects to see a 1.5X improvement in the transfer allocation of scarce resources, a 70% reduction in manual tasks and nearly 50% reduction in orders cuts.