The Problem

# Manual Merchandise Planning Processes Preventing Growth

A world leader in innovative casual footwear had outgrown its manual, in-season merchandise-planning processes. They could no longer scale accurately or drive the business forward because they lacked a global, cross-functional, top-down planning process. It was imperative they build a new merchandise financial planning solution. This project included a technology transformation, new roles and responsibilities for the internal merchandise planning organization, and the design of industry-leading processes.

An Asian male checking stock and inventory for an omnichannel business.
Sporting goods store owner with clipboard checking inventory.

The Approach

# From Strategy to Implementation, Delivering a Merchandise Financial Planning Solution

Propeller led the strategy effort to define the MVP scope and future state processes. Next, we translated the new processes into data requirements, partnering with the client and vendor IT team to oversee tech integrations. This included leveraging new future state processing maps to create development configuration user stories and training materials for business users. Finally, the Propeller team facilitated all training, ran systems integration and user acceptance testing, oversaw post-go-live bug resolution, and ensured there was a long-term maintenance plan in place.

# Services Provided

  • Business Operating Model Strategy
  • Change Management Execution
  • Data & Analytics
  • Data Quality and Readiness
  • Facilitation
  • New Process Development
  • Portfolio Planning and Management
  • Product Management
  • Program Management
  • Technology Implementation and Integration

The first non-Excel planning tool in the client’s ecosystem.

Value Delivered

# United Planning Across the Organization Creates Desired Healthy Tension

Propeller was able to deliver a merchandise financial planning (MFP) solution that the C-suite leadership and all teams now use as their global, cross-functional, and fully aligned company-wide plan. The MFP plans now serve as the baseline for the client’s financial and factory capacity planning and inform its merchandise line framework (shape of the line). There is now a top-down and bottom-up healthy tension across the ecosystem.

This process united planning input across executives, finance, supply chain, merchandising, sales, channels, and demand planning and aligned all plans by creating a mechanism for feedback to the baseline plan. Additionally, this was the first non-Excel planning tool in the client’s ecosystem and just the first phase of an extensive end-to-end planning transformation Propeller was leading for the client.