sofco, a leading provider of integrated and collaborative End-to-End Planning Solutions for the Consumer Goods, Manufacturing and Retail sectors, are delighted to announce, that Yeo Valley Farms have upgraded to sofco Demand Planning 10.1.

Since its formation in 1961, Yeo Valley Family Farms have become one of the best known organic brands in Britain. Operating across 7 sites throughout the South West they are proud to be making the highest quality yogurts, desserts and ice cream, for the Yeo Valley brand, as well as for many of the UK's major retailers. Employing over 1700 staff they produce more than 22% of the UK's yogurt.

Yeo Valley have been using sofco applications for 14 years, upgrading to sofco Demand Planning 10.1, Yeo Valley will be taking advantage of the standard functionality in the release by using the sofco design and deployment template which uses an off the shelf design where a 95% fit to Yeo Valley requirements was achieved, and the 5% gap is configured in the standard application to Yeo Valley requirements. This allowed a rapid deployment.

sofco Demand Planning 10.1 benefits include:

• User Experience - The new Tab Navigation structures gives users a quicker and simpler navigation. Yeo Valley already uses the sofco “Comments” functionality to record text against forecasts. The new Document Attachments functionality allows users to hold more detailed information for reference and updates.
• Categorisation - ABC Analysis per Planner by a combination of Customer and Product provides focus on the most important customers and products within each customer. The XYZ Analysis measures volatility which in combination with the ABC highlights the most important and difficult forecasts.
• Statistical Forecasting - The production of the Statistical Forecast is streamlined from a user perspective and accuracy using a range of automated functionality:
• Automatic detection of the sales horizon
• Forecast Type selection i.e. what is the best “type” of algorithm
• Stock Out, Outlier and Event Cleaning
• Best Fit Forecasting i.e. which is the best algorithm within the “type”
• Automated Forecast Cut-off date for delisted products
• New Product Forecasting - The New Product Forecasts are based on “Patterns” derived from previous “Like” Product Launches and inherited Seasonal Profile from parent product groupings. The reforecasting uses algorithms that are highly responsive to shorts term actual sales
• Dashboard Exceptions - Key exceptions are highlighted to planners in the areas of sales cleaning, forecast accuracy and new product launches with the focus been driven by the ABC/XYZ Analysis.
• Advanced Promotions Planning - Yeo Valley already manage Events using basic events planning. By upgrading to sofco Demand Planning 10.1 they will now manage the full event cycle of creating the new multi-product/customer events based on mechanic, fixture and duration. An algorithm will determine the uplift volume and shape and users will monitor the event in flight and review the post event analysis. This will improve the accuracy, execution and profitability of events.

Keith Noble, CEO at sofco commented: “We are delighted to continue a successful partnership with Yeo Valley. There are many challenges faced in food production where demand is volatile, there are seasonal peaks and troughs, shelf life constraints and heavy emphasis is placed on promotions and events, and all of this in a highly competitive environment. They have complex manufacturing processes and a factory that needs to respond in a controlled and optimal manner. We are delighted that sofco will continue to support Yeo Valley.”