Enabling robust forecasting at Norgesmøllene
Norgesmøllene is a company steeped in history. The Bergen-based milling company has been perfecting the production of grain and flour-based products since 1866.
Today, Norgesmøllene is one of Norway’s leading food producers, supplying supermarkets, bakeries, and food service companies nationwide with premium products from their production facilities in Skien, Buvika, and Vaksda.
However, exceptional products alone aren’t enough to satisfy demanding customers. Providing first-rate customer service is equally important, and it starts with meticulous planning. In the spring of 2023, following an upgrade of the company’s ERP platform to Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage, Norgesmøllene began searching for a supply chain planning solution.
Turning a supply chain vision into reality
Norgesmøllene’s supply chain vision extended beyond replacing their now-ailing forecasting system. They wanted a complete planning solution capable of end-to-end supply chain optimization—a platform for the future.
Bård Arne Nergård is a Planning Manager at Norgesmøllene. He explains how he came across RELEX and describes his first impression:
“I’d worked with supply chain optimization software before, but never with RELEX. Elvenite, our business advisor and ERP implementation partner, suggested we look at their solution, and I’m happy that we did. RELEX offers much more than robust supply chain planning software. I’ve been in the food business for 25 years, and it was obvious that they knew our industry. They also had a lot of experience with our ERP system. We spoke the same language from the start, making the whole process easier.”
Prioritizing demand planning for strategic supply chain improvements
Norgesmøllene wanted to secure a robust demand planning process before addressing the production, distribution, and inventory optimization challenge. So when the project kicked off, RELEX demand forecasting was first out of the gate.
RELEX provided technical and system configuration expertise, while Elvenite took care of project coordination, including the link to Norgesmøllene’s IT department.
The goal was to get the forecasting tool up and running quickly and refine it over time. Nergård and his team didn’t have the luxury of working full-time on the implementation, and this way, they could maintain their operational roles with minimum impact on the business.
Norgesmøllene went live with an 18-month weekly statistical forecast for all four business areas in just a few months – an impressive achievement given the limited resources. Nergård has been impressed with the solution: “Everything about the system is intuitive. In the old tool, the planner had to manually select an algorithm for each SKU and location, which was a qualified guess at best. RELEX automatically picks the best alternative, so it’s a lot faster. We now have much better visibility of demand, and our forecast accuracy has improved significantly.”
A unified planning platform for S&OP
The organization is currently getting used to working with the new forecasts. The sales department and supply chain operations team already use the system to facilitate cross-departmental discussions. Sales and controlling are also able to work more closely. Instead of convening once a year, they now utilize the RELEX rolling forecast to maintain the sales volume budget continuously. These are important steps toward a more comprehensive and streamlined S&OP process.
The near-term forecast from RELEX is still being sent to the ERP system for production planning. However, this will likely change as Norgesmøllene now considers adding RELEX supply-side optimization capabilities.
“Our ultimate goal is to improve customer service while lowering inventory, so it’s a natural next step,” says Nergård. “We’ve seen what RELEX can do in terms of integrated production, procurement, and distribution planning, as well as inventory optimization. We now have a great foundation in place, and I believe we can get a lot more value out of our relationship with RELEX going forward.”