Achieving End-to-end, Real-Time Production Visibility and 20% Lower Inventory Costs with SAP Production Planning for a personal care e-tailer

The Challenge

A leading Indian beauty & personal care e-tailer (valued at more than $1.3B, 60,000+ SKUs, and 1000+ brands) expanded into manufacturing—but planning still lived in spreadsheets. Raw/packing materials were planned in Google Sheets and re-entered into SAP; vendor onboarding and invoicing sat in separate tools. 

The result: disconnected workflows, production delays, limited traceability, and poor visibility into machine/labor efficiency.

What we implemented

• SAP Production Planning (SAP PP) with automated MRP and integrated scheduling
  
• Standardized BOMs/routings with master data cleanup
  
• Procurement synchronized to production plans to prevent stock-outs/overstock
  
• Live dashboards for consumption, costing, machine/labor KPIs, and compliance
  
• Data migration, rigorous testing, and on-site user training
  
• Timeline: delivered in 3–4 months with go-live stabilization
  

Results that matter

• End-to-end, real-time visibility into material consumption and costing
  
• 20% lower inventory holding costs via MRP-driven procurement
  
• 20–30% fewer planning errors and better on-time fulfillment
  
• Fewer production halts, improved capacity utilization and cross-plant traceability
  
• Accurate cost tracking and real-time visibility for Finance
  
• Automated purchase planning and fewer last-minute orders for Procurement
  
• Smoother scheduling, fewer stock-outs, and better resource utilization for Operations
  

A5E transformed spreadsheet-led planning into an integrated, real-time production system—accelerating decisions, boosting throughput, and reducing inventory risk.