OMP: The Planning Powerhouse Shaking Up Old School SCM

Supply chain planning is entering a new era where speed, agility and data-driven decision-making are becoming essential competitive advantages. 

As organisations move beyond spreadsheets and fragmented planning processes, solutions that deliver rapid value without the complexity are becoming more essential. 

OMP is aiding organisations and manufacturers to accelerate planning maturity while building a scalable foundation for future growth.

Manual processes to modern planning

Many organisations continue to rely on spreadsheets, disconnected systems and manual coordination to manage supply chain planning. 

While these methods may have supported growth in the past, they often create operational inefficiencies, limit visibility and slow decision-making in increasingly complex markets. 

Recognising these challenges, OMP has introduced Unison Express, a ready-to-deploy supply chain planning solution designed specifically for mid-market companies seeking a practical path toward digital transformation. 

Built on industry best practices and powered by OMP's AI capabilities through UnisonIQ, the solution enables businesses to move away from fragmented planning processes and establish a more structured, integrated approach. 

By providing end-to-end visibility across functions and locations, Unison Express helps organisations improve coordination and respond more effectively to changing market conditions.

"With Unison Express, we packaged proven supply chain planning practices into a true, lean, standardised solution," says Jan Lemmens, Vice President Industry at OMP. 

"It helps organisations move away from fragmented, manual planning and adopt proven ways of working quickly, with the option to expand on the same platform when their needs evolve." 

Delivering faster standardisation

A major challenge associated with supply chain transformation initiatives is the lengthy implementation timeline often required before measurable benefits can be achieved. 

Unison Express addresses this issue by offering predefined planning cycles, standardised workflows and built-in guidance that accelerate adoption and reduce implementation complexity. 

The solution reflects more than four decades of OMP's supply chain expertise while maintaining a clear focus on rapid deployment and early value realisation. 

Organisations can quickly gain access to structured demand planning, operational planning and scheduling capabilities without the uncertainty typically associated with large-scale enterprise projects. 

This standardised approach enables companies to achieve predictable outcomes while building confidence in their planning processes from the outset.

“We’re already leveraging OMP's Companion within Unison Planning to support adoption of our framework through a large language model,” says Mark Trainor, Senior Director of Global Transformation and Technology at AstraZeneca.

“Taking it further with UnisonIQ and AI agents for different personas will augment planners with intelligence and help them move away from the daily planning grind.”

Results across manufacturing industries

OMP's approach is already delivering tangible results across multiple industries. 

In the consumer goods sector, Duvel Moortgat is deploying Unison Express across three Belgian breweries to enhance demand planning, operational planning and production scheduling while creating a scalable platform for future growth. 

In the metals industry, Bekaert successfully replaced spreadsheet-based planning with a standardised Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) framework and scenario planning capabilities. 

"Duvel Moortgat is a forward‑thinking company with a clear vision for strengthening its supply chain capabilities,” says Gerwalt Stoffels, Executive at OMP.

“We are proud to raise a glass to their journey with Unison Express and help brew a standardised planning foundation that delivers early value and supports future growth.”   

By maintaining strict project scope and focusing on rapid implementation, the company achieved full user adoption within a short timeframe while retaining the flexibility to expand functionality as business requirements evolve. 

These examples demonstrate how organisations can modernise planning practices without undertaking lengthy, resource-intensive transformation programs.

Decision intelligence and scalable analytics

The launch of Unison Express aligns with broader developments in supply chain analytics and decision intelligence. 

Modern supply chains generate vast amounts of data, yet many organisations struggle to convert that information into actionable insights. 

“The future we're designing envisions an empowered workforce focused on elevating supply chain performance versus daily routine tasks,” says Daniela Cima, SVP One Supply Transformation, Procter & Gamble.

OMP's wider Unison platform addresses this challenge through advanced capabilities such as digital twins, process mining, AI-powered dashboards, eXplainable AI and Green Planning initiatives that incorporate sustainability metrics into decision-making. 

As businesses mature their planning capabilities, they can seamlessly transition from Unison Express to the full Unison Planning platform without reimplementation, preserving existing processes and investments. 

This scalability ensures that organisations can begin realising value today while preparing for increasingly sophisticated planning and analytics requirements in the future.