LinkedIn·Thursday, 20 August 2026·6d ago

Two years to implement a new planning system. Seven users to show for it. That's a real case Knut Alicke, partner emeritus at McKinsey &…

Horizon Solutions

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Two years to implement a new planning system. Seven users to show for it. That's a real case Knut Alicke, partner emeritus at McKinsey & Company and professor at the @University of Cologne, shared on the Supply Chain Planning Podcast. A multinational pharmaceutical company with multi-billion-dollar revenue rolled out a new APS system. After two years, only seven users used it. Everyone else kept downloading into Excel and working the old way. That connects to a broader McKinsey finding: he leans on the fact that 30% of transformations stick across industries, not just supply chain. Most companies focus only on performance, hit the KPI, and then drift back to old habits. The 30% that last also invest in what he calls "health": leadership, people, and capabilities, not just the number. The other pattern he flagged is master data. Not glamorous, no one gets credit for cleaning it up, and as he put it: "If your master data is crap, then the result is crap." His fix isn't a bigger algorithm. It's basic visual diagnostics before anything else: - Measured lead time vs. the lead time in your master data - Days of coverage vs. lead time - Service level vs. customer importance Each one surfaces a problem before a planner ever touches a model. None of this needs AI. It needs someone willing to look at the plot. Here’s the full conversation with Knut on the Supply Chain Planning Podcast, hosted by Ben (co-founder, Horizon Solutions) and Wim (Managing Director, Lanark) - https://lnkd.in/ggMwV2Xf #supplychainplanning #plannerproductivity #masterdata