Southeastern Mills, a food manufacturing company with five facilities and over 75 years in business, was struggling to realize value from its SAP investment. Inefficient production scheduling, rising inventories, and disconnected planning processes hindered performance. By partnering with Reveal and applying the oVo® methodology, Southeastern Mills aligned its data, processes, and teams—transforming SAP from a cost center into a profit-driving engine. In just 18 months, the company reduced inventory by over 23%, improved inventory turnover by 45%, and regained control over production, purchasing, and planning.

The Challenge

Despite implementing SAP ECC to enhance service levels, streamline inventory, and reduce operating costs, Southeastern Mills faced critical gaps between system capability and actual usage. Teams struggled with:

• Rising raw materials and finished goods inventory
• Manual production scheduling outside SAP
• Misaligned inventory strategies and master data
• Excessive order expediting and limited purchasing automation
• Low adoption of MRP and ATP
• Frustration due to manual processes and lack of system trust
• Poor utilization of SAP reporting and forecasting tools

SAP was not delivering on its promise—leading to missed KPIs, inefficiencies, and limited visibility across the supply chain.

The Decision

Leadership recognized that technology alone wasn’t the issue—it was how the organization was using it. They turned to Reveal for a business-led supply chain transformation, driven by a proven methodology that connects people, process, and data within SAP. The goal: to unlock hidden profit and drive measurable outcomes using the tools they already owned.

The Transformation

Through Reveal’s oVo® approach, Southeastern Mills reimagined how it managed supply chain operations:

• Educated buyers, planners, schedulers, and executives on how to fully leverage SAP
• Embedded production capacity planning and scheduling within SAP
• Established accountability for master data and aligned MRP strategies
• Created Process Aligned Teams (PATs) to manage day-to-day exceptions and drive responsiveness
• Shifted from reactive to strategic planning using sales and consumption forecasts
• Launched shop floor initiatives for better scheduling and material availability
• Aligned KPIs with strategic business outcomes

With new skills, governance, and decision-making clarity, teams began to trust the system—and use it to run the business, not just report on it.

The Results

In just 18 months, Southeastern Mills achieved:

• 23% inventory reduction, unlocking working capital
• 45% improvement in inventory turns, accelerating cash flow
• Optimization of 83% of inventory value, focusing efforts on high-impact materials
• Improved production schedule attainment and shop floor control
• 51% reduction in “Red Lights” and 45% fewer Exception Messages
• Streamlined procurement processes
• Empowered users and leadership with better data, clearer accountability, and smarter decisions
• KPIs aligned directly with operational and financial goals

Southeastern Mills turned SAP into a strategic advantage—cutting costs, improving service, and unlocking value that had been hiding in plain sight. This transformation wasn’t about reconfiguring software—it was about empowering people and processes to work with SAP the way it was meant to be used.

Is your SAP system delivering measurable business outcomes—or just data? Let’s talk about how to turn it into a profit-driving asset.