Celebrate International Dog Day With Paw-erful Segmented Planning

Love dogs? So do we! 🐶 Every year on August 26, International Dog Day gives us a reason to celebrate our canine companions – and, in a way, to think about how pet products actually make it from factory to food bowl. Because behind every squeaky toy, flea collar, and dental treat lies a complex supply chain juggling different demand patterns, sales channels, packaging and production requirements.

In the pet industry, this complexity goes much further beyond cute packaging or seasonal promotions. It’s about managing wildly different businesses lumped together into a ‘pet’ category:

• Product lifecycles – formulation changes or innovations vs mainstays.
• Seasonality - flea and tick treatments that peak in summer vs year-round staples.
• Freshness - grooming supplies vs fresh treats that require careful shelf-life management.
• Sales Channels – including Retailers, Specialty, Veterinary, Consumer.

Trying to plan all of these products using the same forecast and replenishment model is like trying to train every dog with the same command – it just doesn’t work.

That’s where segmented planning models come in. In supply chain terms, segmentation typically means grouping products or customers by certain attributes to better understand them - think ABC classification or market segments. But segmented planning models take this a step further: they tailor different planning approaches for different groups based on how those groups behave for a more agile, responsive and customer-centric supply chain.

For example, a pet company might forecast flea and tick products using point-of-sale (POS) data because seasonality and retail promotions drive demand. POS-based planning accounts for retail warehouse stock-ups, ramp-downs, and channel inventory, along with getting closer to consumer demand to sense impacts of pricing and promotions (read more about the value of external data here!). It might plan pet food production using order history because it’s a steady, repeatable business. And it might also replenish grooming accessories using make-to-order rules to avoid excess inventory.

In other words, the company runs multiple planning models inside the same organization, each tuned to a specific demand signal, production reality, or channel requirement, while still keeping everything connected in one integrated plan.

Why Segmented Models Matter in Supply Chain Planning

Without segmented planning models, a company risks applying the same forecast method to products with completely different demand patterns. This can lead to the classic bullwhip effect, where small errors in demand prediction cascade into costly overstocks or frustrating stockouts. On the supply side, segmented models make it easy to combine make-to-order product families and make-to-stock models, avoiding issues with freshness or wasting working capital.

By grouping products, customers, or even geographies based on similar demand patterns, companies can:

• Reduce variability and improve forecast accuracy.
• Align inventory policies with actual consumption.
• Optimize production sequencing to reduce changeovers and contamination risks (e.g., making chicken-based pet food before fish-based recipes).
• Balance working capital investment across business units based on profitability, freshness requirements, or service-level targets.

Naturally, segmented planning is not just for pet products. The same principles apply in other industries. For example, Life sciences, which manage seasonal flu vaccines versus year-round chronic medications. Chemicals, producing active ingredients with volatile demand alongside stable industrial products. Consumer goods, selling seasonal beverages alongside staple pantry items, each with different freshness, packaging, and promotional cycles. And so on!

In many cases across different sectors, segmented models help companies tune their supply chain strategies so they’re not over-servicing low margin products or under-servicing high value customers.

The Multi-Channel Challenge

Segmented models become even more powerful when you factor in multiple sales channels. A single company might sell direct-to-consumer via e-commerce, through big-box retailers with strict labeling and packaging requirements, and to veterinary clinics or specialty distributors. 

Each channel may have different order cadences, lead times, compliance requirements, and even product configurations. Planning these in isolation means missed opportunities to consolidate purchasing, coordinate promotions, or share inventory across channels. Planning them together – but with the right channel-specific rules – is where the real value lies.

The Atlas Planning Platform Advantage

Robust technology makes all the difference when it comes to advanced supply chain planning. The Atlas Planning Platform is designed to handle complexities like this, as well as a wide range of other supply chain challenges. It enables companies to:

• Model multiple demand streams like POS, shipments, part usage, even customer production schedules and more, side-by-side.
• Plan different replenishment strategies for different segments in a single, integrated environment.
• Consolidate purchasing needs across diverse business units to unlock scale efficiencies.
• Run “what-if” scenarios to compare strategies based on profitability, service levels, or capacity constraints.
• Model the entire supply chain network, including third party locations like Value-added service providers (VAS), customer warehouses or customer plants.

Atlas’ flexible planning model isn’t locked to predefined planning levels like “item-location-week.” Instead, users can define and plan across any hierarchy; products, components, plants, resources, shifts, channels, customers, even down to lot, bin, or second-level timing. That means you can run a make-to-order model for one product family and a make-to-stock model for another, all while seeing the combined impact on working capital and capacity.

And because Atlas is built on a single integrated data model, segmented planning models are truly actionable. So, you can:

• Optimize replenishment by channel, node, or priority.
• Balance transportation and labor capacity with product and store priorities.
• Protect inventory for critical markets while pooling stock for flexibility elsewhere.
• Incorporate returns and consignment inventory into replenishment plans.

Take Control of the Future

In the pet sector, as in other industries, control comes from having one connected plan and the ability to invest your working capital to fuel your commercial strategies. A unified view of your supply chain is essential to make smart strategic choices. Segmented planning models give you that view and the flexibility to adapt your planning rules for different realities.

International Dog Day might only come once a year, but the supply chain challenges it brings to mind are year-round. Whether you’re making flea collars, flu vaccines, industrial chemicals, or craft beverages, the lesson is the same: don’t treat every product the same, and you’ll get better results while delivering greater value to your customers.

With the Atlas Planning Platform, companies can finally run all their different planning models together—without losing the ability to segment, optimize, and act. This leads to lower variability, higher service levels, and smarter investments.

Or, to put it in dog-friendly terms: you can finally get your supply chain to sit, stay, and deliver.

Ready to see how paw-erful segmented planning can be? Let’s have a chat!