Collaborative Planning builds on the best-in-class practices that have been developed through successful jointly managed inventory and Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) programs. These practices have been captured here and articulated as the guiding principles for Collaborative Planning. Collaborative Planning has the potential to deliver:

• increased sales
  
• organizational streamlining and alignment
  
• administrative and operational efficiency
  
• improved cash flow
  improved Return-On-Assets (ROA) performance

The first step to Collaborative Planning will be to utilize the functionality of Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems. These include elements such as:

• baseline forecast
  
• incremental volume for promotions (incl. promotion off-take
  
• pipeline fill and volume in-take (distribution schedule)
  
• optimized stock levels
  
• min/max stock levels
  

Full utilization of the Collaborative Planning concept can be achieved by combining APS, category management principles and the open IT-architecture of Internet.