Merz S&OP transformation with valantic + Anaplan

Merz Aesthetics is a global, family-owned leader in medical aesthetics, dedicated to helping patients and healthcare professionals achieve natural-looking, confident results. As an internationally active company in aesthetic medicine with a strong focus on hyaluronic acid and botulinum toxin (Botox) products, Merz Aesthetics combines more than a century of scientific heritage with a deep commitment to innovation, safety, and long-term partnerships with physicians.

The company operates production sites in Germany, Switzerland, and the USA, supported by a global distribution network with more than 20 warehouse locations and 3 central hubs. With annual revenues exceeding €1.0 billion and over 1,500 employees worldwide, Merz Aesthetics is one of the key players in the global aesthetics market.

From its US location in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, Merz Aesthetics North America manages a broad and expanding portfolio of injectable, skincare, and device-based treatments. Operating in one of the most dynamic and competitive healthcare markets in the world, the organization must continuously adapt to evolving customer needs, regulatory requirements, and market trends—while maintaining the agility and long-term perspective of a family-owned business.

Merz Aesthetics was reaching the limits of its existing Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and Demand Planning landscape. What once worked well could no longer keep pace with:

• Growing business complexity and rising data volumes
• The need to align demand, supply, and financial perspectives across business units

Manual workflows, legacy tools, and fragmented planning approaches made data consolidation cumbersome, slowed planning cycles, and hindered cross-functional collaboration—ultimately impacting the speed and quality of decision-making. The existing setup had become a barrier to Merz Aesthetics’ growth ambitions in North America.

To address these challenges, Merz Aesthetics decided to modernize its planning environment with a clear and focused scope: implement a pre-defined S&OP and Demand Planning process on a modern platform, rather than redesigning processes from scratch.

By focusing on the implementation of a clearly defined process, Merz Aesthetics laid a solid foundation for a scalable, data‑driven planning environment and moved quickly away from fragmented tools and manual work.

Merz turned its planning vision into reality through a focused journey with valantic and Anaplan – from an initial idea and Proof of Concept (PoC) to a fully integrated S&OP and Demand Planning platform.

From PoC to platform decision

The initiative started in June 2022 with a PoC built by valantic. It showed that Anaplan could:

• Support Merz’s pre-defined S&OP and Demand Planning processes
• Handle large data volumes and complex hierarchies
• Enable integrated Demand and Supply Planning

Based on the PoC, Merz:

1. Selected Anaplan as the strategic S&OP and Demand Planning platform
2. Chose valantic as implementation partner to operationalize the pre-defined processes

The project started in May 2023 with a planned go-live in December 2023 – a timeline that was achieved. Weekly project alignments between Merz and valantic ensured transparency and rapid issue resolution throughout.

In a relatively short timeframe, Merz moved from a validated concept to a live, scalable S&OP and Demand Planning platform – laying the groundwork for more transparent, data-driven, and future-proof planning.

Merz’s S&OP transformation was not about replacing its legacy landscape, but about smartly complementing it with a modern planning layer. With Anaplan as the new planning backbone and SAP ECC as the transactional core, Merz moved from manual, Excel-based tools to a dynamic, automated platform—while preserving the strengths of its existing systems.

• SAP continues to manage MRP, master data, and transactional processes
• Anaplan drives Demand and Supply Planning, inventory projections, and the monthly S&OP cycle (including S&OE)

Together, Merz and valantic have moved S&OP and Demand Planning from fragmented, Excel-based processes to an integrated, data-driven planning framework on Anaplan. While the transformation is still evolving, several concrete benefits are already visible.

Merz Aesthetics’ S&OP program is more than a successful Anaplan implementation – it is a showcase of how valantic brings together multiple competencies to deliver sustained, end‑to‑end value. What began as a focused S&OP and Demand Planning project evolved into a broader supply chain transformation because valantic could seamlessly combine technical delivery and strategic supply chain consulting within one trusted partnership.

Once the initial digital foundation in Anaplan was established, Merz moved beyond a “one‑time optimization” mindset toward continuous, end‑to‑end supply chain improvement. At this point, valantic’s Supply Chain Consulting practice joined the existing team—not as a separate track, but as a natural extension of the Anaplan engagement.

The joint Merz–valantic team elevated the solution from “tool implementation” to a strategic planning framework with two core design elements:

This tight integration of process consulting and technical implementation is a hallmark of valantic’s approach. Instead of designing processes in isolation and then “handing them over” to IT, process logic and system design evolved together within one coordinated team.

The impact is substantial:

• The systematic repositioning of the decoupling point, combined with coherent end‑to‑end planning logic, enables a significant reduction in working capital tied up in inventory
• For make‑to‑stock products, lead times can be reduced by up to 40%, strengthening service levels, responsiveness, and competitiveness

With this strategy and target picture in place, Merz Aesthetics North America has laid the groundwork for a truly connected, future‑ready supply chain.

In 2026, the next stage of this journey is already in focus: Merz is now exploring the AI functionalities of Anaplan—for example, to further enhance statistical forecasting, support intelligent exception handling, and enable even more powerful scenario simulations. Built on the solid process and data foundation created together with valantic, these AI capabilities are set to unlock an additional wave of planning excellence and innovation.