Consulting & Project Services

Author:  Dr. İlker Guclu Latest update:  05 July 2025

Optimum Planlama delivers focused consulting and project services in Supply Chain Planning.

The scope of our process improvement and configuration work can be summarized as follows:

• Assess current maturity levels and needs
• Develop a roadmap for improvement
• Build leadership and staff competencies
• Design and implement competitive processes
• Identify required software/tools (if any) and deliver conceptual design

Increase your organisation's competitiveness with properly structured strategic, tactical and operational supply chain planning activities.

Our consulting focus areas include:

The right consulting engagement does not answer "which software should we buy?",
it answers "where is our actual problem?" first.

How to Choose Supply Chain Planning Consulting

Before selecting a consultant you need clear answers to three questions: Where exactly is the problem? How much change is required? What will your team be left with at the end? The four steps below make these visible and prevent both wrong-scope and unnecessary-cost engagements.

1. Define the Problem First

Planning problems cluster into four headings. Knowing which one you are dealing with directly determines the scope of the engagement:

To measure these four headings with data, a Supply Chain Planning Maturity Assessment is a good starting point. If you are unsure where to begin, the maturity assessment performs the direction-finding for you.

2. Choose the Consulting Type That Matches Your Problem

Each type of consulting targets a different problem and produces a different output. Choosing the wrong scope costs more than solving the right problem:

3. Questions to Ask When Evaluating a Consultant

To look beyond the proposal comparison and test whether the outcome will last, the following questions should be answerable in the first meeting:

• Have you worked on projects similar to our sector and production structure? (References)
• Does the work deliver only a presentation, or does it jointly create the process, roles, calendar and KPI definitions?
• Will our team be able to run the process without the consultant at the end?
• Is the proposed solution tied to a specific software, or does the method come first?
• At which stages is the work carried out together with our team, and at which stages does the consultant work alone?
• Are the findings produced with our own data, or do they stay generic?
• Who will carry out the work? (About Dr. İlker Güçlü)

How most of these are answered tells you as much about how the consultant works as it does about how well you will work together. A consultant who delivered good results in a different sector is not a guarantee of results in yours.

4. Proposals That Should Be Rejected

Some behaviours are simply not signs of an end-to-end deliverable engagement. If any of the following appears, the process should be reconsidered:

• A clear solution and price promised without ever seeing your organisation, based on a presentation alone
• A specific software or brand recommended without explaining the method
• Guaranteed timelines and guaranteed gains despite never examining your data or process
• A plan that keeps the process visible only to the consultant's team and excludes your own staff
• Training, consulting and software sales bundled together as a mandatory package

Training, Consulting, or Both?

The two are not substitutes; they answer different needs. The right choice directly determines the question the work will answer:

The combination that produces the best results in practice is usually this: first a company-specific workshop so the team shares one perspective, then consulting to structure the process with your own people. A shared language is created, and the process built on that language keeps running after the consultant leaves.

How a Consulting Engagement Progresses

At Optimum Planlama, a consulting project consists of a few core stages adapted to the organisation's maturity level and objectives:

Does Optimum Planlama Promote or Sell Software Solutions?

Optimum Planlama does not promote any specific software solution.

When software is required as part of a consulting engagement we support conceptual design, capability definition and preparation of technical specifications (RFP).

We recommend organisations first identify process gaps and design competitive processes before evaluating software investments.

What Services Does Optimum Planlama Provide?

Our training and consulting services in supply chain planning include the following.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is supply chain planning consulting needed?

It is needed when plans are frequently broken, when sales, production and purchasing work with different numbers, when inventory and service levels create problems together, or when you are setting up a process such as S&OP/IBP for the first time.

What should be done before engaging a consultant?

First clarify the scope of the problem: is it process, data, roles, or tooling? A maturity assessment that measures the current state, or a short company-specific workshop, is a good way to establish that clarity before starting.

Should we get training or consulting?

If the team lacks a shared perspective and the fundamentals, choose training; if you need company-specific process, role and KPI design, choose consulting. Many organisations benefit from starting with a company-specific workshop and then structuring the process through consulting.

Do we need to buy software for the consulting work?

No. Optimum Planlama does not promote any software; where software is genuinely required, we support conceptual design, definition of the needed capabilities and preparation of the technical specification (RFP). Processes come first; the software search comes after.

How long does a consulting project take?

It depends on scope, maturity level and objectives. Direction-setting and maturity assessment studies are shorter, while establishing an S&OP or production planning process is work that progresses over months depending on the organisation's maturity. The timeline is clarified after the initial assessment.

Can our team run the process independently after the engagement?

Yes, that is one of the objectives. The work is carried out together with your existing team; process definitions, meeting rhythms, decision mechanisms and documentation stay in the organisation. Our aim is not to create consultant dependency but to build a sustainable capability.

Is our data secure?

The work runs on your own systems and data. Any transfer outside the organisation happens only with your approval and limited to what is required, and is handled under confidentiality principles.

What is the difference between training and consulting?

Training aims to build shared knowledge and methods; participants work with techniques that are valid across the sector rather than with their own company data. In consulting, the work runs on your data, your process and your team, and the output is specific to the organisation.

How to Get Started with Consulting and Project Services

The first step is not waiting for a proposal but discussing the current state together. During the application process your structure, objectives and existing processes are evaluated, and the scope, timeline and team involvement are clarified jointly.

• Understanding your organisation's structure, production model and existing planning processes
• Clarifying the problem and the objective together
• Direction-finding through a maturity assessment or a company-specific workshop where needed
• Agreeing scope, timeline, team involvement and expected output in writing

For consulting requests, please contact us.

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