Mizkan America

Mizkan’s rapid growth in North America reshaped its operational complexity. Its acquired ownership of nationally recognized pasta sauce brands, Bertolli and Ragu, increased demand volume expectations and established a need to improve Mizkan’s planning capabilities.

The company’s approaches primarily addressed immediate order fulfillment instead of future capacity needs, demand segmentation, or inventory optimization at scale. Its use of multiple systems limited planning insight and did not provide unified visibility into supply positions, demand signals, or the implications of volume shifts. These conditions created a strong need to adopt mature planning as a strategic capability—supporting national production, distribution decisions, and facility coordination across the network.

Turning demand signals into action

Blue Yonder’s supply planning capabilities have helped meet Mizkan’s needs by creating a single planning ecosystem. Product demand is captured, modeled, and translated into capacity views by production line across Mizkan’s business. Supply plans are then connected to deployment decisions, creating a continuous planning environment from long-range forecasting through finished product deployment. 

Demand planning at Mizkan uses a team configuration anchored in the sales organization. The manager oversees the function, supported by outsourced planning resources that assist with day-to-day forecasting.

A major advancement for Mizkan has included a transition toward bottom-up forecasting at the item, customer, and location levels. This methodology supports accurate planning where specific demand patterns drive production decisions. Through these bottom-up signals, Mizkan creates deeply informed views of what products will be needed in specific regions and timelines.

This level of detail is fed through Blue Yonder to support supply planning. Demand signals are aggregated into production line level requirements, and capacity planning models are constructed to evaluate how facilities and schedules support projected needs.

The Blue Yonder solution supports a philosophy that planning is both operational and strategic—reflecting projected demand, facility capability, available network flexibility, and optimal replenishment patterns.

This approach creates a comprehensive view of what is required to support business goals, enabling proactive planning instead of reactive allocation.

Connected supply planning and deployment

On the supply side of Mizkan’s business, the planning organization consists of managers and analysts supporting capacity planning, deployment, and scheduling. Production scheduling occurs through a separate system, while capacity and deployment decisions flow through Blue Yonder.

Detailed demand forecasts are first ingested into Blue Yonder—creating a single, trusted planning baseline for the organization. These forecasts are then transformed through supply planning into production line-level capacity scenarios, carefully balancing operational constraints and trade-offs. Planners collaborate with facility leadership to evaluate these scenarios and select the optimal path forward, ensuring that decisions are both strategic and practical. Once the best scenario is chosen, execution-ready schedules are finalized and released, enabling efficient operations. Finally, intelligent deployment within Blue Yonder optimizes truckload builds and distribution flows across the network, supporting seamless and effective product delivery.

Optimized deployment in Blue Yonder has become a major value driver for the business. The system creates complete truckloads based on demand needs, route efficiency, and inventory levels across distribution centers. A dedicated planner manages deployment through Blue Yonder, delivering strong execution results. This capability supports national service levels and ensures retail partners receive requested products consistently and predictably.

Proven impact with record OTIF performance

Blue Yonder’s impact has been reflected clearly in Mizkan’s performance. The company has achieved a new high-water mark in OTIF performance in 2025—well above target benchmarks.

With high OTIF performance established, Mizkan’s planning objectives now include optimizing inventory levels across finished goods and raw materials to support capital efficiency while sustaining strong service levels.

Strategic maturity and network excellence

Mizkan has a clear focus on advancing planning maturity. A key priority is expanding scenario planning capabilities—evaluating business options at the strategic level. Scenario modeling can create comprehensive comparisons between production strategies, facility configurations, and network usage patterns.

Another area of focus for the company is network optimization. Mizkan operates multiple facilities with distinct roles across bottling and bulk vinegar operations as well as sauce production. Planning leaders see significant potential in optimizing where products are made and how loads are shared across lanes. Blue Yonder capabilities present a foundation for modeling network decisions and evaluating the best use of each location.

Looking ahead to AI-supported planning

Beyond structural planning evolution, Mizkan sees potential in AI-supported planning. AI is expected to drive faster insight into anomalies and emerging demand patterns, creating a powerful advantage in on-shelf availability and trend response. As planning inputs continue to be refined, AI can support large scenario calculations that accelerate strategic decision cycles.

Mizkan’s next several years include continued advancement of planning as a competitive capability. Scenario planning, network optimization, and expanded solution adoption are positioned to strengthen insight, enable strategic decisions, and support national growth.

With Blue Yonder supporting its operations, Mizkan is positioned to expand production by achieving high service performance levels while scaling toward innovation in scenario planning.