Connecting Planning, Performance and People at Supply Chain Innovations 2026

On March 19, 2026, Solventure joined Supply Chain Innovations (SCI) at Antwerp Expo, the leading Belgian knowledge and networking event for supply chain professionals. With more than 40 parallel seminars, 60+ solution partners and hundreds of practitioners coming together for a full day of inspiration, SCI 2026 confirmed its position as the place where theory, technology and real-life supply chain challenges meet.

As a long-standing contributor to the event, Solventure took part with a keynote by our CEO Bram Desmet and four in-depth customer cases. Across these sessions, one message clearly resonated: many organisations are still struggling with planning approaches that no longer fit today’s complex, fast-moving and risk-driven supply chain reality.

Bram uncovers the faults in S&OP & APS

In his keynote, “The 3 Critical Gaps in S&OP & APS”, Bram Desmet challenged the audience to take a hard look at how demand and supply planning are still organised in most companies.

“We have been brainwashed,” Bram stated. “We took the theory for the truth. But maybe there’s a different way.”

Despite decades of experience with S&OP and APS, many organisations are still asking their planning tools the same basic questions they did 40 years ago, long before today’s volatility, interconnectedness and speed became the norm. The result? Processes that force early consensus, suppress valuable information, and fail to deal properly with risk, uncertainty and financial impact.

Bram argued that consensus demand at the start of the process is exactly what limits better decision-making. Sales, Supply Chain and Finance each look at demand through a different risk lens – optimistic, realistic or conservative and that diversity should be embraced rather than flattened.

A key alternative he proposed is layered demand and scenario-based supply planning, where different demand perspectives coexist and supply planning becomes automated, risk-aware and financially native. Instead of committing to one “perfect” number, organisations should explore multiple scenarios, assess service risk versus inventory risk, and make deliberate business choices aligned with strategy.

“If we want S&OP to become true business planning,” Bram concluded, “we need different tools, different processes, and a very different mindset.”

From theory to practice: Transformation Stories from the Field

Throughout the day, several Solventure customers brought these ideas to life by sharing their own transformation journeys.

Biobest: Enhancing End-to-End Planning Visibility and Productivity

At Biobest, a global leader in biological crop protection and pollination, planning complexity is driven by short shelf lives, regional production constraints and unpredictable external factors such as weather and geopolitics.

Sergio Carrillo Muñoz, Global Supply Chain Director, explained how Biobest evolved from fragmented, Excel-based planning to a more integrated end-to-end S&OP approach. Crucially, the company first focused on people, process and ownership before introducing advanced planning technology.

By combining a structured S&OP drumbeat with scenario capabilities and improved visibility across the supply chain, Biobest is now better equipped to anticipate long-term trends. This allows them to act proactively, rather than reactively, in an increasingly uncertain environment.

Sonoco: Unlocking Business Performance Through Supply Chain and Finance Integration

At Sonoco, a global packaging leader operating in a low-margin, high-complexity environment, supply chain excellence is inseparable from financial performance.

European Supply Chain Manager Nele Vermeir shared how Sonoco is evolving from a fragmented post-acquisition supply chain into a centrally steered, supply-chain-driven organisation. A key milestone in that journey was the introduction of Margin Improvement Teams, where supply chain, finance and commercial stakeholders jointly identify, trigger and follow up on improvement actions.

The message was clear: without financial insight embedded in supply chain decision-making, true performance improvement remains out of reach. By connecting operational decisions to margins, cost drivers and portfolio choices – supported by dedicated tooling – Sonoco is building a more fact-based, action-oriented planning culture.

SanoRice: Supporting Growth Through Improved Supply Chain and Operations

For SanoRice, Europe’s largest private-label producer of puffed rice cakes, years of strong growth brought new challenges. Demand started to exceed capacity, complexity increased, and existing planning processes were no longer sufficient to support the next growth phase.

Together with Solventure, SanoRice embarked on a structured improvement journey focused on demand and supply forecasting maturity, portfolio management and cross-plant coordination. By reassessing customer segmentation, aligning S&OP with service, cost and cash, and introducing more flexible, cost-informed planning, the company is laying the foundation for sustainable growth without sacrificing profitability.

As Bart Ruitenbeek, Senior Group Business Controller, summarised: “The key is making sure customers help solve the complexity they create and making sure our planning processes support that reality.”

Colruyt Group: Crafting Supply Chain Excellence Through Cross-Functional Learning

The final case shifted the focus from tools and processes to people and capabilities. Dirk Leemans explained how Colruyt Group is investing in long-term supply chain craftsmanship through tailored learning journeys at strategic, tactical and operational levels.

By using real company cases, cross-functional cohorts and scenario-based thinking, Colruyt aims to create a common language across departments and business units. The goal is not only better planning decisions, but better understanding of how individual choices impact the end-to-end supply chain, today and in the future.

As Dirk put it: “A company can only grow when its people consciously grow with it.”

Looking ahead

Supply Chain Innovations 2026 made one thing abundantly clear: the future of supply chain performance will not be driven by better forecasts alone, but by better decisions – grounded in risk awareness, financial insight, cross-functional collaboration and continuous learning.

At Solventure, we strongly believe that rethinking planning processes, integrating finance and supply chain, and investing in people are essential steps to turn volatility into a strategic advantage.