CPFR Collaborative Planning Implementation Training Course

Course overview

Supply chain plans often fail at the hand-off between trading partners. Suppliers receive forecasts too late, customers question replenishment assumptions, promotions are not reflected in demand signals, and teams spend review meetings debating whose data is correct. CPFR provides a structured way to replace these disconnected planning cycles with jointly agreed business objectives, shared forecasts, exception-based reviews and coordinated order plans. This course equips participants to implement that operating model across supplier, manufacturer, distributor or retail relationships.

Participants learn the CPFR process from partner selection through collaborative planning, forecasting, replenishment and performance review. They practise defining a joint business plan, mapping data flows, setting forecast ownership, creating exception thresholds, measuring forecast accuracy and bias, and establishing escalation rules. The course uses practical CPFR artefacts including collaboration charters, data dictionaries, forecast review agendas, scorecards, exception-management workflows and replenishment parameter sheets.

Instructor-led sessions are supported by a five-day trading-partner case in which participants work with sales history, promotional plans, inventory positions and supplier lead-time data. Teams diagnose planning gaps, build a CPFR design and present an implementation roadmap to a steering group. Each participant leaves with a tailored CPFR implementation pack containing a partner-assessment checklist, governance model, KPI set, workflow design and 90-day action plan that can be adapted for their own organisation.

The programme is suited to intermediate supply chain, demand planning, procurement and customer operations professionals who already work with forecasts, inventory data or supplier/customer planning cycles and need a disciplined method for making collaboration operational.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map the CPFR nine-step process to a defined supplier, customer or channel partnership
• Create a joint business plan that documents objectives, roles, assumptions and planning calendars
• Design a shared forecast workflow with baseline, promotional and event-driven demand inputs
• Set exception thresholds and escalation rules for forecast, inventory, service and order variances
• Calculate forecast accuracy, forecast bias, fill rate, inventory turns and on-time-in-full measures
• Build a CPFR governance model with meeting cadence, decision rights and issue-resolution paths
• Configure replenishment parameters using lead time, order cycle, safety stock and inventory targets
• Produce a 90-day CPFR implementation roadmap with pilots, milestones, owners and risk controls

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Supply Chain Managers — who need to establish repeatable joint planning with strategic trading partners
• Demand Planners — who must reconcile customer intelligence, promotions and statistical forecasts
• Procurement and Supplier Relationship Managers — who need suppliers to commit to shared demand and service plans
• Customer Supply Chain Managers — who coordinate availability, replenishment and performance with key accounts
• Inventory and Replenishment Planners — who translate collaborative forecasts into stock and order decisions
• S&OP or IBP Analysts — who need external partner plans reflected in internal consensus planning

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in at least one planning role involving demand forecasts, inventory, replenishment, supplier performance or customer account planning. They should understand basic supply chain terms such as lead time, safety stock, service level, purchase order, forecast accuracy and inventory turns, and be comfortable reading spreadsheets with dates, quantities and simple formulas. Familiarity with an ERP, planning or forecasting system is useful, particularly SAP or Oracle environments, but no system configuration experience is required. Participants do not need prior CPFR certification, advanced statistics, programming skills or specialised optimisation software.

Training methodology

The course combines focused instructor explanation with a continuing manufacturer-to-retailer CPFR case. Participants analyse sales, inventory, promotion and lead-time data in Microsoft Excel; define joint planning assumptions; and make decisions in role-based supplier, customer and internal planning meetings. Small groups build the actual working documents used in a CPFR pilot: a collaboration charter, data map, exception matrix, KPI scorecard and governance calendar. On Day 5, each participant converts the case learning into an application plan for one real trading-partner relationship.

Course outline

Day 1: CPFR foundations and partnership scope

• CPFR principles and the nine-step collaborative planning model
• Trading-partner segmentation and CPFR suitability assessment
• Joint business planning objectives and mutual value drivers
• Roles of procurement, sales, demand planning and customer operations
• Collaboration charters, confidentiality and data-sharing boundaries
• Planning calendars, decision rights and meeting cadence
• Baseline assessment of forecast, service and inventory performance

Workshop: Teams assess a supplier-retailer relationship and produce a CPFR partner-selection case and draft collaboration charter.

Day 2: Shared demand planning and forecasting

• Demand signal hierarchy and forecast ownership
• Baseline forecasting versus collaborative forecast overrides
• Promotions, launches, seasonality and event-driven demand inputs
• Point-of-sale, shipment, order and inventory data alignment
• Forecast accuracy, bias and forecast value added calculations
• Data dictionaries, master-data alignment and data-quality controls
• Consensus forecast review agendas and assumption logs

Workshop: Participants reconcile customer sales history and a promotion plan to produce a shared forecast, assumption log and forecast review agenda.

Day 3: Collaborative replenishment and exception management

• Replenishment policy choices for make-to-stock and distribution networks
• Lead time, order cycle, safety stock and reorder-point parameters
• Inventory visibility across supplier, warehouse and customer locations
• Order forecast development and capacity-constraint considerations
• Exception types for demand, supply, inventory and service variances
• Threshold design using tolerances, priorities and business impact
• Root-cause analysis and escalation workflow design

Workshop: Teams configure replenishment parameters and build an exception matrix for stock-out, excess-inventory and supplier-capacity scenarios.

Day 4: Governance, performance and technology enablement

• CPFR governance tiers and cross-functional accountability
• Operational, tactical and executive review meeting design
• KPI scorecards for forecast, service, inventory and collaboration health
• On-time-in-full, fill rate, inventory turns and days-of-supply measures
• Performance variance analysis and corrective-action tracking
• SAP Integrated Business Planning and Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM CPFR data touchpoints
• Electronic data interchange, portal integration and data-security considerations

Workshop: Participants design a governance calendar and balanced CPFR scorecard, then conduct a simulated quarterly partner performance review.

Day 5: CPFR implementation planning and pilot launch

• Current-state process mapping and collaboration gap analysis
• Pilot partner, product and geographic scope selection
• Future-state CPFR workflow and responsibility assignment matrix
• Implementation milestones, dependencies and change-management actions
• Risk register for data, incentives, capacity and partner adoption
• Pilot success criteria and benefits-realisation measurement
• Ninety-day implementation roadmap and executive briefing structure

Workshop: Each participant produces and presents a 90-day CPFR pilot roadmap containing scope, governance, KPIs, risks, owners and first review dates.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, SAP Integrated Business Planning, Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM, GS1 US CPFR Guidelines

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions