Planning with Purpose: Cepheid’s Path to a Digital Supply Chain
INDUSTRY
HealthOFFERING
Demand & Supply Network Planning, Promise-to-Delivery StrategyTECHNOLOGY
Blue YonderFrom Crises to Control: When science moves faster than supply chains
Cepheid, a trailblazer in molecular diagnostic testing and a pioneer in real-time PCR technology, rose to the forefront of global public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. With demand for its tests surging overnight, the company scaled from $300 million to over $3.7 billion in revenue. But beneath the growth was a critical constraint: A planning system not built for this moment.
Their existing Excel-based planning processes couldn’t keep pace with a global pandemic, much less the complexity of attribute-constrained bills of material (BOMs) dictated by scientific precision and regulatory requirements. Traditional demand forecasting models were rendered useless in a world where COVID had no historical precedent. At the heart of the issue was a difficult balance: How do you plan production and fulfill orders when the science—not statistics—defines what’s possible?
Further compounding the challenge, Cepheid’s BOMs included multi-level, attribute-restricted combinations governed by scientific accuracy, supply availability, and regulatory requirements. Each configuration carried meaningful implications for test accuracy and patient outcomes—making fulfillment not just a logistical challenge, but a moral and clinical one.
What Cepheid needed wasn’t just faster planning—it was ethical, agile decision-making that could balance clinical urgency, scarce inventory, and constrained capacity.
Our team was brought in to re-architect Cepheid’s supply chain planning model from the ground up, ensuring it could respond with accuracy, adaptability, and integrity.
From chaos to clinical-grade coordination
Cepheid partnered with Spinnaker SCA to design and deploy a next-generation planning architecture using Blue Yonder’s Enterprise Supply Planning (ESP) and Order Promising (OP). The transformation began with a full supply chain assessment, focusing on constraints, planning horizons, attribute-based configuration logic, and the clinical realities of demand prioritization.
The entire transformation was delivered in less than a year—culminating in a go-live of Blue Yonder ESP and OP in July 2023.
- 01 Triage the tangle
- 02 Prescribe the platform
- 03 Engineer the execution
- 04 Operationalize
- 05 Sustain the edge
Planning chaos meets clinical stakes
Spinnaker SCA conducted a root-cause diagnostic of Cepheid’s global planning function—surfacing major issues in orchestration, data visibility, and system alignment. Manual processes were stretched to the brink.
A root cause emerged: Planners were managing scientifically-constrained BOMs manually in spreadsheets, without visibility into capacity feasibility or fulfillment prioritization. The cost? Slower response times, fulfillment inefficiencies, and mounting operational risk.
Building a system that thinks like a scientist
With Cepheid’s complexity in mind, Spinnaker designed and deployed a constraint-based planning environment using Blue Yonder ESP and Order Promising. This included an enumerated BOM model that could reflect real-world scientific pairing rules and a master production schedule that was both material and capacity-constrained.
From Excel to execution-ready automation
The solution translated complex, attribute-restricted product configurations into an enumerated BOM model. Order Promiser was integrated for real-time Available-to-Promise (ATP) and Capable-to-Promise (CTP) decisions, enabling intelligent fulfillment that balanced clinical urgency with material and capacity feasibility.
Planners were able to sequence orders by outbreak severity and clinical need. Plus, since it was integrated with TM1 forecasts, the platform connected long-range planning with near-term execution to flex for the next variant or volume spike.
Training for transformation, not just go-live
Spinnaker SCA led global change management, standing up new PSI processes, consensus forecasting workflows, and governance thresholds. Critical emphasis was placed on master data harmonization, SaaS architecture readiness, and user enablement across the U.S., EMEA, and APAC.
What was once a reactive, manual environment became a proactive planning hub aligned to mission-critical outcomes. With real-world feedback loops in place, the solution was primed for long-term adoption—and expansion.
Embedding resilience for what’s next
Cepheid’s new SaaS-based planning platform provides a strong foundation for the future. From governance to scenario modeling, Spinnaker SCA helped the team embed continuous improvement into their daily operations—ensuring agility, alignment, and scalability, no matter the next crisis.
From bottleneck to backbone—supply chain science in action
What began as an urgent pandemic response became a blueprint for intelligent, ethical, and adaptive supply chain planning in healthcare.
The solution also laid the foundation for sustainable growth post-COVID. The LP-optimized production plans delivered more accurate demand satisfaction, better resource utilization, and higher test throughput—without sacrificing scientific integrity or margin. And with a scalable, cloud-based infrastructure, Cepheid is ready to respond to the next public health crisis with the confidence that their supply chain can keep up with their science.
This project stands as one of the most complex and compelling implementations in the Blue Yonder portfolio. It underscores the indispensable value of cross-functional sponsorship, data governance, and proactive change management. With this solution, Cepheid is now equipped to align production with public health needs—scaling smarter, responding faster, and delivering precision with purpose.
- Scaled from $300M to $3.7B+ in revenue: Enabled real-time production planning to meet global testing demand without compromising scientific rigor or regulatory compliance.
- Cut fulfillment latency with real-time ATP and CTP decisions: Customer orders prioritized based on outbreak data and clinical impact, ensuring resources where they mattered most.
- Enabled complex BOM planning through LP optimization: Thousands of constrained test configurations were modeled, validated, and sequenced systematically—reducing planner burden and error risk.
- Built a scalable, global SaaS infrastructure: Established a responsive, integrated planning platform capable of supporting Cepheid’s growth and public health mission.
- Replaced manual effort with intelligent automation: Planning processes that once took days in Excel now run in minutes, freeing up capacity, improving accuracy, and accelerating response times.
Precision planning starts here.
When lives are on the line, guesswork isn’t an option. Spinnaker SCA helps healthcare leaders like Cepheid build smarter, faster, and more resilient supply chains.