Improvement of the Phase-In /Phase-Out Process in Coty Consumer Beauty Division France

Abstract: In order to meet the customer demands and remain competitive in a market where product life cycles are every day shorter, companies are forced to update their product portfolios continuously. The process for phasing the products in the company portfolios (i.e. introducing the new products and deleting the old ones) is known as the Phase-In/Phase-Out (PIPO) Process or Rollover Process. In most of the companies, there is a lack of formal processes for planning the phasings, eliminating the obsolete products and introducing the updated ones. However, a good planning is a key point to succeed and to create a lower impact on customers. Moreover, to achieve the best results, a cross-functional department organization is necessary to share the correct information at the correct time. This Degree Project has been carried out at Coty France, in the Demand Planning Department. This department is responsible for deciding the discontinuation dates and managing the switches of the products. This Master Thesis focuses on determining a methodology to share the information among the departments involved in the PIPO process and creating a tool to estimate the discontinuation dates. Clear procedures have been defined for phasing the products and an Excel tool has been created to calculate the dates. Finally, to validate the final solution proposed, an analysis of the Customer Service Level has been performed to confirm that the use of these procedures reduces the impact on customers.