The workflow before#
Heaven Hill, the family-owned distiller behind Evan Williams and Elijah Craig, has more demand for some of its bourbon and whiskey than it has supply. Planners decide how that limited stock gets split across distributors and markets. Before this project, the inputs to every plan lived in different places: in-stock quantities in one database, on-order quantities in another and prior allocations in spreadsheets. Planners spent hours pulling Oracle data and reconciling it by hand before they could start. Departments arrived at the same meeting with different numbers. Approvals ran over email, so nobody could easily say later who signed off on what, or why.
What we built#
We built an allocation planning app that gives every planner the same view of in-stock, on-order and allocated product, and lets them build and compare scenarios in minutes. Plans move from draft to approval inside the app, with every change logged. The spreadsheets and email threads went away, and so did the arguments over whose numbers were right.
One view of supply
The app brings in-stock, on-order and allocated quantities onto one screen, refreshed automatically from Oracle EBS. Planners start from current numbers instead of an afternoon of reconciliation. A sales part cross reference that used to be kept up by hand now syncs on a schedule, so a new product shows up correctly in every system.
Scenarios in minutes
Planners build an allocation, change it and compare it side by side with alternatives. Evaluating a scenario used to mean days of gathering data, and now it takes minutes. We put comparison on the main screen rather than in a separate report because planners decide by weighing options, not by reading one answer.
Approvals with a paper trail
Each plan moves through three roles. Publishers create it, approvers review and sign off with comments, and viewers follow along on dashboards. Every action is logged. Status emails and meetings dropped by about 60% because anyone can open the app and see where a plan stands.
How we delivered it
We built the app in R Shiny on R Connect Server, which Heaven Hill's team can maintain and extend on its own. Delivery ran about 16 weeks in four phases: data integration from Oracle, the core app, scenario and market dashboards, then training and handover. We tested each release with working planners and refined the screens around how they actually plan. Every planner moved onto the app.
Before and after#
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Allocation planning cycle | Baseline | 50% shorter |
| Evaluating an allocation scenario | Days of data gathering | Minutes |
| Status inquiry emails and meetings | Baseline | About 60% fewer |
| Planner adoption | Spreadsheets | 100% of planners on the app |
What's next#
With allocation history in one governed place, Heaven Hill can start feeding demand signals and past allocation outcomes into a recommended allocation. Planners would open each cycle with a suggested split across markets and adjust it, instead of building every plan from scratch.
