Lavi Sahu
Consultant
Supply-chain planner
SAP IBP · o9 · OMP
Your friendly neighbourhood consultant.
By day, I plan supply chains. I lead supply chain transformations at large companies, and more and more of them are supply chain technology transformations. Along the way I've come to know all the major planning systems well, and I've led implementations on most of them: SAP APO, then SAP IBP and OMP, and later o9. A growing part of my work is supply chain analytics, driving bespoke solutions where an off-the-shelf answer doesn't fit.
Curious about almost everything, passionate about a few things, and happiest at a table with good food and good people. I love to build things, and I chase perfection in whatever I build, this site included. I love playing sports too. At heart I'm laid back: give me a good time with friends and family and I'm set.
Get in touch →What I work in
Toolkit
01 — plan
- s&op
- demand planning
- supply planning
- inventory policy
- safety stock
- transformations
02 — analyse
- supply chain analytics
- bespoke solutions
- forecasting
03 — build
- this site
- claude code
- next.js
04 — play
- sports
- dota
- age of empires
- counter-strike
- board games
Eight chapters
eight chapters.
I grew up in Bhilai, a steel town in Chhattisgarh, where my father worked at the plant and we lived in neatly planned quarters. At 12, I didn't want to be an astronaut. I wanted to be like my dad: a steady job, and always time for family. I was competitive even then, but that was the wish.
I didn't plan on supply chain. Engineering was the default path, and I cleared the entrance exams for electronics. The real education was the hostel: my first time away from home, weekends on the LAN with friends, and everything open to explore.
When I chose an MBA, there was one college everyone talked about: IIM Mumbai, the supply chain school. It gave me a career, but that's not the best part. I met my wife there, and most of my closest friends are from those two years too.
My first job was at a manufacturing company, learning SAP APO and how planning systems actually work. The bigger lesson came fast: the theory is the easy part. Supply chain is sometimes boring, always collaborative, and never one-size-fits-all.
Then came consulting, and years of travel: new cities, new industries, and the fun of carrying what one industry does well into another.
Early on, I knew the material but couldn't think on my feet; I overthought everything. I'm much better at it now.
Today I'm a Consultant at EY, leading supply chain planning work for large companies. Most days it comes down to basics: listening until I understand what people really need, asking better questions, and making planning, integration and execution actually connect.
Three things I believe:
- 01Make each piece of work a little meaningful. It compounds.
- 02Know your field well enough to talk about it with anyone, over coffee or in a boardroom.
- 03Understand what people actually need before you solve what they asked for.
Every year growing up, my parents took us on a month-long trip; by now they've seen almost all of India. When I started earning, I wanted to keep that going, so the trips got further: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, then Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. I still travel with them like a kid trying to show his parents something new. Italy is next on our list. My favourite part isn't the sights; it's dinner afterwards, hearing my mother's take on everything we saw.
About 14,000 hours of Dota, Age of Empires and Counter-Strike since 2007, and more board game nights than I can count. These days it's game cafes in Indiranagar, game nights with neighbours, and a family team of four. I'm a recovering sore loser. I still play online with friends often, and I'm just as happy alone: a solo movie, a table for one at a good restaurant. I like people and I like my own company. Both recharge me.
For a long time, curiosity had a cost: finding things out was hard. That cost is gone. Reading pulled me toward philosophy and a calmer way of living, and AI removed most of the remaining roadblocks. If you care enough and are happy to spend the time, you can figure out almost anything. This site and the Lab are where I do that in public, a little better each day.
08
Now
- Readingless than I'd like; building more. Next: Principles by Ray Dalio, then a proper history of the world. I can lose an afternoon in a bookstore, and I buy far more books than I read.
- Playinglots of board games, weekends at game cafes trying new ones.
- PlanningEurope again, this time with my wife: Paris, Amsterdam and Switzerland.
- Eatingworking my way through Indiranagar.
The many Lavis
the many lavis
“Understand what people actually need before you solve what they asked for.”
“I can lose an afternoon in a bookstore, and I buy far more books than I read.”
“I still travel with them like a kid trying to show his parents something new.”
“I'm a recovering sore loser.”
“If you care enough and are happy to spend the time, you can figure out almost anything.”
Connect
if any of this landed near a problem you own.
That's me, mostly. My opinions live on the blog and my experiments in the Lab. If any of this sounds like your kind of conversation, say hello.
Fourteen years of this leaves opinions. Most are already on this site; the rest come out by email.
Views here are my own. The safety-stock mistakes were too.