Webinar | Perspectives on Sales & Operations Planning

The high-tech industry is characterized by fickle consumers and demand, market volatility and a move towards highly-customized solutions. These market forces create immense pressure on managing a global supply chain. In last week’s Steelwedge Agility Series Webinar, experienced Chief Supply Chain Officer, Dennis Omanoff, addressed the hit-and-miss realities of using sales and operations planning (S&OP) to make a difference in high-tech business. As he stated:

“We are in a world today of tremendous opportunity and the challenge now is how to unlock this box.”

Dennis explained that if you focus less on the sales order and more on the value of getting it right - you can:

• Maximize revenue

• Build customer loyalty

• Create stockholder and shareholder value

According to Dennis, “The best way to drive that value is by powering better data visibility.” He added, “Breaking down paradigms of how companies share information and what companies share, we all win together.”

This includes a shift in:

• Leadership/internal engagement

• Customer engagement

• Connecting to the “other side” of the order: Supplier engagement

• Information visibility

Yet, according to statistics from a fall report by SCM World, only a few organizations have embraced this shift and maximized that value from their S&OP.

Here is a look at where leading global manufacturers are CAPTURING VALUE FROM S&OP today. Does this look like your situation?

If you look at the above chart, only 10 percent of global organizations have externally aligned with suppliers and customers, etc. What seems to be missing is any mechanism for placing a meaningful value on the flexibility that customers demand from their suppliers. Think of the opportunity to drive value here!

By rethinking existing, siloed processes and developing new ones that anticipate demand, we can react more quickly to the unexpected. Are you ready?

If missed this webinar, you can check out the replay here.

Have you unlocked the potential of your S&OP? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Note: On Tuesday, May 4, we were pleased to feature author and educator Tom Wallace in a webinar entitled, “Myths, Misunderstandings and Misinformation About S&OP.” Drawing from his decades of experience as a forecasting and sales planning leader, Tom revealed ten myths that can quickly derail an S&OP process and damage corporate performance and profitability.

Tom’s fascinating presentation is a must-watch for business people wanting to master the finer points of Executive S&OP. Click here to view the session on-demand.

If the number of questions that were submitted during the webinar are any indicator, Tom’s presentation certainly got the audience thinking! Tom was kind enough to respond to each of these questions following the live session and you can find his answers below.

(To learn more about Tom Wallace and Executive S&OP, we encourage you to visit www.tfwallace.com and consider picking up his book Sales and Operations Planning: The How-To Handbook, 3rd Edition.)

How to Launch Executive S&OP

Webinar Participant: Where do you start on creating an Executive S&OP?

Tom Wallace: With top management agreement to do a 90-day live pilot. (How-To Handbook, Third Edition, Pages 75-80.)

Webinar Participant: What is the best way to convince the team to attend the meeting and to express how important they are to the entire process?

Tom Wallace: Get top management to convince them. Seriously, if the leader of the business and his or her staff are truly committed to Executive S&OP, most of them will willingly go through the learning process and do their parts.

Webinar Participant: I work with small and midsized manufacturing companies. It is hard enough selling them on Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP). Where do we start to get them to understand S&OP?

Tom Wallace: Conduct an executive briefing. Get a decision from top management to do a 90-day live pilot. Then, if that looks good to them, and it almost always does, proceed to cut over the rest of the families to Executive S&OP. (How-To Handbook, 3^rd Edition, Pages 69-73)

Webinar Participant: Based on the myths of a company not willing to change for S&OP and education being the solution, what’s the best way to teach your executives and what material do you show them?

Tom Wallace: I’ve mentioned the Executive Briefing, and that’s by far the best way to get started. However, they’ll need more input than that and there are a substantial number of books and videos to help you with that at www.tfwallace.com.

Webinar Participant: How do you handle a pilot program when compromise may often include items or pieces (demand or resource constraints) outside of that pilot?

Tom Wallace: If possible, select as your pilot family one with little or no shared resources. If you can’t avoid that, then estimate the impact of the “outside the family” demand to show an approximation of the full picture on the resource.

Webinar Participant: Does Tom have a perspective on implementing S&OP in a services / distribution environment versus traditional manufacturing?

Tom Wallace: it’s more similar than different. The basics are the same: demand, supply and the related financials. (How-To Handbook, Third Edition, Page 166-167) Continue reading →

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