We recently surveyed our customers to ask how they prefer to stay on top of S&OP advances and emerging best practices. While it’s no surprise that searching the web and reading reports remain popular activities, an overwhelming majority rate industry conferences and dialogue with fellow practitioners and vendors as a “very useful” source of information. Great content is essential but conversation remains king, particularly in a field that’s evolving as quickly as S&OP.
To that end, we’re excited that Emerson Therm O-Disc, a long-time beneficiary of the Steelwedge S&OP solution will be speaking on the topic of planning best practices. The presentation is part of The Supply Chain Forecasting & Planning Conference (Europe), organized by the Institute of Business Forecasting and Planning and taking place on November 17 -18 in Amsterdam. The event brings together executives from leading high-tech, manufacturing and consumer products firms to discuss the fact that S&OP has risen in importance and is now a proven way to meet demand while optimizing supply chain costs.
Of course, we all know that great conversation requires that we leap outside of our comfort zone. So, as seasoned S&OP conference goers, we’d like to share a few pointers on how to not miss out on the expertise that might be standing behind you in line at the buffet:
* Start your morning at the coffee urn. Meet people. Coffee is a sacred rite for most conference-goers – particularly when the festivities start at 7:30 AM. Be especially nice to our friends from other time zones. They’ll be the ones drinking directly from the spigot.
* Spare yourself a visit to the optometrist. Sit upfront. The fact remains that 12 point font still finds its way onto too many PowerPoint slides. We salute the truly studious who make it a point to sit within squinting distance.
* Be courageous. Ask questions. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a broadcasting degree to handle the microphone. Don’t hesitate to ask the speakers for more detail.
* Say hello to the vendors. They know a lot about S&OP too. Are you wondering how technology could enhance your S&OP process and your company’s overall performance? The nice people staffing the booths like nothing more than to talk S&OP and integrated business planning innovation. And as a bonus, they’re usually giving away cool perks.
Conference attendees will have the opportunity to explore how the Steelwedge solution provides companies with powerful capabilities to: match demand to relevant supply and capacity constraints; review all demand, inventory and supply plans simultaneously in revenue and profit as well as volume; run “what-if” scenarios to simulate the impact of changes to demand or supply; and conduct margin analysis live to evaluate the impact of these scenarios and report S&OP performance.
Hope to catch up with you by the coffee urn soon.
Click here to download the Steelwedge Solutions brochure.
