Integrated Business Planning (IBP) based on Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) creates a set of decision-making processes to balance demand and supply, to integrate financial planning and operational planning, and to link high-level strategic plans with day-to-day operations.
Many companies have difficulty establishing a valid game plan for sales, production, procurement, and inventory levels -- and then tying them to day-to-day scheduling and execution. As a result, performance suffers, customer service is poor, production and procurement are inefficient, inventories are too high or too low, or all of the above.
Sales & Operations Planning has emerged as an essential management tool in this age of global operations, increasingly demanding customers, and supply chains that extend half a world away. It's rightfully been called "top management's handle on the business."
Some use the terms Executive S&OP and Integrated Business Planning synonymously since both refer to top management's part of the overall set of Sales & Operations Planning processes. It's a tool that enables the top management team to establish in advance the desired levels of customer service, inventory investment, and order lead times - and then manage the business proactively to achieve those targets.
An important point: Executive S&OP is essential to gain the maximum benefits from the other parts of Sales & Operations Planning, the ones that address the details (Master Scheduling, Plant and Supplier Scheduling, Distribution, and other types of detailed replenishment planning).
The results from the monthly Executive S&OP process drive downward to impact directly the day-to-day activities in Sales, Purchasing, Production, and Distribution - and also drive upward, so that the company's Financial Plans can reflect current realities and future plans.
"Hard" benefits - ones that can be readily measured include:
"Soft" benefits resulting from Executive S&OP include:
Primarily, but not exclusively, companies that make things. Large companies such as Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly, Dow Chemical, Honeywell, Allied Signal, Pfizer, Newell-Rubbermaid and many more - plus a large and growing number of mid-size and smaller companies.
In addition, S&OP is starting to take hold in retailing and banking, and in companies that produce products of a non-physical nature: product design firms, process engineering organizations, and so forth.
End Spreadsheet Confusion. While SCM, ERP and CRM systems have improved efficiencies, these systems were not designed to work together. In fact, they contribute to a sea of siloed big data, that large organizations are increasingly challenged to cut through. So, most companies default to a collection of disparate spreadsheets for executive-level planning. Yet, spreadsheets lack the data management, analytics and process automation needed to reconcile and align functional plans to create one view and drive effective executive decision-making.
Collaborative Planning Gets Results. C-level executives depend on Steelwedge for sales forecasting and planning, consensus forecasting, balancing demand and supply planning, "what-if" modeling, rough cut scenario planning, connecting S&OP with financial planning and measuring performance against revenue and customer service targets. Integrated Business Planning pays: most customers save $5-$10 million per $1 billion in revenues.
Steelwedge Solutions, Services and Best Practices Drive Time to Value. Based on recognized industry S&OP best practices, the Steelwedge IBP Platform is backed by Executive S&OP, S&OP Sales, S&OP Operations and S&OP Collaboration. Steelwedge Services include an Integrated Business Planning Assessment, Strategic Consulting, Business Planning Improvement, Steelwedge University, Technology Implementation and Outsourced Planning Services.
© 2012 Steelwedge Software Inc.
