Sales and operations alignment. It is the promise. For many this seems like an old horse to ride. It is tough because operations and commercial teams are not naturally aligned, and the implementation of an S&OP process is not a quick fix. The processes of S&OP are now over 35 years in evolution. In many ways they are quite different, and in many they are the same. Let me explain. What…
Today, I launched the The Supply Chain Shaman’s Journal. The Journal will be published quarterly, and will be a collection of posts from the Supply Chain Shaman blog. Each Journal is centered around a theme. It published today in PDF format, and will be released later as an ePub on the Apple iBookstore, and as a .mobi for Kindles on Amazon. In the meantime it can be downloaded as a .pdf from…
As I work with companies, I often contrast the strategies, approaches and outcomes within a peer group. Over the last five years, I have helped two companies, Sonoco Products and Owens Illinois (OI) with their selection of technologies to improve Sales and Operations (S&OP) planning. Both companies provide packaging materials to the food manufacturing industry. Owens Illinois provides glass products and Sonoco Products provides flexible packaging. Here I contrast their results. Six…
Usually in a fairy tale there is a big, bad wolf… or a hairy monster. One that is going to eat you up! In part one of this blog series, I started the saga of the supply chain fairy tale. It was a story where people believed that functional excellence leads to supply chain superiority. Year after year, well intentioned people toiled against improving metrics that reduced, not improved, the effectiveness…
Recent Comments