It is Sunday. Today I assume a familiar position. Now a ritual, with coffee in one hand and country music blaring, I sit in my faded green chair to write a blog post. I have done this for seven years. This afternoon I am writing my 334th blog post. I will also pen my 95th report for this week’s Supply Chain Insights newsletter. We now reach 23,000 supply chain leaders…
Today I unpacked my bags. In the last six months, in my travels, I have presented to supply chain teams in China, Belgium, France, Germany, Peru, Mexico, Netherlands, South Africa, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom. To streamline my efforts, I just kept a packed bag in the closet. I strongly feel that if I am going to cover the global supply chain that I need to experience it. Connectivity enabled…
It is a beautiful fall day in Philadelphia. This afternoon I put the finishing touches on a new report, “What Is the Value Proposition for Sales and Operations Planning?” I think it is the most complete assessment of the S&OP value proposition I have seen in the industry. It is always fun to write great research. I am so excited about it that I thought I would repurpose some of the…
Definition of a Mistake: An action or judgment that is misguided or wrong. Synonyms: Error, fault, blunder, oversight, miscalculation or a misunderstanding. Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is important to building value chain agility and improving enterprise performance. (Agility is the ability to have the same performance in cost, quality, and customer service given a level of demand and supply volatility.) Most processes are over 15 years old; yet, only…
Idiom – A Tough Nut to Crack: A problem that is very difficult to solve. Cambridge Dictionary Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is over 30 years old. I have been studying it as a researcher for 15 years. With the rise of the global multinational, S&OP increased in importance as a way to align and drive organizational balance. In parallel, as shown in the attached infographic, challenges to do it well increased. Companies…
As a mom, I loved to read to my daughter. One of our favorites was the book Where the Wild Things Are. I loved the imagery in this short story of 338 words. You have probably also read it many times; but, just in case you are not familiar, let me briefly summarize the plot. The story is about a young boy, Max, who after dressing himself in his wolf costume, wreaks havoc…
Companies want to be agile. As demand and supply volatility increases, the goal is to build a flexible supply chain system. The definition is one that can deliver the same cost, quality and level of customer service with the increase in demand and supply volatility. The gap is large. Today, based on recent research, less than 30% of supply chain leaders have a supply chain that they consider to be…
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…
When you get asked the same question over and over again it is time to take out the pen and write a blog post. Here it goes… Last week, when I was sharing the recent results of the Supply Chain Insights Sales and Operations Planning study with survey respondents and attendees to our public training, one question kept coming up. It was “How do the change management issues differ by…
Yesterday, I finished a post on supply chain planning maturity. A client had asked me, “How do I know if we have a mature supply chain planning organization?” As we talked, and I drew the table, the first question was followed by, “How do I help my executive team understand the importance of planning and their role in the process?” Planning leadership is a problem for most organizations. My focus here is…
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