Business Issue
A $40 million premium-brand consumer product company experienced multiple years of nearly 100% annual growth, placing intense stress on its supply chain and overall business planning processes in the following ways:
- Up to six versions of forecasts and supply plans monthly used by management.
- Disconnect between Operations and Sales resulting in a lack of trust “of the numbers.”
Approach Used
Flow worked with the client to create a cross-functional team to implement a monthly Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process:
- Team performed a current-state assessment, trained together and read an S&OP how-to book to help reinforce the process.
- Cross functional Sub-Teams were created for each component of the S&OP process:
- New Product Development
- Demand Planning
- Supply Planning
- Consolidation Review
- Executive S&OP
- Each team developed a monthly process, SIPOC, meeting schedule and metrics supported by monthly leader coaching.
Results
Within six months a functioning S&OP process was in place that accomplished:
- 50 percent reduction in monthly planning cycles
- 60 percent increased forecast accuracy
- Improved collaboration and better decision making.
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