Annual Growth Stress

A $40 million premium-brand product company.

Case Studies

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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:

  1. New Product Development

  2. Demand Planning

  3. Supply Planning

  4. Consolidation Review

  5. 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.