White Papers & Newsletters

Change Management in S&OP: The Most Important Task in Making S&OP Successful - by Tom Wallace

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW:

Sales & Operations Planning, primarily its volume and financial planning component called Executive S&OP, is quite simple in its structure and logic. This often misleads companies into assuming that the process is simple to implement, while nothing could be farther from the truth.

By far the most important element in implementation is the mindset and attitudes of the people, and the changes that need to be made in that regard. Other elements such as software tools, data, and the specifics of the process may be essential, but they’re of far less significance.  Given this, we can conclude that successfully implementing Executive S&OP is essentially a matter of change management. The amount of change is significant. It’s not a matter of doing something better; it’s about doing things differently – to be better.           

A primary element in implementing Executive S&OP is people’s understanding, which enables people to see the what, the why, the how, and the what’s-in-it-for-me of this new way of doing things.

Sales & Operations Planning: Costs and Benefits - The Financial View of Implementing Executive S&OP  - by Tom Wallace

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW:

“How much does this S&OP stuff cost?” is a phrase heard more frequently these days.  This white paper addresses that issue, first by discussing the benefits achieved by real-world companies and then by identifying the relevant costs involved in an implementation. The basis for this analysis is thirteen companies – all successful users of S&OP, from all over the world, and in a wide variety of industries.

Two kinds of benefits are shown: hard and soft. Hard benefits can be readily quantified; soft benefits cannot.  Some of these companies indicate that their soft benefits they’ve outweigh their hard benefits.

Two sample Cost/Benefit Analyses are shown, one of which demonstrates that it can cost very little to implement Executive S&OP properly and that the returns are very high indeed.  The other shows a much more costly implementation, but here also the returns are sizeable.

Last, a “straw man” analysis is presented by cutting the benefits in half and doubling the costs; here also the benefits are quite attractive.    Click here to download a pdf of this white paper

Additional white papers:

Forecast Less and Get Better Results
A white paper written by Tom Wallace and Bob Stahl for Supply Chain Consultants - Adobe PDF

Sales & Operations Planning - The Next Generation
A white paper by Tom and Bob on the future of S&OP written for Interlace Systems. - Adobe PDF

Lean Manufacturing and S&OP: You Need 'Em Both
A one-pager by Tom describing the relationship between these two powerful sets of tools. - Adobe PDF

Columns written by Bob Stahl for Foresight Journal

Resolving a Family Feud: Market-Facing versus Lean Manufacturing Families by Robert A. Stahl and William Kerber - Spring 2010 -   - adobe pdf
Two very important business processes are Lean Manufacturing and Executive S&OP. Both processes require grouping products into families but for very differentuses, so there is a sharp difference between how each process defines a family. In this column, Bob Stahl and Bill Kerber show how to resolve the family feud by converting market forecasts into production requirements.

How V&M Star Converts Family Forecasts Into Resource Requirements
With Executive S&OP  Robert A. Stahl and Amy Mansfield - Winter 2010 -- adobe PDF
Generating item-level forecasts can be complex, time consuming, and frustrating for forecasters, and can produce forecasts so inaccurate that they are not used in the planning process. In this case study of V&M Star, management uses Executive S&OP to refocus its forecasting process to family-level forecasts, which are then converted into resource requirements based on assumptions about product mix. This new approach has allowed V&M Star to gain bottom-line results of improved customer service with reduced inventories.

Executive S&OP: Simpler, Better, and More Needed than Ever by Bob Stahl - Summer 2009 - Adobe PDF
Bob lays the foundation for understanding what the executive component of S&OP is – and where it fits in the organizational hierarchy.

How Jarden Branded Consumables Made Forecasting Simpler & Better Through Executive S&OP  by Bob Stahl and Brad McCollum - Fall 2009 - Adobe PDF
A case study of the demand side of the equation – forecasting – that shows how Executive S&OP facilitated significant improvements in the generation and use of sales volume forecasts.

These columns are from the Foresight Journal, published quarterly by the non-profit International Institute of Forecasters (IIF). Its mission is to help improve the practice of business forecasting. Click here to see a Foresight Sampler, and information about subscriptions and corporate site licenses.

2010 Newsletters

Eliminating A Turn-Off For Top Management
May 2010

• Words from Wallace: Eliminating A Turn-Off For Yop Management
• Bullets from Bob: The Sharper Stick Syndrome
• Upcoming S&OP Education

Demand Planning - A Three Legged Stool
March 2010

• Bullets from Bob: Demand Planning - A Three-legged Stool. Market View - Customer View - Historical View
• Tom's new white paper: Change Management for S&OP.  The Most Important task for Making S&OP Successful
• Upcoming S&OP Education

The Demand/Supply Balance - Don't Go Thru 2010 Without it
January 2010

• Words from Wallace: The Demand/Supply Balance - Don't Go Thru 2010  Without It
• Bullets from Bob: Fixing Imbalances Before They’re a Crisis
• Link to Tom Wallace Video on You Tube: The Executive Champion Video
• Link to Available Free Resources from our Web Site: White papers; S&OP 101; Glossary for Executive S&OP, Sales Forecasting, and Master Scheduling and much more
• "Are you interested in a process that will enable you to do less work and get better results?" If so, read the Bob Stahl and Amy Mansfield recent article for Foresight Magazine. (pdf)