Although digital planning has been around for decades, it suddenly seems to be on everyone’s lips. With the pace of technological advancements continuing to accelerate, digital planning can offer huge benefits and will undoubtedly play a key role in strengthening your supply chain resilience. However, it is important to remember that technology...
Today’s supply chains have become extremely complex, and many businesses are struggling to cope. The good news is that much – if not most – of that complexity has been self-created. And if you can create something yourself, you can also stop creating it.
Effective supply chain collaboration gives you access to lots of data and information as the basis for your decision-making. But how can you optimally utilize the relevant intelligence to make the right trade-offs that support your long-term success – especially in today’s ‘VUCA’ world? The key lies in implementing an effective operational...
Many articles have been written about successful S&OP implementations. Often these articles only over content or context, hardly ever they cover both. But a successful S&OP demands an integral approach. Only in that case Sales & Operations Planning leads to practical actions and results. Quite similar to playing on chess on multiple boards. A...
As always, this year’s IBP Boost Camp was based on the concept of “learning by doing”: hardly any PowerPoints but getting to work yourself in a realistic but virtual environment. Participants from very diverse companies including Albert Heijn, FrieslandCampina, Nexperia, Brocacef, Shimano, Stedin and Puratos tested their S&OP / IBP skills in “The...
For years now, supply chain blogs and articles have invariably begun with a statement about the changing world. There is certainly plenty going on right now, and even the causes themselves are changing. Whereas we used to be able to blame the increasing uncertainty and volatility on changing consumer behaviour, more recently the culprits have been...
Just as we all thought that life was slowly returning to normal and we could congratulate ourselves on surviving the COVID-19 disruption, the conflict in the Ukraine has reared its ugly head. But even when that's over, it will inevitably be followed by another, equally unexpected disruption. If you want to minimize fire-fighting and maximize...
Why did the COVID-19 pandemic take so many companies by surprise? And, more importantly, how can your organization anticipate – and deal with – disruption more successfully next time around? Because one thing’s for sure: there will be a next time!
The world has changed. Are we heading towards the ‘old normal’, the ‘new normal’ or the ‘new abnormal’? No one knows, but let’s focus on looking ahead and keeping it relevant. It seems that the term ‘resilience’ is suddenly being presented – and not always appropriately – as the best solution for surviving the current crisis. Thankfully, supply...
For any process to work well, the people running it need to have the right skills and competencies and S&OP is no exception. Even when having done an excellent job in creating buy-in and setting-up processes and systems, S&OP will not be effective if the practitioners are not able to execute it.