For those of you on LinkedIn, be sure to sign up for the Institute of Business Forecasting and Planning discussion group. This is an active (and addictive) forum for sharing information and perspectives on a wide variety of forecasting & planning topics. The following question was posted by Reno DiGenova, the VP – Replenishment,...
Have you ever pitched a new idea or process improvement where everyone agreed, but you kept running into road blocks once you began the implementation? It seems that most everyone believes in “change” until it starts to affect them. The more you can manage or mitigate change, the more successful you will be. There...
Motivational speaker Lou Tice called it a “Scotoma”—an area of partial alteration to one’s field of vision. Allstate Insurance represents something similar in one of it’s television commercials featuring a man by the name of “Mayhem”. In this particular ad we see Mayhem clinging to the side of an unsuspecting woman’s SUV claiming to...
Forecasting performance objectives are usually set in one of three ways: Relative to “best-in-class” industry benchmarks. Improvement over prior year performance. Arbitrarily – based on what management wants or needs to happen. All three are wrong. There are many perils in relying on industry benchmarks to set your own organization’s performance objectives, the most...
“So, even a well thought-out forecasting process can be wasteful if it is not done properly.” This was a remark made by one of the attendees who came to hear my “Lean Forecasting & Planning” presentation at IBF’s recent Business Forecasting & Planning Academy @ 2 Levels. This declaration was also one of the...
After attending the APICS/IBF Best of the Best S&OP conference I came back with a sense of eagerness and ambition to implement what I had learned over the two days I had spent at the conference filled with information. The sessions that I attended included presentations from Motorola, BASF, Rolls-Royce Energy, Rubbermaid, Timberland, &...
Thank you IBF and APICS for organizing a very successful Best of the Best S&OP Conference. Our company is in the early stages of formalizing our S&OP process. The presenters shared many great ideas that we will be able to use as we begin our S&OP journey. I would like to take this opportunity...
This was the first APICS/IBF Best of the Best S&OP conference that I have attended. . It was a great experience to learn from some of the top companies in the world as the guest speakers share their journey to implementing S&OP throughout their organization. One key lesson learning & takeaway for me was...
We are a medium sized privately held business that has a large ERP, but probably hasn’t invested into its processes and user reporting as much as we should. In my 6 years with the company, I started as the Controller, and then moved to Director of our retail stores/internet operation, and now I fill...
Although our company is considered to be ahead of many companies where our S&OP Process is concerned, I am what might be considered to be a “newbie” in the S&OP arena. I began my journey working in Demand Planning (unfortunately we did not use S&OP then) and now work in supply planning, My direct...