S&OP Best Practices

Squeeze the “Lead Time Squeeze” Before it Squeezes Your Business

In the last year (or more), we’ve heard the financial types and newscasters throw around the term “supply chain” like never before. Much of the talk seems to be limited to symptoms and the execution parts of the supply chain (e.g. manufacturing and logistics). While the issues are certainly real, we know there’s a lot […]

World Events Are Raising Questions About Adapting the Structures of Supply Chains – Learnings to Answer Them

We’re starting to hear more about it. Company leaders are asking, “What do we need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” Lost sales, lost opportunities, business closures, re-opens, higher debt loads, high inventory, no inventory, confusing/conflicting government rules, safety protocols, work-at-home, restructuring, layoffs, hiring, supplier and customer issues, internal issues, what is […]

Modify S&OP to Restart Operations

While we are far from through this terrible Covid-19 pandemic, governments are now planning for economies to open. Many are also discussing the after-effects on our supply chains and workplaces. The effects will vary by company and duration. The concepts of de-globalization, work-from-home, and continued social distancing are pervasive in the discussion. As governments effectively […]

Drive Growth with S&OP

Growth. The holy grail of business. All business leaders want it. Success and often livelihoods are determined by it. It’s not so easy. How many CEO’s or GM’s think about S&OP as a way to drive growth? More based on the topics we see being discussed, but it’s still a tactical process for most. Our […]

Is AI Good for S&OP?

It’s not a big leap to say that a step change in decision support (if I dare use that gray hair term from the 90’s) is upon us not only for Sales & Operation Planning, but for business intelligence in general. Those of us who really get the power of S&OP will agree these two […]

Prepare Your Supply Chain Before the Hurricane Strikes

As if companies don’t have enough challenges on a day-to-day basis, there are natural disasters to deal with too. After immediate safety and basic needs are met, company leaders need to take care of their stakeholders’ future livelihoods: their company’s abilities to compete and create opportunities. The hurricane season of 2017 will be remembered for […]

Why Your S&OP Initiative is on the Back Burner

Perhaps the absence of a Sales & Operations Planning process (or a well-functioning one anyway) has caused your team some missteps. Perhaps you are scaling up and need to get your act together internally. Perhaps you’ve lost a key heavy-lifter you depended on. Perhaps corporate is on you and you need to be better prepared […]

Does Your S&OP Process Need Portfolio Review?

While most developed companies have implemented some form of an S&OP process, many have yet to include the Portfolio Review component as part of their regular monthly meeting cadence (e.g. Demand Review, Supply Review, Pre-S&OP, Executive S&OP). As S&OP has evolved to integrate more functions of the company, Portfolio Review has been one of the […]

Benchmark Your S&OP Process – Survey Results, 2017

Results from Nexview’s 3rd annual Key Topics in S&OP are now available for download, here are some highlights. The survey covers: Sponsorship Design elements Challenges people are having Results they’re getting Strategic topics being discussed in S&OP S&OP maturity IT Enablement We had 32 participating companies this year representing industries such as consumer products, life […]

S&OP Readiness: 7 Components for Success and Sustainability

Despite the fact that S&OP is in its fourth decade of recognized existence, many companies have yet to implement a formal version this cross-functional management process. Several see the need though as their businesses grow in complexity, or new executives come in and want to implement what they’ve seen work well in prior lives. When […]

Eric Tinker Interviewed by Supply Chain Trend

From time to time I am fortunate to be able share some S&OP ideas through interviews and I was interviewed by the popular S&OP & supply chain blog Supply Chain Trend. My interview is actually one in a series that will share ideas of several S&OP leaders from the US and other countries. We talk […]

8 Levers for S&OP Performance – Podcast

8 Levers for S&OP Performance Podcast FREE Instructional Video – See both the Full Version (41 min) and the Abbreviated Version (20 min) Discussion and tips on each of the 8 Levers Tips and traps for implementing and improving S&OP Actual content from our training course Material is based on implementations with major corporations worldwide […]

Mental Toughness Interview with Niels van Hove

An Interview with Niels Van Hove of Truebridges Consulting Listen in as Eric Tinker and Niels discuss the principles of Mental Toughness and how all of us can use these principles to improve our effectiveness and impact. Mental Toughness definition & origin Benefits Tips to help high achievers reach their potential Niels Van […]

Interview by SupplyChainBrain – Why S&OP Initiatives Fall Short

A lot of companies are falling short in their efforts to derive full value from the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, but the main reason for their failure might surprise you… read what we said at SupplyChainBrain.

Improving the “Middle” of the Supply Chain – Production Planning & Scheduling

The year is moving on and if you haven’t started your improvement initiative yet, you should gear up now to enable sufficient time to make a sustainable impact this year. I’m publishing a series of posts/articles this year on making improvements throughout the supply chain and I’m just moving through it in a front to […]

Improving the Supply Chain “Front End” – Supply Chain New Year’s Resolutions, Part 1 of 3

Now is a time that many of us are beginning improvement initiatives, a time full of new aspirations and starts. Several have had wheels in motion at the end of last year in the form of generating ideas, building consensus, securing budgets, and even conducting assessments. If you’re not out in front of it yet, […]

Findings from the Key Topics in S&OP Survey – 2015

This year we had some different results than what prior surveys have shown and also different from what is often talked about in many S&OP articles. Interesting. Comments on the sample The cross-industry survey included 27 companies varying in size from less than $100MM in revenues to over $10B USD. Not a huge sample, but […]

The Increasing Impact of Finance on S&OP

Each year around this time, leaders and managers across all functions are looking ahead to next year. They are thinking… What do I need/want my group to accomplish? How many people should I have? What is this going to cost? How can I justify it? How am I going to work-in, perhaps negotiate the mandated […]

Part 4 of 4, Change Management Techniques for Getting Sales On-Board with Demand Planning

In this final installment of our 4 part series, we’ll take on the human element of change management. The other parts we looked at dealt with process, information technology, and organizational topics. Salespeople at all levels can be some of the most challenging for us supply chain types. It’s not that they don’t want the […]

Part 3 of 4, Org Considerations for Getting Sales On-Board with Demand Planning

In Parts 1 and 2 we looked at process and IT considerations respectively. In this segment, we’ll discuss organizational considerations that will position you to effectively engage Sales to ensure they are involved and accountable. Toward that end, I suggest the following: Clarify the roles and reporting relationship of the Demand Management function. This is […]

Getting Sales On-Board with Demand Planning – Part 2 of 4, Enabling Technology

Welcome to Part 2 of our 4 part series on improving engagement from Sales to support Demand Planning. In Part 1, I discussed some specific considerations and ways related to process design to improve Sales’ engagement in your Demand Planning process. You can review Part 1 on process tips if you’d like. It’s hard to […]

Getting Sales On-Board with Demand Planning – Part 1 of 4, Process

Many of us who’ve implemented, improved, or managed a demand planning process have struggled to get Sales to commit to, and participate in the process to the degree that we’re looking for. We often hear things like: “I need to spend my time selling.” “This is taking time away from my customers.” “Our business is […]

Speed Up and Simplify the Budgeting Process

It’s budget time again (already!) and for many managers that means a mad scramble chore to get their inputs into the roll-up. “Where is last year’s budget?” “Let’s take that, apply some factor, and be done with it.” Maybe that works for a while, but how many years in a row can you get away […]

Are S&OP Best Practices Best for You?

“Best Practices” are the collectively agreed practices that have been shown to produce desired outcomes for a process, subject matter area, or industry. Companies, industry organizations, and consultants all have their lists (we do too, see the Nexview S&OP Performance ArrowSM). While it’s great to research this information and leverage the experience of others, best practices […]

Four Reasons Why Assessments Are Important

You know that you need to make improvements, and you are hearing good ideas and suggestions from your colleagues and material the media. You know what to do, it’s time to take action, let’s just do it. Stop and look before you leap. Think about these questions – Do I need help or buy-in from […]

Tips for Launching Your S&OP Project

Okay – you and your decision makers have decided to take the plunge on S&OP. You know it’s the right thing to do, it’s going to help your company, everyone can feel it. So now what? It’s time to put your money where your mouth is and make it happen. Where do you start? […]

Integrated Business Planning for Upstream Oil & Gas

To best take advantage of marketplace opportunities, some leading E&P companies are reducing their cash cycle times while improving focus on capital management and operating expenses through a process called Integrated Business Planning (IBP). While developing in upstream, IBP is a mature cross functional planning process that has been developed over the past 30 years […]

Sales & Operations Planning/Integrated Business Planning Isn’t Just For Manufacturing Companies Anymore

The terms Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) are more and more becoming interchangeable. As S&OP has evolved to encompass more than just balancing supply and demand at an aggregate or product family level, the term IBP is becoming more widely used and is perhaps better suited to non-manufacturing environments. Hopefully […]

Five Suggestions for Effective Executive S&OP Meetings

The Executive S&OP is the culminating meeting in the S&OP flow that is often preceded by the Portfolio Review, Demand Review, and Pre-S&OP meetings. Read the article at the Institute of Business Forecasting and Planning’s blog site that will give you five tips to keep executive support and make this meeting effective.

Five Ways to Excite Your Executive Team About S&OP

We’ve all heard that S&OP is an executive process, but how do you get their interest and support? By S&OP, I mean the monthly meeting flow that coordinates demand, supply, and financial planning to operationalize a company’s strategy. This process culminates with the Executive S&OP Review that is led by the company’s or business unit’s senior executive. […]

Five Suggestions to Improve Pre-S&OP

How many times have you been in a Pre-S&OP meeting that seems to drag on and tie up several high-end people who are already overloaded? S&OP is a great and vital process, but sometimes parts of it can be unnecessarily time consuming. Read the article at the blog site for the Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning. […]

Designing an Effective Supply Chain Organization

Corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions, restructures, and performance improvement programs often bring about a need to examine how supply chain functions should be structured. At one extreme, and still prevalent in many organizations, supply chain duties are scattered throughout the company and have evolved due to the absence of a proactive design effort combined […]

Revitalize Your S&OP Process

You vividly remember all the hard work that went into implementing your S&OP process – the training, the consensus building, the report building, the promises, or perhaps you’ve inherited something and it’s not what you envision S&OP should be. People are losing interest, or it’s just not delivering to expectations, what can you do?