The self-driving supply chain: inevitable? 

The ultimate goal of any business is to deliver its product and service to the customer on time and in the right quantity. Supply chain management plays a significant role in achieving this goal. The supply chain of any business is a complex and dynamic network of integrated processes, people, and technology to fulfill customer demand. There are different players within the supply chain of any products: suppliers, wholesalers, manufacturers, 3PL service providers, etc. Successful supply chain management contains the efficient management of each part in which the right strategic, tactical, and operational decisions are taken and implemented at the right time.

What is Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)? 

A general understanding of both terms is required to understand the evolution of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to Integrated Business Planning (IBP). In our article Why Do Sales And Operations Planning Projects Fail? we already had a look into the definition of S&OP and the most likely obstacles for a successful implementation. In the following, a short re-cap is given about the definition of S&OP, and in addition, a brief look into the origins and the development of S&OP throughout the decades. 

For complex supply chain networks in a VUCA world, expertise in supply chain planning is key to meet demand most efficiently and reliably possible. It is essential for a competitive advantage. Suppose you do not have this expertise in-house. In that case, supply chain planning as a service can be a good alternative by utilizing the expertise of specialized data scientists to increase the quality of your forecasts. 

While most supply chain executives agree that Sales and Operations Planning is vital for ensuring supply chain efficiency, many companies struggle to implement and conduct the process successfully. In the following, we will discuss the most common pitfalls of implementing S&OP, the steps needed to ensure proper execution, and the benefits a smooth S&OP process offers.

This article will analyze the complexity resulting from the coexistence of several different sales channels. It is precisely this complexity that continues to be the cause of supply chain performance issues. As a basis, you can check the previous articles from the 10-part series about the root causes of the supply chain performance gap that started with a summary and headed right to the root causes - product portfolio complexity, speed of innovation, and new types of competition.

Our world is changing and becoming increasingly more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). What does this mean for top-performing supply chains? To maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over competitors, they need to excel in three qualities:

• They’re agile and can react speedily to sudden changes in demand or supply.
• They can easily adapt to evolving market structures and strategies.
• They always align the interests of all stakeholders to optimize the chain’s performance while also maximizing each stakeholder’s interests.

Allocation planning plays a key role in these three processes. This detailed guide discusses allocation planning, why it’s important in supply-constrained supply chains, and how it can help supply chains achieve agility, adaptability, and alignment in a challenging post-COVID world.