Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expert Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, president of LMA Consulting Group Inc. joins Industrial Insights with Justin Smith to discuss how sales, inventory and operations planning (SIOP/ S&OP) can help companies overcome supply chain disruptions and thrive post pandemic.
We are in a new era with more opportunity to grow than ever before. COVID is largely in the rear-view mirror, and the strong companies are getting stronger. Consumers have returned to the scene and are robust purchasers of products, homes and services. Are you ready to grow and scale? Have you taken control of your end-to-end supply chain so that you can take advantage of the opportunities?
Lisa Anderson and the team at LMA Consulting working with Nellson to upgrade the planning, purchasing/ MRP, supply chain and S&OP/ SIOP processes. The result was improved service levels with on time in full (OTIF) from the low 90's to the high 90's; reduced inventory levels; reduced obsolete inventory, improved billbacks on expired material (from around 0% to nearly 100%); and gained more value from the ERP system.
A building products company missed several million dollars in revenue last year because they couldn't meet the demand. Unfortunately, this was a common occurrence. Sales increased dramatically, and they couldn't scale up their manufacturing operations and adapt their purchase requests quickly enough to take advantage of the opportunity.
Sales and operations planning is a dark art, and most organizations typically have a very ad-hoc process of forecasting due to its nature. But it's critical to be directionally correct with your plan. Or you might end up missing opportunities or losing customers. [...]
Predicting the Unpredictable Every client believes their demand cannot be predicted. After all, customers don't know what is going on in their end-to-end supply chain with the global supply chain chaos. Sales teams are optimistic and either forecast too much, hoping Operations will produce and store "just in case" [...]
To thrive post COVID, manufacturing resilience will be cornerstone. Customers expect personalization, customization, and rapid deliveries without disruption, and they will change suppliers, substitute products and do whatever is required to satisfy their customers or get what's needed. For example, although the preference is for online purchasing, consumers will return to stores to ensure quick, reliable supply of critical items.
In working with clients across multiple industries including industrial equipment, food and beverage, building and construction products and healthcare products, there is no doubt that clients using a SIOP (sales, inventory and operations planning) and integrated business planning process are pulling away from the competition.
Lisa Anderson is featured in a client video success story on SIOP (Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning). SIOP provided better alignment on sales quotation and order flow to improve delivery performance for customers, increased visibility for planning resources, improved operating performance and a better view at upcoming demand to plan for surges and scale successfully.
Demand is soaring but supply is scarce. There is no doubt that we have a serious issue of limited supply. The pandemic created volatility in both demand and supply, causing a significant overload of ships at the L.A. and Long Beach ports early this year as Chinese factories caught [...]
