Joeseph Stackhouse
Joseph Stackhouse
Who defines and says what are best practices? The person speaking? The loudest voice? The person with the most expensive shoes? The person with the most impressive degree? Maybe it is the highest paid consultant?
We hired a consulting group and have implemented what we believe to be a best practice consulting group. In April 2009 we began the “Best Practice” S&OP process. At times, I felt like a small team attempting to lead our organization up a hill and when we turned around, no one was there.
Here are a few of the lessons we learned through it all:
- Collaboration is one of the key components of S&OP. We saw how having it paid big dividends, and without it we were stuck in the mud.
- What does it mean to have an angel at the top? We found out first hand. You can’t do without it.
- Everyone speaks a different language. It’s extremely important to bridge the gaps to ensure everyone is on the same page and speaks the same language
Christal McManus
In Orlando Florida USA, at IBF’s Supply Chain Planning & Forecasting: Best Practice Conference, October 12-14, 2009, Christal McManus (our S&OP Lead) and I are going to talk with you about our journey. The lessons we learned, the controversies we created, the software & systems used, and the early benefits we are seeing. We’ll share how we are bridging the communication gaps and the reason why you need an angel on top. You will also hear our combat stories and how we resolved them, along with the accelerators for implementation in order to keep your project on time. Plus, we’ll give hard benefits, soft benefits and everything in between, as we’ll share our early wins and why we are still dedicated to the process.
We don’t have it all figured out, but we are making some significant ground. Do you have a Planning & Forecasting story to share? Please comment here as we would love to hear from you.
Joseph Stackhouse
Director, Supply Chain / Operations
Land O’Lakes Company
SEE JOSEPH & CHRISTAL PRESENT AT THE IBF’S:
