Richard Kerivan
Just finished the “IBF’s Best of the Best S&OP” conference held from Jun 13 – 14, 2013 at the Rosemont Hilton in Chicago in partnership with APICS. This conference has to have been the most successful gathering of Business Professionals over the past 2-3 years.
The guest speakers were all seasoned business professionals from companies such as Kellogg’s, Avnet, DuPont, Milwaukee Tool, Honeywell Aerospace, Ingersoll Rand and many others. Topics presented ranged from key business issues such as NPI/NPL, Change Management in S&OP implementations, Starting or Revitalizing your S&OP program, to Managing and Mitigating Business risks identified in your S&OP processes.
Though this conference was located in a revitalized area of Chicago now offering many eateries and entertainment options, this was not a “have fun gathering of seasoned business professionals”. The Conference Business presentations repeatedly generated many after-hours conversations among participants. A common theme among the presenters and participants was that S&OP is a key business-centric process with clear, distinct linkages to improving business performance.
Additionally, many IT Vendors displayed the latest innovations in linking Business Planning to effective IT Solutions. The challenges of sifting thru Big Data is finally being whittled down into manageable chunks of actionable business intelligence.
As the conference proceeded, it became more than obvious that IBF’s (Institute of Business Forecasting and Planning) strategy of being ‘center-mass’ of issues and latest theory on Forecasting, Business Planning and S&OP is sought after and enthusiastically supported by many. IBF is not merely a façade of names, they are a leader in identifying issues and in providing real-time business solutions.
I will be following up this blog posting with specific issues identified at the conference that you all may enjoy. So stay tuned!
See pictures of the event on IBF’s facebook page.
This conference will yield many payouts against the amount invested by companies and individuals to attend. Don’t miss out on the next opportunity. If you would like to become a member of IBF, and view the schedule of future conferences, they can be located under “Groups” on Linkedin or by visiting www.ibf.org.
Richard P. Kerivan
S&OP Professional Solutions
Rpkerivan @ gmail