Resources

In our last post, we began exploring some of the quantifiable benefits of achieving S&OP excellence. Just to recap, consulting firm Oliver Wight ran a survey to measure the ROI of 40 of its clients who had achieved Class A (outstanding) performance in their sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes. You can see those results — and other good information — for yourself in an Oliver Wight white…

Don’t you just love going to trade shows and picking up glossy brochures from the various sales and operations planning (S&OP) vendor booths? Isn’t it great listening to vendors’ elevator pitches, watching their video demos, and collecting their branded T-shirts, pens, and calculators?

While you’re standing on that exhibit hall floor, everyone is smiling and helpful, and anything seems possible.…

Are you tired of seeing “business as usual” in supply chain management? Have you ever felt as if implementing your changes was like trying to steer an air craft carrier — in the Arctic?

I know the feeling. And my message is this: Don’t give up. The industry needs your decisive leadership.

Early in my career, I was head of inventory control for a large retail operation that ran as…

A personal survey of 200 randomly-selected companies confirmed that 161 of those companies operate on fiscal calendars that begin in January. 

It’s a safe assumption then that the majority of U.S. businesses can finally hear "Auld Lang Syne" playing faintly in the background as the seemingly endless process of constructing the annual budget nears its end.

I hate to ruin the party,…

The Old Farmer’s Almanac -- a new version of which is published each September -- provides a solid year’s worth of reliable, though safely vague, regional weather forecasts.

Even more admirable than the accuracy of the Almanac’s forecasts is the disclaimer with which its predictions are tempered:

“We believe nothing in the universe occurs haphazardly; there is a cause-and-effect…