Chemicals Solutions,
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)

EnteGreat's highly-effective Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) solution delivers substantial positive bottom line impact by driving business performance and growth in a manner that promotes adoption and sustainment of the process as an ongoing business function . Through cross-functional collaboration to establish an integrated set of plans that sales, marketing, operations, engineering, and financial stakeholders all understand and are committed to support, S&OP creates a coordinated and efficient business environment. As a support mechanism to overall supply chain management, S&OP is a vehicle to control and manage crucial business metrics such as inventory levels/valuation, customer service, resource utilization, schedule performance, forecast accuracy, order fulfillment, new product introduction, business plan management, and cash flow.

Without S&OP, things are very different. When sales and operations activities are not aligned and integrated, small problems can quickly escalate into large issues, which can adversely impact the company's performance. As each part of the company jockeys to satisfy it's own priorities, valuable time and resources are wasted, ultimately leading to poor customer service. The consequences of poor sales and operations planning are substantial: excess inventory, short orders, overtime, inter-plant transfers, expediting, reduced order fulfillment, and poor resource utilization. These issues adversely impact the company's bottom line, while fostering a reactive culture of undisciplined business processes and unnecessary waste.

Creating the proper alignment and balance between demand and supply is not easy. It requires a clear focused process, stakeholder commitment, and properly structure/packaged information to collaboratively manage complex demand and supply issues in a comprehensive and efficient manner. It's very easy to lose sight of the objective and fall back into convenient - but ineffective - silo-based past practices; to get tangled up in excessive data that is not packaged or aligned in the right units of measure or timing dimensions to make informed decisions for the overall organization; to create a process which encourages functional groups to work at cross-purposes. We help our clients build and tailor S&OP processes that account for these issues from the beginning - so that they can quickly harness the strategic benefits of S&OP.

S&OP is truly a powerful business tool - but without the right change management process as well as utilities to support the required information management and planning - it won't achieve the desired process management impact or generate the potential business benefits. Understanding how to prepare an organization for S&OP, adapt their business process and roles/responsibilities, and align key performance measures, while establishing the proper support, infrastructure, and information management tools is what makes the difference. Doing so in a structured manner that leverages lessons learned and industry best practices is how EnteGreat helps clients maximize their S&OP benefits while proactively managing the risk associated with the significant business process change needed for S&OP.

EnteGreat offers a variety of Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) services that include the following:

• 12 Weeks to S&OP: EnteGreat's Fast-Track, Production-Caliber S&OP
• S&OP Process Definition and Development
• S&OP Training
• S&OP Mentoring / Facilitation / Coaching
  • Preparation of S&OP Materials, Data, and Alternatives
  • Hands-on assistance
  • Direct participation
  • Execution of S&OP Meetings / Sessions
  • Dry runs of S&OP sessions
• Development of client-specific S&OP Utilities and Templates
  • Depending on client requirements, these utilities can be integrated with the existing system (such as ERP, Financial, Forecasting, Order Management, etc.) to access what's required, or they can be manually populated.

The personnel working in EnteGreat's S&OP service practice have substantial credentials, ranging from Past President of APICS International, APICS Certified Instructor, Adjunct Professor of Business Management, and significant experience deploying S&OP processes in a variety of manufacturing industries.

Learn More - Request a free copy of Effective Sales & Operations Planning, a webinar presentation by EnteGreat, Gary Landis, G.A. Landis Associates & Robert Byrne, Terra Technology.