Company

International wholesaler and producer of infrastructure and installation materials with its own branches and sales offices in various countries. Family business since its foundation in 1942 and managed by the fourth generation.

Situation

The company aims for increased revenue growth but struggles with low service levels and high inventory. To be prepared for market changes and to realise the augmented growth there was a need for implementing Sales & Operations Planning to improve service levels and increase alignment between sales and operations.

Approach

The approach was aimed at setting up and implementing a Sales & Operations Planning process to match supply and demand. We started a pilot with a single product group which was sold in several countries. A forecast and requirements process including planning files and the corresponding S&OP meeting structure was set up. During the entire process, we put a lot of effort in change management to involve all related stakeholders.

Results

By setting up S&OP with a demand plan based on a forecast with historical data, enrichened by customer and market information, product changes etc. and the translation into the impact on production, the organization gained much more insight into customer demand and available capacity. By setting up the S&OP meeting structure with roles, responsibilities and KPIs, information and communication about customer or capacity changes improved, making changes more coordinated.