Integrating Sales & Operations Planning

SYNCHRONICITY

Getting different departments to communicate and work together can be a challenge worthy of a celebrity marriage counselor. Particularly when you have widespread global sales/distribution on one hand, and one vertically integrated manufacturing point on the other.

Here’s the story at hand: A multimillion-dollar global equipment manufacturer with high levels of expensive inventory and long manufacturing lead times was struggling to improve its margins.

 Critical to sales was quick, reliable delivery to customers worldwide. And critical to production was accurate planning for product demand and smooth, efficient operations.

Unfortunately, sales and production didn’t sync well and lines of communication were having trouble getting from one silo to the other.

The ACME team stepped into this critical impasse and brought the sales and production teams together. Thoughts and differences were aired, with no finger-pointing allowed — just straight talk about needs, objectives and possible fixes. We guided the company through an assessment of existing strategy, process, resources, structure, systems and performance metrics. We also probed for overall weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

The assessment identified and prioritized several changes within the sales and operations planning process and organizational structures. We led the client through the implementation of a newly designed sales and operations planning process with new metrics that measure effectiveness more accurately.

The result? Focus, alignment and synchronization among the critical functions of the organization. Not to mention substantially reduced inventory costs, shorter lead times, improved delivery date accuracy, happier customers and a 70 percent market share that’s better leveraged for profit.

Right hand and left hand now work well together and get along just fine.