This week’s success factors cover the areas of organisation and people when developing S&OP. Some time ago the president of a major CEE trading group summarised the outcomes of a business wide S&OP implementation in three words “we are communicating”. Initially the feedback seemed less than inspiring, however, as time passes and we work to improve S&OP in other businesses maybe his simple summary is what we should strive to achieve every time. With this in mind here are some key considerations relating to Supply Chain organisation and people.
Organisation:
- The normal wisdom is to make sure the organisation changes are driven by the process changes and not the other way around. However, if GMs are very powerful (there may be legal entity constraints that support this power), a powerful central organisation may be needed in advance to drive the change.
- Consider an ‘evolving’ organisation (say 2-3 years) that establishes cluster management but retains a degree of flexibility with detailed reporting.
People – Key Enabler 1:
- HR – remember that there will be changes to roles which will need job evaluations and related changes to grading, remuneration etc. For EU countries there are legal considerations regarding these changes including the need for consultation.
- Training – this is always key especially at End Market level.
- Communication – keep everyone informed at all levels.
- Make sure the End Market General Managers are on-side and supportive of the change; make sure the local End Market HR manager is part of the change programme
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