Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

February is here but blink and you will miss it as it is not a leap year. You cannot change January performance and February should be quite firm by now, so you need to be looking further ahead in your S&OP. Much further ahead. What is coming soon…

Where has that first post-holiday month gone? Suddenly it’s the 24th of January and there are only 7 calendar days and 5 working days until you close the month. Adopt panic stations despite what Corporal Jones of Dad’s Army would say. Are you ahead…

We already find ourselves at 17th January so not many days left to ensure your monthly top and bottom lines are on target. Good luck with that if your business (& body!) is only just shaking off the holiday excesses. What is top of mind? The sagging…

Chris Rea has finally found the correct turn off, a lot of people in Africa still don’t know its Christmas and the novelty Santa toilet seat cover is back in the box. Oh, and chocolate Easter eggs are in the shops 4 months in advance. Christmas and…

Christmas is coming around faster than ever and who better than Noddy Holder and Slade to celebrate Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP). This festive song has been heard at Christmas every year since 1973! If you have been living in a cave on a…

Hooray! Many supermarket chains now sell imperfect or misshapen fruit and vegetables at a discount. As you may know I am a big fan of buying this type of food as taste has nothing to do with shape based on my massive culinary knowledge. Whether my…

How is 2017 going so far? Are you in cruise control or is your business chaos central? Be honest now! The last quarter of the year is always difficult to manage in order to achieve 2017 results without negatively impacting 2018. When your business…

Some things never change and FMCG 4th Quarter challenges certainly do not. The same challenges are clearly present and what is astonishing is that some companies are still making short term, expensive efforts to “make the sales numbers”. I don't…

I have spent some considerable time visiting medical facilities both at home and in UK and in the latter case I was not impressed. The National Health Service is still the envy of the rest of the world and rightly so. When you consider the policies…

Picture the scene in many a brewing boardroom; a terse note has arrived from the suits at HQ telling the boss to urgently reduce costs as the year-end result is not going to look pretty. Why do all the board directors then look silently at their…

Overeaten chocolate during the holidays but still want some more? Get yourself and a large blue IKEA bag down to your local supermarket as chocolate is heavily discounted. Easter is not far away this year so why not save a little cash and stock up…

On the first day of Christmas, Enchange gave to me A robust S&OP. On the second day of Christmas, Enchange gave to me Two fine consultants, And a robust S&OP. On the third day of Christmas, Enchange gave to me An ERP go-live, Two fine consultants,…

Christmas is coming around faster than ever and who better than Noddy Holder and Slade to give a Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) process to your business as a present. This song has been heard at Christmas every year since 1973! If you have been…

Dear Mr. K Ite, Thank you for your very short note highlighting some minor points; I can see you are a little aggrieved. On behalf of "Mr Claus I will attempt to minimise your apparent unease with the S&OP process in the context of the very small…

Dear Mr Santa, I refer to the recent blog article, "Santa & Opening Presents; Why S&OP is Invaluable at Christmas". As I mentioned in the consultation process just prior to S&OP implementation, I was prepared on behalf of our members to support the…