S&OP Transformation

A F500 CPG company with 30+ global brands was ready for a substantial redesign of its Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process. For the last update—which took place nearly a decade earlier—the company engaged a traditional consulting firm. This time, the CFO hoped to keep more of the process in house.

Both the CFO and the head of Supply Chain could identify the major challenges: rationalizing the number and type of demand forecasts and creating a tighter link to supply chain planning. But how would the team address these challenges and achieve buy-in across so many independently-minded brands?

Business Talent Group began by helping the client break the work into distinct phases. In the first phase, a tight, two-person team worked closely with senior leaders. The lead consultant of this phase was a former Booz Principal and Supply Chain Practice Leader. Supporting her was an expert operations improvement consultant. Together, the consultants worked with the client’s team to review S&OP reports and practices, introduce new KPI charts, and incorporate process disciplines. The team then redesigned the demand consensus process. Finally, they developed the high-level design for the new S&OP process.

This initial project lasted four months. As it moved towards the next phase, implementation, Business Talent Group augmented the team with project management support.