“It is not about creating a business environment that is suitable for IBP, it is a matter of implementing IBP to succeed in the prevailing market conditions, however volatile.”

“Often the motivation for implementing an Integrated Business Plan is just to improve processes rather than to transform the business. The objectives are typically set by supply chain around inventory and supply planning, which are not exciting for the business leaders, so they don’t get involved at the outset”

“Never give up, you must continually strive to reach the perfect planning environment and make sure you take the value from every step along the way.”

Recent research suggests that one of the biggest challenges leaders face today is achieving visibility of business health over the long-term horizon.

The Oliver Wight Maturity Model pitches an organisation in the correct phase, so the senior executive can truly understand where the business sits, visualise the benefits a structured improvement programme can bring, and begin the journey to business excellence.

“Empowering the BPOs and their cross-functional terms to proactively design and implement improvements will also release the CEO to focus on the business strategy to take the company to the next level.”

“Not all IBP processes are created equal. Get off to the wrong start and at best, you will only have disillusionment and a large expenditure to show for it.”

“In our consumer-driven business climate, effective demand management is an essential business component”

“Demand management is a fundamental driver for business growth and strategy with the needs and wants of the consumer running through the entire supply chain”

There is a tendency for an over-dependency on computer-generated forecasts, but without the intelligence, the forecast is just a number. Based on algorithms, forecasting tools take elements of history to fit out a projection of the future, but history doesn’t always repeat itself. Knowledge and processes must be in place before the right tools can be specified and a reliable statistical forecast established.

Faced with increasing demands from customers and shareholders, organisations need to keep improving performance. But unless your business is ready to effectively deploy and support an improvement initiative it is likely to end only in failure.

The right improvements have to be made at the right time, and in the right order. Only by understanding the true maturity of your organisation can a roadmap to business excellence be clearly defined.

An optimised supply chain is the key to competitive advantage. But if a business doesn't know how well it is performing, or what best-in-class performance looks like, how does it know where it can improve, or by how much?

“Effective supply chain optimisation hinges on understanding where value is created from the customer’s perspective. Even if you are one or more steps removed from the consumer, it is vital their needs and wants run through the bloodline of the entire supply chain.”

“As organisations change focus from survival to growth, more and more companies are asking themselves if they are ready to meet the changing market conditions. It all boils down to the health and readiness of your business and its core processes: supply chain, demand and product management.“

“There is a lot we can learn in business from Sir Ranulph and his expeditions. Companies constantly have to weather storms. But as Sir Ranulph once said ‘there is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.'

IBP provides the perfect platform for German Mittelstand to innovate, creating opportunities for businesses to drive sales up and bring down costs.

The recession taught us not to take anything for granted; it’s time for German organisations to mature their business processes to become more flexible and globally competitive, whatever lies ahead.

To continue to meet customer demand in today’s constantly evolving market you need to keep improving. But attempting to make gains, simply by introducing the latest on-trend initiative is likely to end only in failure, disillusionment and significant cost. It is vital to make the right improvements at the right time, and in the right order.

By pitching organisations in the correct phase, the senior executive can truly understand where the business sits, visualise the benefits a structured improvement programme can bring, and propagate the journey to business excellence.

Only by accepting the reality of your level of maturity - and that improvement is a long-term journey, not a short-term initiative - can a business begin to prepare itself for the performance levels it aspires to.

Once you know where you are and where you want to be, the next step is to understand how to get there.

“When implemented properly, Integrated Business Planning can be a powerful management tool, supporting customer segmentation, reducing costs, increasing profitability and optimising the supply chain. But many organisations fail to strike the right balance between process, tools, people and behaviours.”

By assessing existing S&OP or Integrated Business Planning processes as a team, potential gaps as well as opportunities for improvement can be identified that will benefit the whole organisation.

When the global financial crisis struck, such was its speed, many businesses went in to survival mode, simply firefighting to get by. Now as demand returns, businesses need to take rapid action to improve their processes and effectively meet customer needs or else face potentially catastrophic consequences.

AMC is on target to cut inventory by $4.5 billion by the end of this year, without any degradation in readiness.

IBP also gives the command a 24-month future view of demand, and by leveraging its capabilities, AMC can see the potential for billions of dollars of opportunity cost savings

The IBP process was designed in five days and was fully functioning within eight weeks – one of the fastest implementations ever.

AMC is well on the way to achieving its goals of reducing inventory by 22 percent and backorders by 30 percent, saving billions of dollars for the US taxpayer.

The next step is to implement Integrated Business Planning across all US military services, and for AMC to continue its journey to ‘Class A’

The AMC team is justly proud of what it’s achieved and wants to get the good news out there

When it comes to demand planning in particular, one of the big issues is that organisations are unable to model different scenarios based on dynamic market conditions

The AIMMS software provides integrated analytics to support evaluation of the business situation on a continual basis

It’s about understanding your business better, and key to success is that sales and marketing take ownership of the demand process

Developing collaborative relationships can bring many benefits, including lower supply chain cost, increased sales, reduced lead times, and greater resilience.

We’ll be looking at how relative maturities between supply chain partners provide different challenges, and giving practical advice on how organisations can overcome these to establish successful and sustainable partnerships throughout the extended supply chain

With the ever-evolving habits of consumers and fast-changing nature of technology, organizations need to refocus on how to respond to their customers

It is important to understand that not all customers, channels to market, or products are the same; and that a segmented supply chain response is needed to manage this complexity, especially in light of a global economic recovery.

But segmentation is not just about responding to the varying needs of consumers today

Looking ahead, businesses can anticipate future trends and predict what customers want, even before they do.

Supply chain challenges require fast, intelligent responses and there is an array of conflicting solutions to choose from

This webinar provides organisations new insights into how to achieve the next level of value through a transformational solution that can be implemented across the entire supply chain.

This initiative allows customers to transform the entire supply chain and leverage the synergies between people, processes and tools to achieve that next level of value.

This partnership will allow us to cover all aspects of integrated business planning, from processes to practical applications.

We are delighted to be working with Oliver Wight and AIMMS on this initiative to help clients drive increased revenue and profitability.

We are now able to offer a unique and holistic integrated supply chain solution tailored to meet the client’s specific needs

“Every company tries to ensure execution is aligned to its overall strategy but poor planning and silo behaviours can cause frustration across the business and lead to sub-optimal performance. Integrated Business Planning (IBP) can help you overcome those performance pitfalls.”

Companies which leverage the synergies between people, processes and tools reap the greatest benefits. These go beyond supply chain efficiency and effectiveness; to improved customer service, market growth and ultimately increased market share.

Having the right tools in place - like Oracle can provide - is vital, but their effectiveness hinges on appropriate behaviours and good process design, which is an area of Oliver Wight expertise.

Now more than ever, the health of an organisation depends on its ability to successfully meet customers’ needs; profitably.