From the diary of Supply Chain Consultant
by I. Pilkington & B. Perez
At the very start of the S&OP journey, engaging leaders in S&OP as a key business process is the only way to begin. Leaders must lead change from the top, and support the process from the get go.
When engaging leadership we spend some time talking to leaders about their role in the S&OP process, but specifically their responsibility and level of engagement required to deploy this process successfully.
In our experience the following are attributes of companies that do great at the Executive review stage:
Keep a relaxed collaborative and open communication environment: Previously we have stressed the importance of collaboration throughout the S&OP process. This is not just consultant jargon, is a reality and requirement of the process. One of the best examples we have seen S&OP deployment as those where the departmental barriers and silos are broken and information is shared for the knowledge and better decision making of the group. Maintaining open minds and open channels of communication will foster an environment in which even though serious issues are at bay, and hard decisions made, differences of opinion are respected, the practice of “shooting the messenger” is avoided and team strive for consensus which by no means equals unanimity. Even as decisions are hard, keep an informal relaxed atmosphere. As an S&OP leader one key responsibility of the job is to have the ability to let the team disagree without being disagreeable. The Success of an executive review is not only based on using the tools, process and driving decisions but also in greater part on the behaviour of the participants and their willingness to get the hard issues on the table.
Ensure meeting attendance is not optional: According to a recent article in Yahoo Business the top reasons people stop going to meetings is because: there is no agenda, meeting is disorganised and takes too long, no conclusions are drawn and people are constantly late. At this point of the S&OP process all the elements mentioned before need to be addressed. Be prepared, share and agenda before meeting so people are aware of the process, and establish the objective which is to review consensus recommendations, review the major decisions made at the Pre-Meeting; decide among alternative actions where consensus could not be reached; and finally make a decision as to go ahead or change business plan based on the decisions provided. Because S&OP becomes an integral part of your business, the Executive Review is put front and centre of the organisation therefore attendance is not a problem as it’s understood by all stakeholders that the meetings are critical to achieve business performance.
E preparation : We cannot stress this enough, the best examples we have seen for success and effectiveness at the executive review stage, is preparation. This preparation is not limited at the executive level but at all previous stages that allowed to be ready for this moment. We have seen companies that prepare 75 slides for an executive review but really have not consistently worked on previous stages. Pre-S&OP stage is critical as the stakeholder team make and strengthen their cases for the risk, opportunities and suggestions for the future. If you have a strong pre-S&OP meeting with these outputs then you have done 90% of the work and preparation for a successful and flawless executive review.
Always remember it's a decision making forum: At the executive-level meetings, the objective is to put all the cards on the table, that means unrestricted and free views of the truth of the situation are always better to be raised sooner rather than later, as this will provide enough time for the team and stakeholders to take proactive actions. When S&OP starts to work, and people are engaged, your people will start to give you rich information. They don’t give you just problems anymore, they give you a range of potential solutions for each problem. A large part of the S&OP development is to coach all functional stakeholders, so that they come to the Executive Review armed with problems and their potential solutions. Having the supporting information from the demand, supply and financial teams makes this an informed decision as opposed to a ‘shooting from the hip’ decision. We are a team of optimists and realise that not all information is thorough enough to enable powerful decisions, however we cannot stress enough the motivation it gives collaborative teams when their Executives make decisions supported by their effort in the Executive S&OP Review.
Just remember that S&OP process is a highly social and collaborative process with simple steps, however while it is really important to engage leaders to support and drive decision making it is equally important and powerful to empower teams with enough freedom and self-sufficiency to make their own decisions.
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