Miller Magazine Issue: 154 October 2022

70 COVER STORY MILLER / OCTOBER 2022 Digital S&OP implementation is a journey Getting to the ideal state requires leadership ownership, time and effort of teams and internalization of new capa- bilities: 1. Leadership ownership is a must for the success. No S&OP works without top management support and their active involvement in the process. Therefore, leadership team’s support and being role models to the teams are key. Leaders should drive the discussions top-down, ask tough and challenging questions to guide the teams and help the teams to look at the challenges from different per- spectives. 2. S&OP requires behavioral change. For S&OP and S&OE teams, it will take time and iterations to start think- ing for the long term and discussing proactively for the fu- ture risks and opportunities. There should be an effective change management plan in place to track the progress of implementation and understand the challenges of the teams. 3. S&OP requires buy-in from all teams. It is critical to establish a core and permanent cross-functional team (sales, marketing, supply chain, manufacturing, finance, quality, procurement, etc.) who owns the S&OP process and brings perspectives of all functions. Core team is also critical to identify issues in advance and develop solutions. 4. S&OP requires development of new capabilities. High quality analysis, fact-driven and decision-oriented discussions require effective use of data, tools, and analyt- ics. Teams should be provided enough training to develop their both technical and analytical skills. Overall, S&OP requires effort and focus; however, in a structured and digitized approach the award is great. Companies will have the visibility and consensus about the future of the business across all functions and will be ready for the opportunities and risks in the future while streamlining their operations – they will become a fu- ture-ready organization. About Value Gene Consulting Group Value Gene Consulting Group is a boutique strategy consulting house providing services in strategy development, commercial and operation- al excellence, digital & data analytics, organizational re-design, M&A and post-merger integration. In the last 5 years, Value Gene has completed 40+ projects, mostly in the US, across the food value chain from ingredients pro- ducers to distributors, packaged foods manufacturers and food retailers. Figure 2: Digital S&OP leverages 4 components