Driving Forecast Value in S&OP Process Management

Inventory management leaders at an American medical equipment manufacturer partner with Gartner to optimize sales & operations planning (S&OP) process management.

Mission-critical priority

The supply chain planning function at an American medical equipment manufacturer was without a functioning S&OP process and highly siloed, meaning planning systems weren’t scaled for efficiency. The Vice President and Associate Vice President of Inventory Management turned to Gartner for help improving planning maturity, to include growing the planning team, upgrading planning technology and establishing strong governance for planning processes.

How Gartner helped

The client used:

Gartner analysts专门从事S&OP pract最好ice to audit monthly S&OP meetings and provide feedback for improving decision making.
Objective, practical adviceon project management – e.g., prioritization, goal setting, ROI calculation, risk mitigation.
Gartner Supply Chain Score for Planning, a diagnostic that identifies high-priority, low-maturity performance areas and recommends actions for closing gaps.
Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilitiesresources to evaluate and select the right planning solutions for the organization.

Business impact

With support from Gartner for Supply Chain, the client:

Definedthe S&OP team, charter, agenda and process.
Deliveredimproved forecast value add of 22% over prior year.
Realigneddemand planning staff under centralized leadership, which emulates best practice.
Gainedapproval from corporate leadership to grow headcount on the demand planning team by 11.7%.
Targetedinvestments for improving planning accuracy according to diagnostic results.