Oliver Wight Reveal Five Simple Questions to Maximise the Benefits of Integrated Business Planning

May 21, 2012 - PRLog -- Business improvement specialists Oliver Wight, have published a white paper revealing how organisations with a Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) or Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process can make the most of their monthly review meetings - to ensure the key issues facing the business are addressed in a standardised way, plans are validated and the required decisions made.

S&OP, originated by Oliver Wight in the early 1980s, has become the business management process of choice for thousands of organisations across the world. This white paper, ‘Five Simple Questions – How to get the best from your S&OP or IBP process’, unveils the questions which will push the S&OP process to become more than just ‘forecasting’ and help it mature into the series of valuable business meetings required for IBP.

Mike Reed, Oliver Wight Partner and author of the white paper, explains how “many organisations have adopted the language of S&OP but not always the fundamental practices to make it successful, and consequently are not experiencing the true benefits it can bring. The Five Question concept gives businesses a simple way of structuring information and discussion at each of the IBP review meetings to optimise their effectiveness as well as accelerate the benefits of the IBP process as a whole.”

The following questions outlined by the white paper are simple ‘must-haves’ to be considered by all participants and answered at the end of each IBP review meeting - product management, demand, supply, integrated reconciliation and the management business review - in order for plans to be ‘signed off’:

1.   How are we performing now?
2.   Is the plan valid?  
3.   Is the plan sufficient?  
4.   What if?
5.   What is needed to deliver the plan that is not already in place?

“These fundamental questions will help any business keen to evolve its S&OP process; fuel its financial and strategic objectives; and help it adopt IBP as the fully integrated management and supply chain collaboration process it is today,” concludes Reed.