5 Tactics to Jump Start Your Sales & Operations Execution Center of Excellence

The Case for an S&OE Center of Excellence

Fluctuations in demand, shortages, delays, and disruptions can instantly reveal the weak points of the supply chain. These unexpected and impossible-to-plan-for events often relegate supply chain teams to a life of fighting fires. The irony, however, is that these
exceptions are all too common.

As a recent Gartner report elegantly sums up:

“There’s S&OP...and then there’s the real world.”

So although the unexpected is always expected to happen, there has been no good way to really deal with it effectively and consistently.

Establishing a center of excellence (CoE) that focuses on sales and operations execution can help organizations respond to unexpected variations in a structured, systematic way. By maintaining a view across all supply chain functions, the collaboration that was integral to planning can also be leveraged when dealing with real-time exceptions.

A well-run CoE can lead to increased revenue capture, reduced inventory, productivity gains across the entire supply chain, and even greater customer satisfaction.

Sales & Operations Planning vs. Sales & Operations Execution

Supply chain organizations routinely spend a significant amount of effort coordinating between multiple groups during the planning process. Demand planning, procurement, manufacturing, and supply planning all contribute to designing how they will address the expected demand.

With a view of the entire supply chain from start to finish, they are able to understand the role each group plays in the bigger picture and how they will work together over the next 3-12 months to achieve their goals.

However, once planning is completed, the cross-functional team adjourns and each group goes and does its best to optimize the part of the process they own. If no variations ever occurred during the production period then this would work smoothly and perfectly every time.