The power of connected planning


It is safe to say that most companies have a connected Demand & Supply planning process in place. Planned demand is translated into an operational plan to deliver the quantities in time. We do not see that many companies that can translate a change in the Demand & Supply plan immediately into the financial impact, the Financial plan. This connected planning, also known as Integrated Business Planning (IBP), is with the right planning processes in place and a flexible planning tool, not that complicated to implement.
But where to start? From our experience, we suggest implementing a phased approach. Connect Demand planning first, this is in most companies a good place to start. Not too complicated, and it is the driver for the rest of your organisation (o sales = no production). Once implemented, we advise starting to connect Finance. Next step is Operations (Supply Chain). Humand Resources (HR), Marketing can follow, based upon your needs and importance and impact on the plan. The process to come to a truly connected plan can take several years, but once implemented, the benefits are tremendous:
– transparency across all departments
– ability to do scenario planning
– see quickly the impact of a change in plan on bottom-line results
– solve allocation questions in times of shortages
Connected planning is the process to connect the plans of all departments within your organisation to come to one, aligned and transparent plan. True connected planning is rare, we do not see it implemented that often at companies. And that is a pity, connected planning can be of great benefit to your organisation. Thinking of implementing connected planning within your organisation? Make sure you think about connecting the planning processes, as well as selecting a flexible and easy to build and maintain planning platform to support connected planning. Process and tool go hand in hand in this case.
Let’s share your ideas and our expertise over a cup of coffee if you are interested in implementing connected planning!